Churches may buy sports complex
Spokane Valley ministers are rallying to create a safe place where kids can play sports and participate in after-school programs.
The Rev. Ian Robertson, senior pastor of Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene, is leading the effort to buy the former Sports USA facility in Liberty Lake and turn it into a community sports center. Robertson said he expects to finalize a purchase agreement for about $4 million today.
The agreement gives the group four months to raise the money. An unnamed donor has pledged $1 million toward the facility’s operating costs, Robertson said.
“It’s for the whole community,” Robertson said of the facility, which would be renamed ValleyHUB.
The deal would reopen the 67,000-square-foot Sports USA building, which has five basketball courts that convert to 10 volleyball courts. The complex closed in December 2006 because of financial problems.
Robertson, president of the Spokane Valley Ministerial Association, a consortium of leaders of various denominations, said Spokane Valley United Methodist, Opportunity Presbyterian and Opportunity Christian Fellowship churches have a pledged their support.
“We’ve been talking for some time about this. We’ve got 20 or 30 churches who are going to be supportive in one way or another,” Robertson said.
Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene plans to use the facility to host some of its Upward Basketball teams. Last season, the church’s faith-based program had more than 1,050 players.
But the facility would also be available to host regional tournaments and teams playing for AAU and other club programs.
“We’ve talked with the Chamber of Commerce and they’re excited about bringing tournaments in,” Robertson said.
He said he has also talked with a representative of the city’s parks and recreation department about hosting programs there.
The reopening would give sports promoters another tool for attracting events.
“We’ve already got a handful of events we’re kind of hanging out there while looking at Sports USA,” said Eric Sawyer of the Spokane Regional Sports Commission.
Sawyer said the facility could play a key role in the growth of the Pacific Northwest Qualifier, a volleyball event that accommodates 280 teams but could grow to 400 if more playing space were available.
Sports USA was the brainchild of Kert Carlson, who gathered more than two dozen investors to help fund the complex, which was built from the ground up and opened in early 2004.
Carlson and Associates LLC contributed about $2.5 million for flooring, nets and other improvements and in short-term loans to keep the facility afloat, Natalie Carlson, an investor and Kert Carlson’s mother, has said previously.
Tim Welsh, of Garco Construction, built and owned the building, which was leased and operated by Sports USA, a nonprofit formed by Carlson.
Carlson and Associates LLC filed for bankruptcy protection when monthly costs averaged $68,000 and the income wasn’t enough to pay bills, Kert Carlson said in a previous interview.
The building, once valued at about $3.7 million without the improvements, was never part of the bankruptcy. Sports USA has been vacant for more than a year as a number of municipalities and private parties looked at ways to purchase and operate the court complex.
Robertson, 69, is retiring from his senior pastor position to lead the fundraising effort. Fellow pastors Max Spalding and Steve Wilson, a former NFL player, also will help raise money.
The group is kicking off its fundraising campaign Sunday. With April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month and all the publicity generated recently on that issue by local media, Robertson said the time is right to move toward something positive for kids.