Rink

hite Bear Lake's student section was going crazy. Chanting and cheering. Dressed in their signature blaze orange. The brand-new Vadnais Sports Center was sold out with 1,500 fans watching the junior varsi- ty game, but the main attraction was still to come. People were calling in weeks in advance to get tickets to the most emotional game of the year. White Bear Lake High School hockey was coming home to the facility they were instrumental in helping build. "It is nice to have a place you can call your home," White Bear Lake Athletics Director Tim Hermann said. "This is a great place to play hockey and it is our rink." The Vadnais Sports Center is located in Vadnais Heights, Minn. The facility is one of the most dynamic in the world, consisting of two NHL regulation hockey rinks, a 100,000-square-foot turf field inside a dome, as well as a sports bar and restaurant as the main attractions. The doors to the Vadnais Sports Center opened in November 2010, but the proj- ect began in 2001, when the Sports Facility Development and Management Group LLC began working with the local community to build this unique focal point for the neighborhood. The Vadnais Sports Center is unique due to the partnership between the city and the facility. Back in 2001, Sports Facility Development and Management LLC began working with Conquest Development LLC as co-developers on the project to bring to the com- munity a hockey rink in desperate need of a new place to call home. As the com- munity continued to gather interest in the rink, the project began to grow and evolve into the beautiful facility that is now located in Vadnais Heights, Minn. The non-profit organization Conquest Development and the city worked Vadnais Heights, MinN. Vadnais Sports Center featured rink 16 R INK MAGAZ INE May/June 2011 STARrinks.com W by ANDY KAASA & ADAM KNUTSON JIM ROSVOLD A community within itself

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