SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) -The director of Springfield's Convention and Visitors Bureau, Scott Dahl, said a topic that's been talked about for decades in the city of Springfield may now finally come to fruition.
"Springfield has been talking about a sports complex for nearly 20 years," Dahl said.
Last year, Mayor Jim Langfelder said the city learned it could support a major sports complex.
"We did a phase one with our Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that was just a study of what Springfield and the surrounding area would be able to support in regard to a sports complex," Langfelder said.
The next step, the mayor said, was to find developers to take on the project.
"Phase two would be up to a developer to come forward," Langfelder said. "That's what Legacy Pointe did. They did a phase two study and brought that forward to give an update to city council."
According to Dahl, Legacy Pointe is perfect for the project.
"This project at Legacy Pointe, with an anchor like Scheels, one of the largest sports retailers in the country (and) allows this project to move forward," Dahl said.
The complex would be a multi-use facility for both indoor and outdoor sports.
"We're talking about baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, cheer, karate, you name it," Dahl said. "It's multi-use, so there will be 53,000 square feet of floor space indoors that we can convert into convention use."
According to Dahl, developers have said the facility is estimated to cost around $65 million to build.
"We're looking at performance-based, site-specific funding when we're talking about taxes," Dahl said. "We're also talking about visitor funding, so the visitors would come in and either through hotel, motel or some type of fee, help pay for the sports complex."
Should the project move forward, city leaders believe the complex is expected to greatly improve the city's economy.
"It's about a $25 million annual impact to the city of Springfield," Dahl said.
