Sports arenas have played a significant role in urban regeneration in many cities. In Belfast, the spatial character of sectarian division that already affects sport complicates their use for this purpose. This article argues that the Odyssey Arena and the emergence of the Belfast Giants ice hockey franchise have played a positive role in terms of community relations in the city. However, the arena is peripheral to the lives and concerns of most of its people, and the success of the Giants may well be a temporary phenomenon.
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