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Multi-sport future for Sportsplex gleams in organizers' eyes

By Deirdre Fernandes, The Virginian-Pilot - July 13, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH
The Virginia Beach Sportsplex has been a stadium looking for a niche.

It was soccer until the stadium's main tenant, the minor league Virginia Beach Mariners, disbanded last year.

Now a group that includes a local restaurateur and the head of a local professional women's soccer team believes it has the answer. Target high school and amateur rugby, soccer, football and lacrosse teams and turn the Sportsplex into a year-round facility.

Princess Anne Athletic Development LLC wants to install a dome over the stadium field, build athletic shops nearby and replace the grass with artificial turf.

Some Virginia Beach officials and council members like the idea and are eager to turn management of the flagging 6,000-seat facility over to a private venture.

City officials are negotiating with the group to manage the Sportsplex and the nearby United States Field Hockey Training Center, and to build an indoor sports facility and shops.

"We're tremendously excited about the potential," said Cindy Curtis, director of Virginia Beach's Parks and Recreation department.

The Princess Anne partnership includes Chuck Thornton, an owner of local Hometown Heroes Sports Pubs; John Wack, manager of the Fredericksburg Field House; and Marcie Laumann, president of the Piranhas, a professional women's soccer squad.

A forced-air dome and the artificial turf would allow the group to expand the Sportsplex's season beyond eight months of the year, said Brian Kirwin, a spokesman for Princess Anne Athletic.

The turf would accommodate the Washington Redskins, if the team ever decides to move its summer training camp to Virginia Beach, Kirwin said. Such a move was discussed in January.

The small, sports-related retail area near the Sportsplex is key to the organization's business plan.

It gives spectators and family members of the players an additional activity and helps the group make a profit on the whole enterprise, Kirwin said.

"That's what makes today's athletic venues profitable," Kirwin said. "It's not a place to just go and watch a game. There have to be other streams of revenue."

The city has struggled to make the $10.6 million venue profitable since it opened in 1998.

The Sportsplex was pitched as a stadium that would eventually be home to a Major League Soccer team. But it had only the minor league Mariners, who occasionally had trouble paying the rent.

The city set aside nearly $440,000 to operate the Sportsplex last fiscal year. Revenue over the years has been meager and usually less than $100,000.

"There are several elements of the deal that I like," said Councilman Jim Wood. "Them assuming management of the Sportsplex and the cost associated with that. That's money not coming out of our budget."

This idea may be the right answer, but Councilwoman Barbara Henley said she is concerned that there hasn't been enough public involvement in Sportsplex plans.

The Beach is receiving plenty of proposals for the city-owned land around the Sportsplex, and officials and citizens need to have more discussion about the future of that property, Henley said.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved a baseball training facility backed by local Major League Baseball players. Some on the city's Parks and Recreation Commission want the council to consider a 5K bike loop in the area. Now Princess Anne Athletic wants to not only manage the Sportsplex and field hockey fields but also lease about 100 acres for the indoor complex and stores.

"I think we've got a lot on our plate and we need to sort it out," Henley said.

A final deal with Princess Anne Athletic is months away and the council will need to approve it, Curtis said.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com