Former and current Major League Baseball managers Bobby Cox, Ned Yost and Fredi Gonzalez envision a sports complex near Lake Allatoona that would rival ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
In Alpharetta, a Brazilian pro soccer club wants to build a youth soccer mecca with up to 18 fields and possibly a pro team.
And in Commerce, a Snellville coach envisions a “mini-city” with enough lodging for each age group in his baseball camps that it could host tournaments for several sports.
Georgia is attracting entrepreneurs who believe that if they build their fields of dreams, success will come. Yet turning those dreams into finished facilities has not been easy in the current economy, with cautious banks, governments and investors involved.
“I’m still waiting on some funding,” said Buddy Fowlkes, the Snellville coach who wants to build the $300 million SportsTech USA complex.
His ambitious plans call for a domed baseball stadium, 40 outdoor baseball playing fields, another 40 baseball practice fields, eight football and soccer fields, 20 resort hotels, plus dozens of hotels, shops and restaurants. Add to that a conference center and business and technology park.
“We had everything done almost three years ago, now,” Fowlkes said. “But right about that time, things started slowing down. Next thing you know, the banks we were talking to started closing.”
Fowlkes responded by scaling back his goals. He might pursue a smaller version by leasing land across from his complex site, and starting a league and a nonprofit to help raise the seed money.
The best-run complexes tend to combine youth sports and entertainment, from shopping to theme parks, said Rick Skirvin, the 13-year executive director of Georgia Soccer, the state association for youth and adult soccer. His league has more than 100,000 participants, and 80,000 are youths.
One of the best examples is Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, home of Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, and a venue for major concerts, high school football and community events.
Yet for each success story, Skirvin can name parks that have failed. Sports parks from Florida to Tennessee have gone bust or are barely hanging on.
“The bottom line is when people are building sports complexes, they are now looking at how to tie in retail and commercial real estate so that there’s not such a reliance on one income stream,” Skirvin said. “That’s what sounds most intriguing about the Bobby Cox group.”
Cox and other investors are funding a $1 billion sport complex called Dream Parks at LakePoint Sporting Community and Town Center off I-75. The group has proposed a 1,400-acre project with 16 baseball fields, 12 soccer and lacrosse fields, a gym for indoor sports from gymnastics to volleyball, hotels, restaurants and shops. It’s key tenant will be Perfect Game Inc., a baseball scouting company that will host hundreds of games there and has agreed to move its headquarters from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
However, Atlanta-based Watkins Retail Group, the lead developer on the project, still is in the process of raising millions of dollars in funds and hasn’t bought the land yet.
The project went to Bartow County, in part, because Cobb County wouldn’t issue bonds to help fund the project. Bartow also was selected because Cox lives there and “the local municipalities have shown a highly cooperative spirit and the community has been extremely supportive of the development,” project spokeswoman Judy Sparks said in an email.
Melinda Lemmon, executive director of the Cartersville-Bartow County economic development agency, said that tax incentives and bond financing are part of the discussion for the Dream Parks development. She emphasized the county’s goal is to reduce risk to taxpayers so they won’t lose education funding or have to pay back any bond financing.
In north Fulton County, supporters hope Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, a well-known professional Brazilian soccer team, will build a $30 million youth complex. Plans call for a 100 acre site with up to 18 fields.
Al Nash, executive director of Progress Partners, said the group is supposed to come back late in July to look at more sites.
Nash said financing will be less of a problem for this group because Brazil is flush with investors. He said north Fulton’s demographics are perfect for this type of complex, both from the number of youth sports participants and soccer interest.
The Atlanta Silverbacks stadium at Spaghetti Junction, however, could be a lesson to newcomers in the market. Project expansion has started and stopped, with much of the revenue generated from hosting adult league soccer.
“We just finished a fourth field,” said Michael Oki, the manager. “It’s mainly adults that play out of our facility. We run leagues and do rentals of the facility.”
Original plans in 2006 called for a $20 million soccer stadium that would have 15,000 seats and host Major League Soccer games. Development stopped at 5,000 seats. The Silverbacks men’s team took a hiatus from one pro soccer league before joining another soccer league, the North American Soccer League.
Oki said many developers don’t realize how expensive it is to maintain these complexes once they’re built, one reason most stadiums worldwide are not privately financed.
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FIELDS OF DREAMS
Dream Parks
Dream Parks at LakePoint Sporting Community and Town Center in Emerson would be a $1 billion, 1,400-acre development near Lake Allatoona with 16 baseball fields, 12 soccer and lacrosse fields, and a gym for indoor sports from gymnastics to volleyball. Plans also call for hotels, restaurants and shops. Investors include former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, current Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez and Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost. Perfect Game, a baseball recruiting company, has agreed to relocate its headquarters there, and host hundreds of games annually.
Cruzeiro Esporte Clube
The pro Brazilian soccer team envisions a $30 million youth soccer complex, possibly in North Fulton. Preliminary plans call for a 100-acre site with up to 18 fields.
SportsTech USA
Snellville baseball coach Buddy Fowlkes wants to operate a $300 million sports “mini-city” near Commerce that would include a domed baseball stadium, 40 outdoor playing fields, 40 practice fields, eight football and soccer fields, 20 resort hotels, plus dozens of hotels, shops and restaurants.
Atlanta Silverbacks Park
The Atlanta Silverbacks built a stadium complex that seats 5,000 and includes four soccer fields near Spaghetti Junction. The stadium is home to a pro men’s soccer team and amateur women’s team. But the complex earns most of its fees now by hosting adult soccer leagues. Plans to build more stadium seating are on hold pending interest from more fans, and a youth league named for the Silverbacks was cancelled after it turned off kids (and potential fans) from other soccer leagues.
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