Sports World Construction Underway

Three years in the planning, Sports World at last is becoming reality.

Mammoth earth movers are turning dirt at the site for the lighted four-field softball complex, restaurant and indoor recreational facility near Liberty Lake.

Target date for softball is April of 1998. Did Valley building contractor Rob Lewis think this day would finally come?

“No,” said Lewis, while overseeing the leveling of his 32-acre site just north of the Interstate 90 Liberty Lake interchange. “This is about two years and nine months late. It still hasn’t hit me yet.”

Sports World is the brainchild of Lewis, owner of Spokane Structures and a softball aficionado.

He announced plans for the $2.5 million sports complex in July of 1994 with promises of beginning play as early as 1996.

Delays, while he wooed and lost potential investors and participants, pushed the target date back, first to 1997 and eventually to next spring.

“The biggest problem was timing. Interested people didn’t believe in it any more,” said Lewis, who couldn’t get zoning, leasing and financing approval quickly enough. “I never lost faith. I was frustrated a lot, but never lost faith.”

With partnerships and funding in place, construction is under way on Lewis’s long-held dream of a family oriented softball facility.

“It’s definitely a go now,” said Dan Baker, who joined Lewis to help oversee the project.

Baker is a softball player and friend of Lewis. He has been a manager and controller at Savage House Pizza.

The reason for the complex remains the same, he said: to provide quality softball fields in the Valley for an increasing number of players.

“There’s a demand for it,” said Baker. “Everything will be centralized in a nice atmosphere which will attract teams.”

The fields of topsoil, clay and red sand will fan out from a concession stand and press box with electronic scoreboards for each. Fences will be at a tournament-sanctioned distance of 300 feet.

The Home Plate Bar and Grill, scheduled to open in September, is an upscale restaurant for the community as well as for softball players, said Lewis, and will be within walking distance of the fields.

Lewis said that he needs 180 teams at $650 per team to make it viable. Plans call for an 80-team spring softball league in April and a 100-team summer league in July.

The first phase of the project is the construction of the softball fields, restaurant and a retail pad for professional offices.

Landscaping is to include a playground for youngsters.

“The main draw for us will be the facility itself and the atmosphere,” said Baker.

Lewis said the earth movers would be done by mid-week. A well and sprinkler system will be installed thereafter and the fields hydro-seeded in Mid-July.

The second phase of his project calls for a 45,000-square foot multi-use indoor facility. It will be built later.

The plan has been altered a bit from its previous concept which included outdoor soccer fields, and a health and fitness center.

“I would have liked to see soccer work out here,” said Lewis. “This is for families and that would have been 200 to 300 more kids.”

The fitness center is now an independent project.

Lewis, who founded Spokane Structures, a 13-year-old multimillion dollar construction company, is the principal owner of the facility.

“All along we said we wanted to do something for the community and give kids a place to play,” he said. “Like any other business we’ll run it to make money and provide quality service.”

If it plays out as he envisions it, Lewis will be able to sell his contracting business and spend more time with softball and his second love, fishing.

“It’s finally a dream come true,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo