"It's just been exciting. My jaw hurts from smiling so much," Battista said. "If you look out across where the building's going to be, you can see Mount Nittany. It'll only be a matter of time before you start to see structural steel in place."
Battista, a former player and coach with the club-level Penn State Icers, was pivotal in the formation of Division I hockey at Penn State, including facilitating the largest private gift in the university's history - an $88 million donation from alumni Terry and Kim Pegula.
Battista coordinated the search committee that brought in former Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky to coach the men and former Team USA men's assistant Josh Brandwene to lead the women.
The Nittany Lions are in the process of putting together a Division I schedule for next season, but they will play their games in the old Greenberg Ice Pavillion until the Pegula Arena is completed the following year.
Even with the overhaul atop the Penn State athletic department that forced former athletic director Tim Curley to be placed on administrative leave in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, nothing has altered the path of the arena or Penn State hockey. It's more than a month ahead of schedule.
Along with the Pegulas' donation, Penn State has been able to bring in another $25 million in funding for the program and the arena. By the time the arena is completed, Battista hopes to have totaled $112 million for the 200,000-square-foot, 6,000-seat arena.
"Hockey has never been this popular in the state of Pennsylvania. It's just booming," Battista said. "The interest in the Penguins and the Flyers is at an all-time high, the Hershey Bears, the Wilkes-Barre Penguins, the Ontario Hockey League team in Erie, the Reading Royals. There's more hockey and skating going on in Pennsylvania than ever before, and we're certainly going to tap into that."
Battista said the arena would allow the university to be able to host NHL exhibition games and training camps (Terry Pegula owns the Buffalo Sabres). Battista hopes to bring in USA Hockey and regional figure-skating tournaments. The arena will include public skating and private lessons, as well.
Considering the interest in hockey in the state, including two successful NHL Winter Classics - 2011 in Pittsburgh and 2012 in Philadelphia - Battista can foresee an outdoor game in Penn State's future.
"Once it's finished, this really is a facility that is serving the entire community and not a handful of athletes," Battista said. "It is going to be a destination. It's going to help the economic impact for the area."
