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Facing increasing construction costs, developers of the Betty & Bobby Allison Sports Town facility asked Springfield’s city council for $4 million while they toured the construction site Tuesday.
The soon-to-be sports center is being built west of Springfield just south of the Springfield-Branson National Airport. Having broken ground on the construction site in April, the new center will include include 12 soccer fields, seating for 1,500 spectators and a 90,000-square-foot indoor facility with basketball and volleyball courts.
The city previously committed $2 million to the $22 million sports facility, but now developers want the city to chip in another $4 million out of Springfield’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
“According to federal guidelines, ARPA may be used for tourism and water and sewer infrastructure. Those are a couple of components that we’ve really had some problems with and we need help with,” said president of L5 Management & Consulting Stan Leidel.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March. More than $673 billion of those funds were set aside for state and local governments. In August, the city accepted its first installment of their total $40 million.
Of that, $8 million was set aside for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. The rest of the funds will be spent as part of one package of aid.
Leidel said developers of the Betty & Bobby Allison Sports Town facility have recently submitted an application for $4 million of the city’s ARPA funds
“We want to see if you can help offset our major overage in steel. We have a 300 percent increase, which raised our steel pricing almost $4 million alone. When you’re doing the 94,000-square-foot building, the steel is pretty significant,” he said.
Saying the completed complex will generate $16 million of revenue a year in the city, Leidel argued that such a city investment could jumpstart tourism in Springfield and development west of town.
“It will be the gateway to the rest of the city. It is the airport right there. Airport road will run right into our sign. I think everyone in Springfield will be extremely proud of this project,” he said.
“This is going to attract not just local, not just regional traffic. We expect you’re going to see people two, three, four, or five states away coming here. So, this is a new source of income for the city of Springfield that currently doesn’t exist.”
To accommodate for this tourism, the developers said they are already contemplating plans for a hotel site, retail center, restaurants, and a convenience store west of Springfield near the sports center and airport.
Councilman Richard Ollis said he was “excited about this project” and that the center and surrounding accommodations would be “a tremendous tourism asset for a long time to come.”
Councilman Craig Hosmer warned that the ARPA committee would not expend any funds until reviewing all submissions and making a recommendation as a package.
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