As the Penn State football team becomes a force within the Big Ten, the Penn State Blue Band is also ready to compete.

For years, the Blue Band has been planning to build an indoor practice facility, but was unsuccessful. The Blue Band is the only Big Ten marching band without its own facility.

However, that is about to change. The groundbreaking for its new practice arena is scheduled for September 2003.

The Alumni Association selected the Blue Band as the target of its "Margin of Excellence" campaign, which will grant money to help build an indoor practice arena.

The facility, which will cost an estimated $5 million, will be partially funded by $3 million from the university. Additional funds will come from the association's fund-matching challenge to the Blue Band.

"For every donation the Blue Band receives from private donors, the Alumni Association will match it by 50 percent, up to a third of a million dollars," said Susan Patton, assistant director of communications for the association.

Karen Walk, staff assistant for the Blue Band, said they are all very excited about the organization's future home.

"This facility has been 100 years in the making," Walk said. "Essentially we've been homeless since the beginning."

O. Richard Bundy, the director of the Blue Band, said the band is tied to several larger organizations, yet none feel financially responsible to them.

"We are supportive and supported by the athletic association. We are considered a class in the [School] of Music and the College of Arts and Architecture. Not to mention the public relations relationship the Blue Band has with the university itself," Bundy said.

He added that each of these organizations supports the band, but each seems to think a financial undertaking of this magnitude is someone else's responsibility.

Currently, the Blue Band's instruments, equipment, and uniforms are all kept in different locations, separate from where the band practices.

Since the Intramural fields are occupied Tuesday evenings, the Blue Band members must collect all of their equipment and move to a different location.

And without an indoor practice facility, weather and space often dictate the rehearsal agenda.

"By the end of our practice Wednesday night we had to be prepared to perform at the game on Saturday since heavy rain was predicted for [Thursday and Friday]," Bundy said. "That can take up to three hours."

Bundy said this also adds an additional two hours of preparation time on game day. A private building would eliminate this problem, he said.

He added that oftentimes the educational aspects of rehearsals have to be sacrificed because of time pressures.

The new building will be located across the street from where the Blue Band trailers currently are at the corner of University Road Expansion and Service Road. The building is planned to be ready for occupation in July 2004.

Andy Myers (junior-electrical engineering) has been a member of the Blue Band since his freshman year and is part of the traveling trumpets, the group that serenades fans in the stadium.

"It sucks that I won't be here to actually use the new indoor practice center," Myers said, "but it's great that it'll be there for future Blue Banders."