Inside Games Along With Golf Range, Sports Dome Offers Indoor Soccer That Has An Outdoor Feeling

Big green letters on its facade announce that Fore Seasons Sports Dome is primarily for golf.

The distinctive white fabric building, which sits next to Interstate 90 near the Broadway interchange, is also home to indoor soccer.

Registrations are being taken by owners Doug and Toni Lydig for fall and winter leagues.

Fore Seasons soccer is attractive to players who prefer a different style of indoor game than that of the Spokane Youth Sports indoor facility on the South Hill.

“There are two different attitudes out there,” said Fore Seasons soccer player John Griffiths, “players who want walls they can knock the ball off just like you see on Prime Sports and another attitude where players like an outdoor feeling. It’s just a different game.”

Griffiths played soccer at Central Valley High School and Community Colleges of Spokane and is involved with the Spokane Valley Adult Coed Soccer League.

He plays at Fore Seasons two nights a week and said, “I’ve really enjoyed it in the sense that it’s more like the outdoor game.”

Fore Seasons Sports Dome is a 36,000-square foot building with a 65-foot ceiling and polypropylene sand-filled athletic turf.

“It’s extremely forgiving,” said Doug Lydig, “but not slick enough where you can’t plant your feet. Players love it.”

The surface is big enough for three soccer fields for both adults and juniors comparable to the five-a-side fields at Spokane Falls Community College. The largest is 100 by 150 feet.

Leagues include seven-a-side teams for ages U-7 through U-10, and six-a-side for U-11 through U-15 and ages U-16 through adult.

Registration will be first-come, first-served and Lydig doesn’t think it will detract from the Spokane Youth Sports facility.

“I feel there is more soccer out there than can be handled,” he said.

Fore Seasons Sports Dome is a unique structure. The dome is made of 21,000 pounds of heavy-duty fabric inflated by an air pump system. It opened Jan. 4 of this year.

“It was less expensive to build but is more expensive to operate,” said Lydig. “You couldn’t build a rigid-framed structure like this that was affordable.”

Fore Seasons has 34 golf hitting stations for year-around play, 18 at floor level and 16 on an elevated platform. Golfers use regulation golf balls and hit into a blue-pillowed wall 65 yards away.

There is a self-service video swing analyzer and retail golf shop in the abutting block building that serves as the office.

“Everybody’s game suffers when they can’t keep their swing up,” said Lydig of the advantage of his year-around training facility.

There is, however, plenty of room for other sports. So far high school softball and baseball teams have practiced there. Fore Seasons has been the site of trade shows and group functions.

The soccer leagues, and maybe even flag football and softball, are a logical extension.

“It was built to be a driving range,” Lydig said. “But it is a multi-use facility that is open to a lot of options. There is a room to accommodate other things. We will do so until it is full.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo