YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY

Springfield, MO

Log in Subscribe

Plans are underway to improve the Lake Country Soccer complex at Cooper Park.
Photo courtesy Lake Country Soccer Inc.
Plans are underway to improve the Lake Country Soccer complex at Cooper Park.

Council reviews $10M in soccer complex upgrades

Posted online

Last edited 3:08 p.m., Dec. 1, 2020

A $10 million upgrade to the Lake Country Soccer Inc. complex at Cooper Park is in the works.

Last night, Springfield City Council unanimously voted 9-0 in declaring the intent to financially assist and fully support the plan.

Bob Belote, director of the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, told council members the Park Board and soccer club have had a 35-year partnership. He said there is a crucial need to update the complex.

“The facility is older, it’s 25-30 years old on some of the infrastructure,” Belote said in an interview with Springfield Business Journal. “We also need it to be competitive with other communities in the sports tourism world.”

Belote said the planned improvements include the addition of eight turf fields and enhancements to the 10 existing grass fields. In his PowerPoint presentation at last night’s council meeting, Belote said there is currently only one artificial turf field. Upgrades include a FIFA-approved championship field with seating for 3,500 people, new locker rooms, restrooms and meeting areas, according to his presentation.

“It would also include a spectator concourse area that would make us a lot more fan friendly with new food and beverage options, fan-friendly zones, picnic play area, additional shade spectator areas for families to kind of hang out while they are there on a busy tournament day,” Belote told council.

Belote said the upgrades would allow the city to bid on state championships, as well as national and regional tournaments. He said the improvements would make the park an anchor tournament destination, one of the recommendations made last fall in a sports tourism report by Phoenix-based consulting company Huddle Up Group.

Tracy Kimberlin, president and CEO of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, spoke in favor of the project at the meeting, noting the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the travel industry.

“This kind of development, at this point in time, is music to the ears of the entire travel industry, particularly the hotels who are in desperate need of any kind of help that can be given,” Kimberlin said.

Belote said the city would invest $5 million upfront on the project and then challenge the soccer communities or private donors to come up with a $5 million match. John Markey, executive director at Lake Country Soccer, said local donors are interested in the project but declined to disclose names. He said the club has hired Oregon-based capital campaign company Cogeo to help raise funds.

“What I am super excited about is that we won’t have to do this in phases over the next two to three or four years. The idea is to do it all at once,” Belote said. “To do it all at one time is really a dream come true.”

In tandem
Council also voted last night on a declaration of intent to provide funding for another multimillion-dollar athletic complex in the city.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, developer Rob Phillips of Philcrest Properties went before council early last month to pitch the $12 million-16 million complex, located in northwest Springfield near the Springfield-Branson National Airport and Chestnut Expressway corridor.

Phillips originally asked the city to fund $4.4 million toward the project for infrastructure, but Rob Haik, principal with H Design Group LLC, told SBJ that the city only offered $2 million. He said the only change to the development plans is there likely will not be a fully funded public street going through the property connecting Chestnut and Interstate 44. He said there will be a private driveway instead, which will reduce costs significantly.

“By integrating or coordinating our efforts with the city, we will still be able to have these national or regional tournaments,” Haik said.

Council’s vote last night included the following terms: payments to the developer after the complex is completed and the establishment of a community improvement district over the entire development to reimburse city costs.

Council also voted to initiate the annexation process of approximately 239 acres of private property at 5544 and 6006 W. State Highway 266 into the city as part of the sports complex. Mary Lilly Smith, director of planning and development for the city, said at the meeting a public hearing on the annexation is scheduled Jan. 11 and a vote would on it would be slated Jan. 25.

In addition, council voted last night to initiate amendments to the zoning ordinance near the airport as the complex would be near it.

Mayor Ken McClure said the Lake Country Soccer complex and Philcrest Properties’ athletic facility would work in tandem.

“I think they support each other; it will be good for the community in terms of having facilities that can work together for major sporting events,” McClure said.

Comments

No comments on this story |
Please log in to add your comment
Editors' Pick
High-density housing development looks to connect residents to nature

Owen Silos wants buyers and renters for single-family homes.

Most Read
SBJ.net Poll
How should the city's final ARPA funds be spent?

*

View results

Update cookies preferences