Sports tourism is a big money-maker for Rock Hill. At least until it gets cold.

In 2014, visitors to the city’s athletic facilities – like the velodrome and BMX course at Riverwalk, or the soccer fields at Manchester Meadows – produced about $21 million in economic impact for the city, said John Gettys, chairman of the Rock Hill Sports Commission.

“But we know we’re not up to our full potential in January, February, March,” he said. “We need an indoor facility for the lean months.”

On Monday, the Rock Hill City Council authorized city staff to review a proposal from the commission, with an eye toward opening the complex by September 2017.

Such a facility could host basketball, volleyball and cheerleading events, Gettys said, and possibly other indoor activities, ranging from wrestling, ping pong or kickball, to CrossFit and indoor batting cages.

He recommended identifying the final location and financing for a sports complex managed by the city’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism department.

The facility would complement the other sports facilities the city already has to offer, Gettys said, attracting new sports competitions to add to a tourism field that’s already drawn $131 million to Rock Hill in the past 10 years.

“This fills a niche for us,” Gettys said.

Commission members traveled to see a similar facility in Indian Trail, N.C., and researched others, like the 100,000-square-foot, $12.5 million Myrtle Beach Sports Center that opened last year.

Other sports facilities around the country highlighted by the sports commission ranged in price from $15 million to $26 million, paid for with a mix of local government bonds, city self-financing, hotel occupancy taxes and private funding.

Gettys didn’t estimate a cost for Rock Hill to open and operate the new facility.

After examining potential sites near Riverwalk or Dave Lyle Boulevard near Interstate 77, the sports commission recommended the facility be built in the Knowledge Park district downtown, somewhere near Winthrop University, so the facility also could be used to host school activities. Gettys did not recommend a specific site.

Winthrop officials met with the sports commission prior to a December vote on the proposal, along with representatives from the Rock Hill school district, the Knowledge Park Leadership Group and other interested parties.

Winthrop Athletic Director Tom Hickman said location was the school’s main concern.

“It would need to be as close to being adjacent to campus as possible for it to be heavily utilized,” Hickman said.

The university’s main interest in an indoor facility would be as an alternate practice site for the Eagles’ volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball teams, he said, as “those three overlap a lot in the fall.”

An indoor sports facility also would give Winthrop additional practice space while hosting Big South conference tournaments, and could even be scheduled as the site of some home volleyball games, Hickman said. It also could host intramural or club team sports.

Gettys said the facility could also host classrooms, a full kitchen or street-level commercial space, depending on the design.

Once it’s open, he believes the indoor facility would attract families traveling for tournaments, who will have to step out and patronize downtown businesses between games.

“If you have a volleyball game at 9, where the winner plays again at 11 and the loser plays at 1, what are you going to do in the meantime?” he said.

In approving the motion, Mayor Doug Echols said the facility would add to Rock Hill’s other offerings.

“It seems like there’s a lot of connecting the dots here,” Echols said.

 

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