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Duluth unveils plans for $88-million arena

After years of planning, several false starts and some unexpected lack of support from state officials, the new $80-million Duluth Entertainment Convention Center is on track for a December 31, 2010 opening date following more than two years of construction. The complex’s showcase will be a 6,600-seat arena slated to host home games for the University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey teams. Renderings and walkthrough within.
After years of planning, several false starts and some unexpected lack of support from state officials, the new $80-million Duluth Entertainment Convention Center is on track for a December 31, 2010 opening date following more than two years of construction. The complex’s showcase will be a 6,600-seat arena slated to host home games for the University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey teams. 

Construction on the project has already begun with the erection of a 475-vehicle ramp on what was previously a parking lot in the DECC complex. Work on the actual arena will begin next April. The new arena will not actually displace the existing arena; it will be built away from the waterfront to the northwest of the existing arena in the DECC complex, closer to the Great Lakes Aquarium.

 
As a college-hockey venue, the new arena should be one of the finest in the nation – especially when compared to the existing DECC arena. The existing arena is one of the few still in use in the college game where the view is better from the second deck than the first-level bowl; season-ticket-holders flock to that level. That will change in the new facility.
 

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