Hockey and sports medicine are about to become a feature attraction in Butler County.

The UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, under construction near the intersection of Interstate 79 and Route 228 in Cranberry Township, will open in late August, just in time for preseason training for the Pittsburgh Penguins pro hockey team that will make the center its home. The $70 million complex will include two ice rinks and a 54,000-square-foot UPMC medical facility. It will be available to the public.

The Lemieux Complex is the first of its kind, says Vonda Wright, M.D., the new center’s medical director — a partnership between elite athletes and elite sports-medicine physcians, intent of improving both the sport as well as sports medicine.

“What we’re actually doing is building better athletes,” Wright says, “and providing to everyone the same standard of care that we provide to the Penguins.”

The center will offer training and medical procedures that accelerate recovery from injuries and training techniques that prevent injuries from happening. The center will include a concussion research department to research brain trauma and ways to prevent it.

For amateur and professional players alike, the center will make Cranberry Township a hockey Mecca. Penguins officials are expecting more than 400,000 visitors a year.

That’s an average of 1,100 visitors every day, a number that excites local tourism officials, who last week announced an agreement with the Penguins that gives first preference to hotels in Butler County for all those visitors.

“It’s the start of a great relationship in working with those folks,” says Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau.

The tourism bureau is planning to set up a website welcoming visitors to the UPMC Lemieux Center and listing the area’s accommodations. The Penguins will distribute flyers with the same information to visitors for events such as youth hockey tournaments.

Expect a snowball effect: More Penguins players, coaches and business staff making Butler County their home; more UPMC personnel, including prominent orthopedic specialists, relocating here to be closer to their work; the children of both players and UPMC staffers attending local schools; their families shopping, dining, taking advantage of recreational opportunities here.

A local hockey boom is almost a certainty, and it will benefit local businesses, individuals, athletic programs and other organizations with its attraction to elite athletes from across and beyond the region.

The UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex is a welcome and exciting addition to our community of Butler County.

— T.A.H.