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Sports facility decision on the way

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BY KEVIN WIATROWSKI

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE

Published: November 10, 2009

Updated:

In less than a month, Pasco County commissioners will learn where a California company wants to put an $11 million county-financed sports complex.

In the meantime, county residents were getting two chances this week to question the company, Sportsplex USA, and the county about their plans.

A public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, in New Port Richey. A meeting was held Tuesday night at the Pasco County Courthouse, in downtown Dade City.

The county hired San Diego-based Sportsplex in August to develop a multisport park somewhere in the county. Company officials will announce Dec. 5 the location they think will be best for the venue.

Developers have offered several sites to choose from. The list includes Starkey Ranch in Odessa, Pasco Town Centre in San Antonio and New River Township in Wesley Chapel. All three sites have large tracts of vacant land that have fallen victim to the economic slowdown.

Sportsplex officials have said they'll consider sites based in part on their access to major roadways and the proximity to hotels where players and their families could say.

Hotels are crucial not just to the success of the Sportsplex venture, they also lie at the heart of the county's overall tourism effort, which focuses on bringing overnight visitors to Pasco.

Those "heads in beds," as county officials refer to them, generate the hotel taxes that will continue to finance tourism-related construction projects and out-of-county event advertising.

The 18-year-old hotel tax is bankrolling the sports complex in the wake of the collapse last summer of the county's effort to build a national tennis center with Saddlebrook Resort.

County commissioners say they'll expect Sportsplex officials to track the number of hotel stays their activities generate. Company officials have told commissioners they don't do that at their facilities in California and South Carolina, but are willing to try.

Company officials rebuffed County Commission Chairman Jack Mariano's request to see their entire 15-year financial history, but they did open their books related to their facility developed with the city of Poway, Calif.

None of that satisfied Mariano's doubts.

"When someone doesn't give me all the facts, I get suspicious," Mariano said last week. "This may not be important to them, but we're spending millions of dollars."

Mariano voted with the four other commissioners to hire Sportsplex. At the time, he pushed hard for the company to consider building their facility in at the county's Engel Park in Hudson. The park is in his district.

Mariano said he has reservations about letting Sportsplex take income from the joint facility back to California. The deal with Pasco would give the county a percentage of the facility's gross receipts. Sportsplex would keep the profit.

"This is something I've looked at closer and thought more about," Mariano said.

Those second thoughts were reinforced by a recent conversation with the head of the Florida Sports Foundation, Mariano said.

Mariano said last week that he believes volunteers could do as good a job running a county-built sports complex as the California company.

Mariano's doubts have provoked a strong reaction from Commissioner Michael Cox, a Sportsplex supporter. Cox visited Sportsplex's 15-year-old Poway venue last month and returned convinced the company will serve Pasco well.

Cox sees Mariano's doubts about Sportsplex as part of his earlier attempt to bring the facility to Hudson.

"I think Jack wants to do everything he can do to get the complex in Hudson. That's all he cares about," Cox said. "I don't think there's anyone who's paying attention to this who thinks Hudson can support Sportsplex except Jack."

Mariano said he has given up on bringing Sportsplex to Hudson, adding that he never tried to get it there in the first place.

"My people cannot afford the rates they're going to charge," Mariano said. "They can't afford Sportsplex coming in there."

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