SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Friday marked the revealing of a brand new crown jewel sports activities facility on Springfield’s northwest facet because the Betty and Bobby Allison Sports Town held its grand opening. It’s a multi-use indoor-and-outdoor sports activities facility that’s anticipated to have a big impact on the world’s economic system.

Located subsequent to the Springfield-Branson National Airport, Sports Town is a formidable 82-acre venue put collectively by a pair of Tulsa traders together with a contribution from the late Bobby Allison (Betty was his mom). The outside a part of the venue options 12 soccer fields together with 4 with synthetic turf surfaces.

That a part of Sports Town had already been in use however Friday marked the grand opening of the 94,000 square-foot indoor facility which has two soccer fields and house that may maintain eight volleyball courts or 4 basketball courts.

The open expanse options scoreboards, bleachers, the newest in gear, rest room services, assembly rooms, concessions plus indoor-and-outdoor consuming areas.

“When we first came up with the idea to put a sports complex on this side of Springfield everybody looked at us like we were crazy,” Tulsa developer and part-owner Rob Phillips informed a sizeable crowd in attendance. “But I hope you see now that this is going to spur development on this side of town that’s been lacking for many years. We promised the community that we would build one of the finest sports complexes in the region and I think we’ve fulfilled our promise. At a minimum we’re looking at 19 new state, regional and national tournaments annually and nearly 100,000 attendees. And those tourists will spend over $30 million in new dollars for Springfield tourism with over 48,000 new hotel room nights and hotel occupancy taxes of over a quarter-of-a-million dollars.”

But it didn’t come with out challenges. The challenge was began through the pandemic and the house owners admitted there have been some making an attempt instances.

“It started out as a $20 million project and we went over $30 million but we had to bite the bullet,” Phillips mentioned. “Steel prices went up 300 percent on us and they were delayed six months. It was an extremely challenging time.”

“No development project is without its bumps but this was enhanced by COVID,” added Tulsa marketing consultant and half proprietor Stan Liedel. “We thought we’d be open by April, then August but it kept going month-by-month because you couldn’t get this particular part or this basketball goal was delayed another two weeks.”

Sports Town is simply the newest of three huge initiatives on the town’s northside which are anticipated to usher in extra regional and nationwide occasions to assist the native economic system. The different two being the brand new 6,600-seat area on the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds and the $25 million in upgrades at Cooper Park.

“Our soccer, baseball and softball complexes are going to get 19 turf fields and that will complement what this facility is going to be able to do along with the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds new arena,” defined Springfield-Greene County Park Board Director Bob Belote. “The goal initially is that we’re benefitting our local families but the layer on the backside is bringing in the visitors’ spending and sports tourism to keep our economy strong.”

And the Park Board doesn’t see Sports Town as a competitor.

“At the end of the day we want families active,” Belote mentioned. “Whether it’s our facility or a private one we want people staying healthy. I think there’s plenty to share here and we can all play in the same sandbox. But we’re expanding it and becoming a player in the Midwest with tournament activities and I couldn’t be more excited about that.”

In preserving with Sports Town’s objectives of serving each native athletes in addition to placing on regional and nationwide occasions, the venue may have leagues for soccer, volleyball, and soccer.

“We’ve got everything from an 18 month-old in our Lil’ Kickers program all the way up to adults who were playing on the indoor soccer fields last night,” mentioned Sports Town General Manager Stacie Wells. “I think a lot of times parents don’t know where to send their child to play a sport and while there’s amazing community center programs here locally, there are kids who faze-out, age-out or skill-out of those programs and don’t have a place to go unless they can go to a club program and not everyone has that opportunity. By providing those leagues here we’re going to open up so many opportunities for kids especially on this side of town.”

But now that the first-class services are being constructed, will these regional and nationwide occasions get lured to return right here?

Sports Town officers say they already are booked stable with native and regional occasion by way of 2025 and as a personal entity don’t plan on working within the pink.

“You don’t make a lot of money by renting these courts,” Liedel defined. “It comes from tournaments and your own programming. When you don’t have a Sports Commission that doesn’t have a proper budget (Springfield Sports Commission’s budget is $250,000, well below other cities its size), you cannot really lure those big events to the community. We’ve got those local and regional tournaments but what we’re trying to do for Springfield is get the Sports Commission more money so they can use all the area facilities for national events.”

Springfield Mayor Ken McClure, who attended the grand opening, was requested if growing the Springfield Sports Commission’s funds was doable.

“The first step is going to be for the cooperation to occur between the parks department and the facility here,” he mentioned. “I’m assuming and expecting that will happen and once it does we we can get a coordinated marketing approach. So I’m confident that’s going to occur and I think we’re well on the way to doing that.”

Sports Town’s development shouldn’t be completed but. Up subsequent is a retail and lodging growth on the entrance to the property.

“We’ve been waiting quite frankly for the sports complex to get finished first,” Phillips mentioned. “It is a little bit of the chicken and the egg. You have to have the bodies to support the retail, lodging and restaurants and that’s why we wanted to get this part open first. Now we’re ready to focus full-steam on moving dirt over there in the next few months and within 12-18 months we’ll be 100 percent complete over there.”

McClure expects different developments to return alongside as effectively.

“This is so close to the airport that people coming in are going to be seeing this,” he identified. “So I think more development will occur in the region right around here and that’s going to be so important for us.”

To report a correction or typo, please e-mail digitalnews@ky3.com

Copyright 2022 KY3. All rights reserved.