YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Business travel is on the wane, the U.S. Travel Association reports; this year, it is expected to reach only 76% of its prepandemic level, and it won’t regain 2019 levels until 2024. Newly Zoom-savvy companies have learned workarounds for conferences and sales meetings, the organization states.
One area of travel that is on the rise, however, is sports tourism, which experienced an 82% bump nationally in 2021, from a pandemic-shuttered 2020, according to the Sports Event & Tourism Association’s 2021 State of the Industry report.
Sports ETA reported $91.8 billion in revenue from sports tourism last year – a figure that doesn’t include travel related to professional sports, but does include travel for amateur sports competition for youth and adult participants.
Further, sports tourism generated 635,000 jobs in 2021, plus $12.9 billion in tax revenue, according to the Sports ETA report.
Families who found themselves forgoing summer vacations due to rising gas prices and economic uncertainty nevertheless were willing to pile into their cars for a child’s soccer or softball tournament.
“We hosted 14 state high school championships last year over the course of 12 weekends,” says Lance Kettering, executive director of the Springfield Sports Commission. “All the kids that come from across the state to compete for a state championship, they’re going to have that memory forever. Springfield will always be top of mind when they look back to their high school athletic career.”
And along with athletes come family members, Kettering says.
“Big brother may be playing in a baseball championship, but little brother or sister may be along for the ride and think, ‘I like Springfield – that was cool!’” he says. “When it’s time to think about colleges and universities, we have five of them in town. It’s pretty interesting how it all works.”
Capitalizing on the craze
Springfield is a hotbed of sports planning. On the city’s west side, at the Betty & Bobby Allison Sports Town, more than $20 million in private investment is joined by $2 million of community infrastructure investment to build 12 outdoor sports fields – four of them all-weather turf – and a 94,000-square-foot indoor facility with four basketball courts that can be converted to eight volleyball courts.
On the east side, the Cooper Tennis Complex features 12 indoor courts and 17 outdoor lighted courts, including a 2,500-seat stadium court.
The Killian Sports Complex offers six softball fields, and the Cooper Park Complex has five baseball fields and 14 soccer fields, including one turf soccer stadium field. The city has pledged $7.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for improvements to these fields, with additional allocations from Greene County and the state for a total of $20.8 million, not counting another $3.5 million in private donations.
In 2021, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board purchased the Fieldhouse Sportscenter for $6 million. That 46,000-square-foot building contains four basketball courts and four volleyball courts.
With these facilities, plus fields and courts at universities and in public schools, Springfield is poised to compete for tournament contracts in multiple sports.
“We are building the opportunity to become a regional, possibly national, sports tourism destination,” says Springfield City Council member Richard Ollis, speaking at a Springfield Business Journal Economic Growth Series event on Sept. 14.
Home court advantages
Springfield is looking at opportunities that it couldn’t have imagined before American Rescue Plan Act funding became available, says Bob Belote, director of the Park Board.
“We have an incredible opportunity to renovate these facilities, and it really has made us think differently about how it all comes together,” he says.
While sports officials think of ways to compete for tournament contracts, Belote says Springfield has some advantages.
“We offer friendliness – true hospitality,” Belote says. “That’s something I’m very proud of that we do exceptionally well here in Springfield. Guests come to town, and we treat them like it’s a big deal, because it is.”
Ozarks hospitality means local people genuinely appreciate athletes and their families being their guests, Belote says.
“We never lose any tournaments based on hospitality or the way people were treated,” he says. “We only lose them based on sports infrastructure issues – not having the latest field infrastructure, turf, things like that.”
Is hospitality enough?
In the city of Republic, Deputy City Administrator Andrew Nelson also can count on Ozarks hospitality, but Republic is banking on much more. On Aug. 2, residents voted to renew two quarter-cent sales tax measures for its Parks & Recreation Department – one for general operations and one for capital improvements.
Republic plans to develop a regional sports complex, to include 10 baseball/softball fields and eight soccer fields, as well as other recreational offerings.
Nelson says construction would begin in late 2024, to be fully constructed by 2026. Plans are in the works to collaborate with the Betty & Bobby Allison Sports Town to host big tourneys.
Nelson is mindful of the fact that Republic will need to serve out-of-town visitors with hotels and restaurants.
“The parks department describes it as 100-team tournaments and multiweekend,” he says. “So, everything that goes with that – the hotels, the restaurants, the retail. We have such a space around that park that’s just open, so I see that filling in.”
Nelson says park development plans have been in the works since 2018, including aligning Missouri Highway MM with the park.
“Timing wise, you got a new highway, a signalized intersection at (U.S. Route) 60; it creates the access you need to get efficiently from James River or (Interstate) 44 to the airport down to the park,” he says.
The expansion of the highway carries a price tag of $12 million.
East of Springfield, in Marshfield, city leaders have been coordinating more than $16 million in highway improvements, including a new interchange for the city,
with the development of Patriot Park, site of the city’s pool, which opened in 2019, and future site of multiple baseball and softball diamonds.
City Administrator Sam Rost says the hope is that over $20 million in improvements will spur economic growth, including nearby multifamily housing.
Marc Baker, parks director, says Patriot Park is being developed through a master plan that will include multiple phases of development over the next 20 years.
“We’ll be able to grow the park with the growth of the city, which is the real neat thing about it,” he says.
Next up is an activity center, but after that will come the planning for the 40 acres of grounds, with nature trails and athletic fields.
“Baseball and softball is a huge business, and there are dozens and dozens of kids right here in Marshfield who play on what I’m going to refer to as club teams,” Baker says. “They’re always looking for places to compete in tournaments over the weekend.”
Baker says Marshfield already collaborates with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, the Springfield Sports Commission and nearby cities.
“The parks and rec world is one of vast collaboration,” he says.
Executive Editor Christine Temple contributed to this report.
Missouri State University’s science building, built in 1971 and formerly called Temple Hall, is being reconstructed and updated.
