Pasco County is switching its sports tourism efforts from baseball diamonds to cheerleader pyramids and any other competitions that can fill a fieldhouse.

Friday, the county issued a request for proposals from private companies to build and manage a multipurpose building of at least 85,000 square feet capable of playing host to a slew of indoor sports including volleyball, basketball, wrestling, martial arts, gymnastics, cheer leading and other events.

The proposals are due to the county July 6 and a tentative schedule calls for a contract to be awarded in September. The county earlier committed $8.5 million in tourist tax proceeds to help offset the construction costs.

"I'm excited,'' said Commissioner Mike Moore. "It's taken some time, but I'm excited.''

The fieldhouse would be built on more than 120 acres in the Wiregrass Ranch development previously donated to the county by the Porter family. The request for proposals makes no mention of an idea from seven months ago when the Porters suggested they take back control of 40 acres so they could build and operate athletic fields for soccer, lacrosse and other activities in advance of the fieldhouse project.

Richard Gehring, the county's strategic planning administrator, said the county and Porters had multiple discussions on that concept, but the family never submitted a formal proposal.

The move toward indoor sports comes as no surprise after the county's last attempt to partner with the private sector on a baseball complex fell apart in late 2014. The commission killed that plan after retired baseball slugger Gary Sheffield and James Talton of Pasco Sports LLC failed to arrange financing for their proposed $34 million, 15-field baseball complex.

Seven months later, a county-retained consultant, Johnson Consulting of Chicago, recommended Pasco look at indoor sports to attract tourists. Its report became the basis for Friday's request for proposals to build a multiuse facility with outdoor fields to be developed later.

Johnson Consulting has said a public-private partnership could show a small profit by its third year operating the fieldhouse and reach a capacity of 127 events annually by year five.

The report said the building should have six to eight basketball courts that could be converted to 12 to 16 volleyball courts, seating for at least 500, concessions, locker rooms, four to six multipurpose rooms and outdoor fields. No cost estimates have been affixed to the project, but four similar buildings in the South range from the privately built $6.5 million Orlando Sports Center to the $27 million sports and events center in Baldwin County, Ala.

The county's goal is to grab a greater piece of the sports tourism market, labeled previously as the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry. The planned fieldhouse site, north and east of the Shops at Wiregrass mall, is within a couple miles of the privately financed Florida Hospital Center Ice, a $20 million ice skating and sports complex being built at Interstate 75 and State Road 56. The close proximity of the sports facilities is considered an asset toward drawing additional overnight visitors to the county.

The multiuse fieldhouse becomes the latest proposal on how to spend the county's tourist-related construction dollars since voters approved the tax in 1990. Previous attempts to build a tennis stadium at Saddlebrook, softball fields in Trinity and the baseball complex at Wiregrass all disintegrated amid failed partnerships with the private sector.

"I'm confident this is going to work for the county,'' said Moore, whose district includes the Wiregrass property. "It's going to give us something surrounding areas don't have, so its going to be a big draw for us.''

 

Source : tampabay.com

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