Travel Lane County pitches new indoor sports activities facility

Travel Lane County is asking for the development of a brand new indoor sports activities facility, saying it might enhance winter tourism within the area.

Some proposed options of the multi-use facility are an indoor monitor, and basketball, pickleball and volleyball courts. Andy Vobora, the Vice President of Stakeholder Relations at Travel Lane County, mentioned the constructing may be used for conventions or concert events.

Vobora mentioned the hope is to draw sports activities groups and followers from different cities, to fight the present drop in patrons that Lane County inns face every winter.

“One of the things with youth sports in particular that we’ve seen in recent years is it’s somewhat recession proof and even COVID-proof,” he said. “Parents who want to see their kids involved in athletics go to great lengths.”

Vobora mentioned even with current indoor athletics areas on the University of Oregon, the YMCA and KidSports, there are nonetheless not sufficient courts to fulfill the demand for occasions.

Price and Location

Vobora mentioned one doable web site for the ability can be the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. But he mentioned that timeline is unsure, for the reason that growth of the Lane Event Center’s Master Plan remains to be ongoing.

A earlier try to construct a multi-use baseball stadium on the fairgrounds confronted pushback, with the Lane County Fair Board publicly opposing the mission.

Vobora mentioned one other potential web site is the previous Royal Caribbean Cruises name middle in Springfield. It’s a 160,000 square-foot constructing that went up on the market earlier this 12 months, according to Eugene Weekly.

Vobora mentioned it could be doable to re-use the prevailing constructing, doubtlessly making the mission cheaper. He mentioned Travel Lane County is presently paying to judge whether or not that might be doable, and expects to know extra within the coming months.

“As far as when a facility could be built, it’s still going to be several years off,” mentioned Vobora. “But you got to take the first step.”

To assist fund the mission, Travel Lane County needs to assist set up a public-private partnership, with state, county and enterprise help.

As a part of that effort, Vobora mentioned the group plans to ask the county to allocate income from its transient lodging tax. At a gathering final week, a number of County Commissioners expressed curiosity in that concept.

“The adaptive re-use site, from a perspective in a real-estate mind, is an exceptional opportunity,” mentioned Commissioner David Loveall. “If I can just say so myself, the 20 acre site and the building—if we can adapt it the way that we’re thinking, we could save at least half what it would cost to build a facility from scratch.”

A earlier estimate put the price of constructing the ability from scratch at round $80 million. Vobora mentioned with rising costs and tariffs, that quantity might find yourself increased.