Hotels for EIHL Playoff Finals Weekend 2027

The playoff finals bring the season down to a single weekend, with the top teams from the regular season battling for the trophy in front of crowds decked out in club colours. Elite League ice hockey moves fast and physical, and a finals crowd tends to be loud from the opening face-off, with rival supporters often mixed together rather than segregated into blocks. Expect chants, horns and a crowd that stays on its feet through the closing minutes.

British ice hockey has a smaller following than football or rugby, but its own domestic history runs deep. Fife Flyers, based in Kirkcaldy, played their first match in 1938 and are the oldest professional ice hockey club still operating in Britain, decades before the Elite League itself was founded in 2003.

Since then two clubs have set the standard: Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers are tied for the most trophies won in the Elite League era, with Nottingham the only club to have played in every one of its seasons. Belfast Giants, formed in 2000, are close behind and became only the third club, after Coventry Blaze and Nottingham, to win a domestic "grand slam" of league, play-offs and cup in a single season, in 2022–23 — a feat Sheffield matched the following year.

Cardiff Devils, Wales's flagship club, and Guildford Flames, one of the league's smaller-market sides, complete the group of clubs whose rivalries the Finals Weekend exists to settle each spring.

Right in the centre of Nottingham near the castle and the historic Lace Market, the Motorpoint Arena hosts concerts, sport and family shows in a genuinely walkable setting. Cafés, bars and restaurants surround it, with the city's nightlife just streets away. Nottingham station and the NET tram network sit close by, linking the arena to the wider East Midlands. Booking a central room lets you enjoy the city before a show and be back at your door in minutes once it wraps up.