City leaders broke ground Tuesday on two new sports complexes at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock.

The project will include two parts: a new multipurpose field complex and a soccer field complex.

The multipurpose field complex will include 4 natural grass multipurpose fields, and one natural grass championship field. It will also include four synthetic turf fields and one synthetic turf championship field.

The soccer complex project will include renovating the 5 existing soccer fields to create two multi purpose fields, 2 youth soccer fields, and one full soccer field. Crews will also replace topsoil and sod and make ADA upgrades.

The current plan is to renovate the soccer fields at the park and open 12 new multi-purpose fields in an effort to make the city a sport destination.

“We’ve never actually had tournament fields here to actually play on, and we’ve always had to travel out of town to actually play in big tournaments to have college coaches see us or other people see us,” said Stony Point High senior Miguel Hernandez.

The multi-million dollar development is being paid for in part by a $3 million bond approved in 2014, a $6.5 million bond approved in 2013, $6.5 million from the motel/hotel occupancy tax and $4 million from the city’s general fund.

“There’s a large demand for soccer, lacrosse, all those sports are growing,” said Assistant Parks and Rec Director David Buzzell.

Mayor Alan McGraw hopes the project will be an economic driver for the area.

“Sports tourism is a huge industry, everybody with kids knows how much they travel to go to different cities to play sports,” he said.

With the development of the park, area businesses will get a boost as well.

“I think it will be great, it will help the city, we’ll have more people coming in to local businesses so we can actually be more profitable and help our city out,” said Michael Marvel, manager of Shipley Doughnuts near the park.

The city expects the multipurpose complex to be done by spring 2017, and the soccer complex renovation is expected to open in spring 2018.

 

kvue.com

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