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Championship Park Requires New Game Plan To Be Winner

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2007

A Hillsborough County commissioner's proposal two years ago to build a 20,000-seat stadium and athletic complex for $40 million has evolved into a stronger project that would better support amateur sports and regional tourism.

The unrealistic quest for a professional soccer team has been dropped. Gone, too, is the big stadium. The plan has morphed more into a multipurpose park with dozens of softball and soccer fields. Not only might it attract collegiate tournaments, it would also provide a place that a soccer mom or baseball dad could love, with a few modifications.

Correctly sited and conservatively configured, Championship Park could be worth a significant taxpayer investment - though something far less than the $40 million now earmarked from the Community Investment Tax fund.

Wednesday, commissioners are scheduled to take an up-or-down vote on the park's future and its prospects don't look good. Rather than kill the proposal, we would urge commissioners to postpone the decision for six months. In the meantime, they should appoint a panel to find a more central site, closer to Hillsborough restaurants and hotels. The group also should apply a sharp pencil and a skeptical eye to the park's probable costs and benefits. For maximum credibility, a commission member, perhaps Mark Sharpe, should be asked to lead the review.
County Commission Chairman Jim Norman, who conceived of the idea, has pushed enthusiastically for a state-of-the-art venue that would attract paying fans and players from across the country. He predicts the park would be so profitable that it would help fund the county's parks department, which doesn't have enough operating money to mow the grass at the parks it now has.

Norman is right that big capital projects such as parks, roads, and schools are what voters agreed to build when they approved the half-cent sales tax in 1996. The money cannot be used for salaries or operating expenses, only capital projects.

As presently sited, the financial risk of the park is worrisome. When a citizens committee representing the local universities and chamber of commerce reviewed a consultant's feasibility report, they requested the worst-case scenario. They found that if little goes as hoped, the park could be $744,800 short of covering operating expenses in its first year, and lose more than $1 million a year by year five.

The best-case scenario shows the fields busy day and night, kicking out about $1.3 million a year after operating expenses.

Reality is probably somewhere in between, but in any case, it's highly unlikely the park would generate enough money to repay its construction costs, while also paying its operating expenses and funding the county's parks and recreation department. Norman and county budget director Eric Johnson should be more forthcoming on that reality.

Still, the value of Norman's idea is that much more is at stake than the bottom line. Libraries and sidewalks don't make money either, but are well worth the investment.

If Hillsborough wants to grow its tourist base, attracting top-caliber athletes and their families would be a great place to start. Already, the Tampa Sports Commission is attracting more collegiate tournaments to town, and more - possibly the ACC football championship game - are in the works. Properly located and priced, this facility could help the county leverage its reputation and its tourist appeal.

Under no circumstances, however, should this facility be built on the currently proposed site, the Cone Ranch. The county's growth plan says that remote area of northeastern Hillsborough should remain pastureland - and it should. Besides, that site would primarily benefit Pasco County businesses. It would require road improvements, too. It's unrealistic to think families would want to ride shuttle buses from Plant City.

A possible alternative is the county's Sydney-Dover Trails park, east of Valrico on State Road 60. Like the Cone Ranch, the county already owns this land, so there would be no acquisition costs. Perhaps private land should be considered, too, though the price would have to be more than reasonable.

Like the proposal itself, our position on the value of this venue would change if it were located at a better site, cost significantly less than $40 million and paid its operating costs while possibly supporting other county parks and recreation programs.

A tournament-grade park would attract families who would spend money here and visit other attractions, including the zoo, the children's museum and the aquarium.

It would build on the county's growing reputation as a wholesome, year-round site for major sports tournaments.

Norman's idea is worth developing further.

Let's call time out, take a fresh look at the situation with new eyes, and come up with a play more certain to score.

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