Pens' complex breaks ground
CRANBERRY TWP — It's not every day you see a shovel shaped like a hockey stick, but then again, it's not every day the Pittsburgh Penguins and UPMC decide to build a world-class sports medicine complex in the community.
Dozens of officials, including prominent Penguins figures like Mario Lemieux, coach Dan Bylsma and team President David Morehouse, took part in a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the site of the sports complex, nestled right at the intersection of Interstate 79 and Route 228.
They were joined by UPMC CEO and President Jeffrey Romoff, as well as government officials from the county and Cranberry Township.
The facility, called the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, won't be finished and open for use until the summer of 2015. But that didn't stop those on hand Wednesday from celebrating the fact that, when opened, the facility will truly be one of a kind for hockey.
Morehouse, the team president, said at the groundbreaking that the design is unique for a reason. He sent a team of officials around the country several years ago to research the best and brightest in these kinds of facilities, and found that nothing like it existed for hockey purposes.
It will combine hockey rinks and training facilities with 50,000 square feet of clinical space that will be used for medical purposes.
The entire facility is expected to be more than 190,000 square feet, complete with two ice rinks. One of those rinks will be used by the Penguins for practice, while the other will be made available for youth hockey, ice skating or other community events.
Officials haven't said how much the project will cost because it hasn't been bid yet.
Morehouse said Cranberry Township represented a “logical fit” as the home for the new facility, if only for the fact that Western Pennsylvania is the fastest growing area for youth hockey in the country.
“This is going to be a wonderful facility for Cranberry,” he said. “It's a win-win for the Penguins, UPMC and the township.”
Paul Steigerwald, who announces every Penguins game on television, spoke first at the event and called the facility “way more than a hockey rink.”With that said, however, Steigerwald went on to praise the fact that the facility will be named after Lemieux, a man who brought hockey into relevancy in the region decades ago and turned the successful franchise into what it is today.Lemieux's stellar play and winning ways invigorated an entire region and put hockey on the map here, Steigerwald said.To back up his claim, Steigerwald said there were only six ice rinks in all of Western Pennsylvania when Lemieux was drafted in 1984. When the sports medicine facility opens in Cranberry Township, the complex will contain rinks 40 and 41 in the area, he said.Bruce Mazzoni, chairman of Cranberry's board of supervisors, spoke last at the ceremony, and said both UPMC and Penguins officials made an “astute choice” when deciding to come here.Cranberry Township and the areas surrounding it are some of the fastest growing in the region, he said, complete with a diverse economy and easily-accessible businesses along the Route 228 corridor.The new facility could be an “anchor” for Cranberry Township, he said.“We want to thank you all for your vote of confidence in our community, and we're proud to have you here,” he said.Lemieux, Bylsma and other team officials were not among the speakers at the event, but did dig their shovels into the dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony.
