Sports USA has plenty of friends
The Spokane Public Facilities District has been inundated with calls and e-mails asking the agency to save the financially-troubled Sports USA facility, which closed in December.
“It really has become, in a sense, an Arena for the Valley,” Eric Sawyer of Spokane Regional Sports Commission told the PFD board on Tuesday.
The 10-court sports complex, off Barker Road in Spokane County, serves dozens of local basketball and volleyball teams and plays a key role in hosting regional volleyball tournaments.
On Tuesday, the PFD board opened the door to getting involved, but cautioned that there’s no open wallet to solve the complex’s financial ills.
“We’re not the white horse, but we can be a partner,” PFD board member Larry Soehren said.
A partnership could enable the PFD to operate the facility, but board members agreed that acquiring Sports USA may exceed the district’s scope.
Board member Sandy McCauley didn’t foresee acquiring any facility without holding a public vote.
“We have a track record of going to the people,” McCauley said.
While groups made the case for the PFD stepping in, the board lacked basic information, including the debt load of the facility, its economic impact and what it would take to operate it.
Kevin Twohig, executive director of the PFD, said the state could possibly provide some funding, but thought other entities were better suited for a lead role. Sports USA is in an area that Liberty Lake proposes to annex, and that city’s mayor, Steve Peterson, wrote a letter stating the complex’s value to the local economy.
The complex is key to hosting the Pacific Northwest Volleyball Qualifier, said Russ Poage of USA Volleyball Evergreen Region. The regional tournament attracts about 200 junior girls’ volleyball teams, who come from throughout the region bringing parents, coaches and about $2 million in tourism dollars.
Poage said the facility is crucial in a bid to host a national volleyball tournament in 2007. Games would be scheduled at the Spokane Convention Center, Eastern Washington University and at Sports USA, Poage said.
Because teams usually play multiple games in a day, stretching the games between a group of smaller facilities presents challenges. The Warehouse, a Spokane facility with indoor courts, has fewer courts and no place for teams to hang out between games, Poage said.
Sawyer said interest in club sports, which are outside of school athletics, has increased. Groups lease space after hours in school gyms, which are at critical mass. While facilities serving youth (and adult) sports teams are invaluable, Sawyer said they struggle as for-profit businesses because of the debt load.
Soehren suggested another way of dealing with the larger youth sport facilities’ problem. “If we believe in a community shouldn’t we really be talking about (forming) a youth sports authority.”