The difference between a project that gets designed and built and welcomes players (and attracts even more business to the city), and one that languishes on the drawing board is all too often a matter of funding. After all, it’s easy to make a plan but harder by far to make that plan into reality.
Recently, four destinations made news with their approaches to funding sports facilities. They couldn’t be more different from one another but they’re all creative and interesting.
In Missouri, the state has created legislation to support local incentives to fund professional sports franchises. Senate Bill 822, co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Washington (D - Kansas City), Rep. Sherri Gallick (R - Belton) and Rep. Mark Sharp (D - Kansas City), would create the Missouri Entertainment Facility - Capital Assistance Program (MEF-CPA) Act.
Central to those discussions is the conversation around building and maintaining sports facilities that not only support pro teams (and keep them in town) but allow cities to attract large-scale events, from international sports competitions to college championships to entertainment events like concerts.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas also noted that MEF-CAP contained “strong taxpayer protections” that would put caps on total public support and require “private financial commitments” from franchises applying for state funding.
He also noted that the bill, if passed, will give “Missouri cities the tools we need to keep our professional franchises, attract new tenants and maintain world-class venues.”
Under the terms of the bill, If teams receive funding from the program, they would need to commit to staying at the facility in Missouri for 25 years. (Should they wish to break the contract and leave prior to that, they would be responsible for paying back the amount to the state; with the amount of money on the table, they’d need a powerful incentive to move.)
At a restaurant near the current stadiums for both teams, diners had divided opinion as to whether or not state tax dollars should go to stadiums.
“I think it’s worth it to keep the Chiefs in Missouri, keep them in Kansas City,” Marquel Nickens told reporters from the local NBC affiliate. “The revenue the teams bring to our city, I think it’s more than worth it.”
“It shouldn’t be subsidized by taxpayers for the benefit of the owner,” Bo Kowalczyk noted. “What other businesses get that kind of long-term subsidization without people complaining about it?”
Most retail sales in Jackson County currently include a 3/8th-cent sales tax, which helps pay for the stadiums. Voters rejected a plan to extend that tax last year.
In another part of the country, funding for a completely different type of facility is in the crosshairs. In Florida, Seminole County hotels have added an extra fee to each guest’s bill; the money gained will be used by the county to build an complex for indoor sports and other large events.
County commissioners unanimously approved the extra $1.75 per night assessment, which is already in effect at lodging establishments with at least 60 rooms. It will be added to a hotel room bill on top of the county’s 5% tourist tax and 7% sales tax. The fee is expected to raise about $3.2 million in the first year and more each year afterward.
"We do not expect this fee to impact market share for our visitors and our visitation demand," said Gui Cunha, who works with the county in county economic development and tourism.
All revenue collected will go toward the construction of a sports facility that is expected to cost more than $65 million and will be located adjacent to Boombah Sports Complex off Lake Mary Boulevard. Boombah hosts outdoor sports; proponents of the new complex note that it will be an indoor facility, something they say the area is lacking.
According to Yahoo! reporters, “Last year, Seminole’s sports complexes hosted 89 events drawing nearly 186,000 visitors who purchased nearly 30,000 hotel room nights, according to county data. County documents show that an indoor events complex would generate an additional 17,000 hotel room stays in its first year.”
Meanwhile, in Delaware, a total of 17 organizations submitted proposals in a quest for a share of a combined $47.1 million as part of the second round of grant allocations made by the newly formed Delaware Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund, to be used for construction, upgrades and additions to their sports complexes to generate more income and attract more athletes and patrons.
The fund was created in 2023 as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 Bond Bill to provide grants in support of sports facilities like arenas, courts, fields, aquatics facilities, track & field, as well as other venues.
Kirkwood Sports Complex – $4 million: The money will help make enhancements to the New Castle facility by upgrading parking infrastructure and expanding parking with 300 additional spots, installing artificial turf on five sports fields and lighting five turf fields.
Bethany Tennis Club – $3.8 million: The money will help build a new structure with multiple interior courts and social gathering spaces to attract year-round events for tennis, pickleball and paddle sports at their Ocean View facility.
Factory Sports – $577,000: The money will help construct two additional basketball courts, two volleyball courts, and six pickleball courts to host larger and more frequent tournaments at their facility in Frankford.
Dover Motor Speedway – $500,000: The money will help the facility implement upgrades, allowing it to continue hosting large-scale events with new paving, elevator upgrades, infield media center refurbishments and an improved audio system.
Then there's the kind of funding everyone would like to leverage. In Corryton, Tennessee, country music star Morgan Wallen made an announement that his Morgan Wallen Foundation would be donating $140,000 to Gibbs Youth Sports. The money would be used to renovate Gibbs Ruritan Park and make it usable year-round for sports. Key parts of the improvements were listed by News 6 as follows:
The grant will remodel the field house, including a second floor with indoor batting cages, pitching lanes and fielding area, including:
Drainage and Leveling: all fields
Scoreboard overhaul
Field 6 and 7 overhaul
Field Dugout overhaul
Electrical to each field
Light timer installation – automatic timer installed to light boxes so that kids can always access the fields
Concession stand makeover
Nate Stacy, the president of Gibbs Youth Sports said he was thankful for Wallen and the foundation’s grant that will allow the park to become one of the premier parks in Knox County. (Wallen had previously donated $35,000 to Gibbs High School for their baseball and music programs, and he also performed a free concert at the school.
