If you ever had the apetite to ski inside a big freezer, well this should be your year if you are planning to do it in the United States. 2009 should at long last herald the opening of the first indoor snow centre in the USA, at least 20 years after the first such centre was proposed.

The controversial and much delayed Meadowlands Xanadu project is due to open this year and from the latest images, appears to be largely structurally complete.

As always with the project precise opening details, the date already several times delayed, are not forthcoming but latest local media reports indicate, “the summer.”

The 2 Billion Dollar, 4.8 million-square-foot family entertainment, sports, retail, office and hotel complex is located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in Bergen County, New Jersey, within five miles of Manhattan. It will be the largest retail development in the USA and possibly the world and as well as the indoor ski slope feature the world’s largest ferris wheel and many other attractions.

Now hopefully Americans will have an appetite for these types of entertainment facilities in these difficult times!