09-09-25 City Council Workshop Packet

Home Browse Search

Maple Grove recently built Gleason and Fernbrook through budget surplus and park dedication funds. The scope and budgets are attached. They partnered with sports associations for an 80-20% (City-Association) split and provided 0% interest loans. Maple Grove claims that the new parks have created an economic benefit for the surrounding area. Both cities acknowledge that the ballfield’s expenses far exceed revenue (roughly 4:1), and both have large parks departments. Sports Associations Baseball/Softball I talked to Tom Edison & Luke Appert of Lake Elmo Baseball and Adam Barta of the Minnesota Blizzard (Travel Baseball) Luke and Adam were on the same call and discussed how they would work together. Both organizations combined have several hundred participants. The Minnesota Blizzard has almost 1000 participants at their 20,000 sq.ft. indoor facility. Their ideal design would include 4-5 fields with two high school/town ball sized fields, lights, and artificial turf. Artificial turf allows for earlier spring play, fewer rainouts, and less seasonal maintenance. The maintenance cost could include the need to hire employees to maintain the fields. The artificial turf allows the fields to be used for both baseball, softball, and potentially other sports. They would prefer one of the larger fields to be a “stadium” and a smaller field would be a “stadium” for softball. LE Baseball’s season is May-July and August-September. Baseball could be played at the site from April-October. They were open to managing the baseball facility in season. We discussed fundraising and pre-paying rental fees for the site. Both organizations have some funding for the project. I talked to two other organizations interested in the softball/baseball complex, Terisa Roemer of Stillwater Fastpitch and John Pohl & Brent Johnson from Hill Murray School. Stillwater Fastpitch has around 100 players in their association. They expressed interest in renting fields. Hill Murray also expressed interest in renting the fields for both softball and baseball if the two stadiums were built. Soccer I talked to Josh Schneider from St. Croix Soccer. They have around 1000 kids in their program. They currently play on 6 grass fields spring – fall. They have a sports bubble in the winter. They would like 4 artificial turf fields with lights. They like the idea of playing at the baseball/flex stadium for pre-professional games. They host one big tournament with 300 games over the weekend and believe more tournaments could be booked at the site. They are open to managing the soccer site. We discussed fundraising and pre- paying rental fees for the site. They have some funding for the project. Facilities Management (Management, Development, Advisory) I talked to J.D. Wood from The Sports Facilities Companies. They were referred by St. Croix Soccer. They provide advice on facility development. This service includes a financial plan with revenue projections based on fields and amenities. The deliverable is a report that would include a financial analysis based on scenarios. It would include revenue projections based on improvements and expenses and long-term maintenance costs. This would include how the sports associations fit into the site in terms of management and cost share. They would assist the City with preparing a referendum and would review employees needed to operate the site. The plan takes around 90-120 days. Possible Layout and Cost Based on initial input, the complex could include 4-5 softball/baseball fields, 4 soccer/multipurpose fields with lights and artificial turf. Other features to support this build-out would be concessions, bathrooms, storage building(s), and parking. The site would need to be graded, and stormwater reuse ponds would need to be included. Maple Grove recently built separate baseball and soccer complexes and each cost over $10 million dollars. The project as discussed would cost between $20-25 million. If the Council considers a referendum, the deadlines are below. Funding Referendum – • August 4, 2026 for the November 3, 2026 election. • August 1, 2028 for the November 7, 2028 election.