YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Visitors to the Ozark Empire Fair, running through Aug. 5, are bound to notice the towering Wilson Logistics Arena and Youth Ag Facility rising in the southeast corner of the fairgrounds.
The $25 million arena nearing completion on the site will be home to Springfield’s new arena football team, the Ozark Lunkers, which will begin play in 2024. But football is just one of many events slated for the facility. Concerts, trade shows, livestock shows and indoor athletic competitions begin to round out the list.
Kent Hyde, a member and past president of the board of directors of the Greene County Agricultural and Mechanical Society – more commonly called the Ozark Empire Fair board – told Springfield City Council on July 24 the facility is expected to be finished in September.
“It is about 70% complete. Thank God it’s about 70% paid for as we go,” Hyde said. “There are many events already booked for 2024. It’s actually going quite well for a project of that size.”
Hyde addressed City Council to present them with the master plan, which includes the arena. Submission of the master plan document is required as a condition of fair board’s lease agreement with the city for the 72-acre Ozark Empire Fairgrounds and Event Center, according to City Attorney Rhonda Lewsader. She noted the city has leased the fairgrounds to the county Agricultural and Mechanical Society since the 1930s. Council unanimously approved the plan.
Hyde told council the arena is expected to seat 6,700 people.
“The main facility is 100,000 square feet, and with the annex on the north side, it’s 120,000 square feet. So, it is several times the size of the old arena, which we took down,” he said.
That facility, the Corwin Auto Arena, had an estimated economic impact of $40 million per year, according to Hyde, but the bigger Wilson Logistics Arena is expected to have a much larger one.
Mark Hecquet, president and CEO of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc., said in an interview that the arena will be versatile.
“It literally is a big open space that can be pretty much used for everything,” Hecquet said.
He added that organizations representing sports as diverse as wrestling and BMX biking are close to signing on the dotted line for events at the arena.
Events the fair has always hosted will grow in the larger space, Hecquet said, adding the facility offers a venue size Springfield doesn’t currently offer – smaller than Great Southern Bank Arena, with a capacity of 11,000, but larger than most other venues, like the Gillioz Theatre, which seats up to 1,300, or the Shrine Mosque auditorium, which can accommodate up to 3,000.
“There are opportunities for concerts and other festivals that will get larger and have much more regional and national appeal,” Hecquet said.
The former arena seated 2,200, according to past reporting. Aaron Owen, president and CEO of the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds and Event Center, told Springfield Business Journal the facility will likely draw a broader audience.
“We had been doing more regional-type events, but now we can get into more national-type events – arena football, horse shows, whatever it may be,” he said.
The arena has a concrete floor that can be converted to a dirt floor. Hyde noted the dirt floor would be used for rodeos, livestock auctions, monster truck rallies, motocross, go-kart racing, barrel racing and tractor pulls.
The concrete floor would be used for volleyball, roller derby, cheer competitions, archery, indoor festivals, circuses, dog shows and auctions. Its largest projected revenue generator would be for trade shows, according to the presentation to council.
It is being completed with a combination of private and public funding, including a $5 million appropriation from the state of Missouri. Additionally, the fair board received American Rescue Plan Act funds from the city of Springfield in the amount of $250,000 and from Greene County, $5 million, though these funds were not specifically earmarked for the arena.
Over-the-road trucking company Wilson Logistics Inc. secured naming rights for the arena in April 2022, according to past reporting. Owen declined to disclose the price tag for the 20-year deal.
Campsites
The addition of 400 campsites is another part of the master plan for the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds and Event Center that was approved by City Council.
“Believe it or not, there’s room out there to do that if we utilize our space correctly, and we intend to do that,” said Hyde.
Owen said the additional planned campsites would bring the total to about 500, to include electrical hookups. By comparison, the state fairgrounds in Sedalia has a couple thousand hookups, but locally, a few places offer no more than 40 or 50, he said.
“All this takes money,” he said. “We’ve estimated about $3 million.”
Hyde said many people who participate in events at the fairgrounds prefer to stay on the premises.
“They bring large horse trailers and campers; they stay on the grounds,” he said. “That’s what they want to do. That’s the way it’s set up, and we’ll continue to improve that.”
Thirty-year plan
The 2023 master plan the board submitted to council is a 30-year plan, yet many items on the list are in the works now or already completed. Though organized in phases, the plan document notes that items may not be completed in order.
Phase I on the list can already be marked as done. That project was a 45,000-square-foot multipurpose building completed in 2020. That building houses livestock during the fair but has portable stalls that can be removed to allow other events, according to past SBJ reporting.
Phase II is the arena project.
Phase III would be the replacement of Barn 2, a project that is expected to be completed this fall. The plan document notes the building will meet stalling requirements and winter storage needs at a cost of $450,000.
Owen said the fair board had hoped to complete the barn before the 2023 fair.
“Hopefully, that’s done here in the next four to six weeks,” he said. “But we’re in Springfield. Nothing’s fast here.”
Owen, who came to his present role from one at a coast-to-coast construction company, said approval of construction documents can be slow going.
“This is probably one of the more difficult cities I’ve ever worked in,” he said. “It’s not an easy town to get construction done in, to say the least. It’s a bureaucracy-type thing.”
Phase IV is the campground. Phase V calls for an existing guest services building to be remodeled for use as an office complex, event venue or restaurant, according to the plan, which states, “This is a 70-year-old building that has a lot of character.”
Phase VI is a facelift for the concessions area. It includes expansion of the smokehouse on the fairgrounds, and over the next five years, the concessions area will be resurfaced, the plan states. A cost is not specified.
Phase VII calls for a new building on the west side of the fairgrounds, though the type of building, its purpose and the cost of construction are not specified.
The final phase, Phase VIII, will put a new fence and upgraded gates around the perimeter of the fairgrounds.
“In today’s world, fencing with a nice fence, 72 acres is kind of a big endeavor,” Hyde said.
Owen said replacing fencing and gates for the whole perimeter of the fairgrounds would be close to $2 million. A new fence only on Norton Road in the front of the fairgrounds was recently estimated at $320,000.
There’s always something happening on the fairgrounds, Owen said.
“I tell everyone we’re a fair 10 days out of the year, but we’re trying to make it look like an event center – not just a fairground,” he said.
Moseley’s Discount Office Products was purchased; Side Chick opened in Branson; and the Springfield franchise store of NoBaked Cookie Dough changed ownership.
