Preparations continue to take place out at the New York State Fairgrounds. Steps forward are being made today as the crew begins to build the "sandbox" portion of the project. In addition, title sponsor Mirabito Energy Services is working at the site to place heat in the building which will become the locker rooms. This building does not currently have any means of heat and Mirabito will be putting furnaces in to help make the building functional for this game.

This historic project will continue to be documented throughout the process right here on SyracuseCrunch.com, as well as on Twitter at twitter.com/SyracuseCrunch.

Since January 4, barriers were moved into place to create a wall for the crushed stone to settle against, protective material was laid to protect the track and truck loads of crushed stone were delivered in order to level out the race track's 24 degree slope. As of Monday morning (January 11), the barriers were removed and preparation has begun in order to build  a "sand box" which will be built on top of the stone and will soon become the base of the ice surface.

To view today's progress at the Fairgrounds, click here to take a look.