Colorado Springs is a sports town ... supposedly.
A disjointed sports town, perhaps.
Investment in the community during a downturn in the economymakes more sense than curling up and letting opportunities pass by.The city's decision to save money by not watering parks and lettingthe grass turn brown is an example of the shortsightedness that isthe Springs. In the long run, ugliness will cost the city itsreputation.
The city of Glendale has invested in Infinity Park and is nowreaping the rewards. Hotels were packed last weekend for the men'srugby championship. I spent time with Glendale City CouncilwomanPatricia Opper and asked her how Glendale was able to build such amulti-use stadium. She said 'new leadership had a vision forGlendale and Infinity Park. They stayed on that vision to make ithappen.'
It is working. The state-of-the-art events center is gettingbusier and getting booked through 2010. I spoke with a young familythat related that they heard about the park on the radio and foundInfinity Park a great, affordable way to spend an afternoon. Nowthey are learning about rugby.
The city of Frisco, Texas, has built a 145-acre sports andentertainment park. Frisco is 25 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worthmetro area. Pizza Hut Park is the anchor and holds 20,500 people fora sporting event and can hold 27,000 for a concert. It is surroundedby 17 soccer fields used by international, professional, high schoolsoccer, high school football, concerts and community events. Thesite is used 300 days a year and brings in 1.2 million peopleannually,
Perhaps a 27,000 seat stadium would be a bit large for theSprings, but we should find a way to build something. MaybeBorriello Brothers or Louie's pizza would pay to put its name on thepark.
And I have changed my mind about a sporting venue downtown. Iwant downtown to have investment and a plethora of activities, butfor sports, it is time to look elsewhere.
Let's go where the land is.
The city already owns 60 acres on north Powers Boulevard, 22acres near Memorial North Hospital and 54 acres next to SecurityService Stadium. North Powers would have easy access to Interstate25, and a park there may lead to sharing sporting events withDenver. If a multi-use sports park were built with fields for gamessuch as lacrosse and rugby, being near the hospital would be a goodthing.
As long as events at the two sites didn't overlap, the SecurityService Stadium parking lot could be used for the stadium at the newpark.
Finding a way to pay for a modern sports and entertainmentfacility is the big hurdle. The community may support somethingspecifically tied to sports. Residents voted yes for the trails andopen space tax. Maybe El Paso County and Colorado Springs residentsbelieve in sports enough to make it happen. The Frisco Sports andEntertainment Park cost $105 million.
The city could donate one of the acreages it owns with a 10-yeartax abatement to a developer. The developer would then come up withthe business plan to make it happen.
Collaboration
Our newsroom is working on a commemorative book, chronicling muchof the past 20 years of the Springs business community. The termcollaboration keeps coming up. Was there more teamwork in yearspast? Perhaps. Now is the time we need to get back to morecollaborative deals to invest in the community infrastructure andbuild something we all can be proud of.
Ironically, as I was reviewing the very first edition, April 1,1989, of the CSBJ the front page story was a pro/con piece on amulti-use arena. Our very own John Hazlehurst was then the spokesmanfor a group called Citizens Using Resources Efficiently or CURE. Heis quoted saying, 'The arena is a frivolous, imagined economicbenefit and besides, this city doesn't like taxes.'
Now on staff, Hazlehurst pointed out he was referring to acompletely publicly funded stadium and agrees now, that a largelyprivately funded stadium would be beneficial to the community.
