COEUR d'ALENE - The end is nearly in sight.

You can tell by the boards, the familiar looking plastic sheets that protect fans and act as the device they bang on when their hockey team scores a goal.

They're up.

Now all Frontier Arena needs is an opening date.

"I will say imminent," said Skip Fuller, Kootenai Youth Recreation Organization volunteer, the group inching toward the finish line of completing its $2.8 million ice arena off Seltice Way.

While a ribbon cutting date can't be set in stone, it will be sooner rather than later.

Fundraising goals have been met, all the equipment is on site, the parking lot is ready for its final coat once the weather lightens up, and hockey schedules are starting to get fleshed out.

And those boards that circle the rink are upright and ready to take a beating.

"Everything we need is here," Fuller said in a tour of the facility Monday. "It's just installation."

The project has been two years in the making, including fundraising $800,000, after the original building collapsed under heavy snowfall in 2008. Opening day goals have been general, but pushed back. One's still not marked on the calendar, but signs say hockey season this autumn will probably have a Coeur d'Alene home.

"I can't say," Fuller said on pinpointing the grand opening. "But it doesn't mean it's not going to happen" soon.