The plans called for using $3.7 million of tax payer money to construct the oval, which would be an outdoor facility.

If Salt Lake City won its 1995 bid for the 2002 games, Olympic funds would be used to cover the oval, and build an ice sheet in the center of the track.

[2] By the time the groundbreaking ceremony was held in May 1994, the price tag had increased to $4.1 million, with an expected completion date sometime that December.

Between twenty-four masts, twelve on each side of the building, steel cables nearly 400 feet (120 m) long and 3.5 inches (89 mm) in diameter were strung, suspending the roof above the oval.

[8] Construction on the oval was further delayed when three weeks after the concrete floor was poured, the freeze tubes in numerous spots were found to have moved off their rebar supports and had floated out of alignment.

[9] After a new floor was poured, and had cured, the final coat of ice was added to the track on February 12, 2001; just in time for four Olympic speed skaters to test out the new venue later that afternoon.

The completed facility contained the 400-meter oval skating track, which surrounded two international size hockey ice sheets.

The rink was narrowed from Olympic size to 200ft x 85ft, the standard measurement for NHL ice, and a team base was built in an unused area of the building.

Because of the elevation, there is less air resistance for the skaters and less oxygen frozen into the ice, making it harder, denser and faster.