By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County is not overly saturated with places for people to play sports, according to a top executive of the consulting firm determining if a multi-sports complex for the area makes economic sense.
“So far, what we know is that we don’t think that there are very many truly saturated assets in this market, that there’s still room for new facilities to service the growth and the current events that are happening,” said Evan Eleff, chief operating officer for Clearwater, Florida-based Sports Facilities Advisory.
However, Eleff said there are bigger questions to be answered such as the cost of developing and operating the venue.
Eleff said he’s also studying potential sites.
“What we’ve seen is lots of really good infrastructure, really good access points to several different parts of the town, a good spread of hotels and restaurants and the other things that will be important to people who come here and visit,” Eleff said.
He said the report, to be completed this summer, can be used as a marketing tool to attract private investment, which local leaders say would be necesssary because of the cost.
Bloomington and Normal governments and the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau are sharing the $47,000 cost of the study.
Eleff said his firm determines potential projects as not feasible about 30 percent of the time.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at howard.packowitz@cumulus.com.
