Blue White Illustrated

NEWS & NOTES BIG DIG Dignitaries gathered at the Field Hockey Complex to commemorate the start of construction on the Pegula Ice Arena. The area is expected to be finished in the fall of 2013. PennStateLive PSU officially breaks ground on Ice Arena State-of-the-art hockey facility expected to create raucous atmosphere ICE HOCKEY men's ice hockey coach Guy Gadowsky can already visualize his team playing in front of 6,000-plus fans. In fact, the artist renditions and T 4 early architectural designs of the arena have rekindled memories of J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 2 he Pegula Ice Arena's expected completion is still more than 16 months away, but Penn State his own playing days. As he stood outside the construction site, which is located near the intersection of Curtin Road and University Drive, at the arena's groundbreaking cere- mony April 20, Gadowsky took a trip down memory lane. "I used to play in the old Hersheypark Arena," he said. "Their stands were extremely steep. In that venue, you felt like the fans were right up on top of you. "And that's what [the Pegula Ice Arena] will be like, especially with the [1,000-seat] student section being right on top of you." Encircled by reporters before the ceremony, which took place in front of more than 400 people on a cloud- less day at the start of the Blue- White Weekend, acting athletic director Dave Joyner said Penn State's new facility will be compara- ble to the Hershey Bears' former home. He added, however, that it will be "much more state-of-the- art." "I think with the way the bowl is constructed and the way it looks W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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