The area’s most financially significant youth and amateur sporting events from 2011:
Event
Site
Economic impact
Air Force Marathon
Wright State, WPAFB
$12.7M
adidas Warrior Soccer Classic
Beavercreek, Dayton, Vandalia
$8.3M
Mead CUSA Cup (soccer)
Beavercreek, Centerville, Dayton
$8.3M
Cincinnati United Cup (soccer)
Cleves, Lebanon, Cincinnati
$4.9M
First Four, NCAA basketball tournament
UD Arena
$4M
Troy Strawberry Festival Soccer Invitational
Tipp City, Troy
$3M
Middletown Spring Blast (soccer)
Franklin, Middletown
$3M
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Developer Randy Gunlock called for a regional campaign to raise as much as $35 million in private funds for a year-round regional youth sports complex.
Gunlock said he would be a major funder of the proposed youth sports complex, but that others would be needed to pull it off.
“I’m continuously talking about this. I think it’s important. Whether there’s going to be enough support in the community, I don’t know,” he said in a phone interview Thursday night.
Gunlock’s family company, RG Properties, is the developer of Austin Landing, the $150 million, 142-acre development near the Montgomery-Warren County line. RG Properties has developed more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate in four states.
Gunlock said development of such a facility is essential to keeping families in the Miami Valley and drawing families to regional or national events in the Dayton-Cincinnati area.
He declined to comment on how much he would donate to the project or where it should be located, other than to say the complex should be built somewhere along the corridor between Cincinnati and Dayton. “The reality is … these communities are growing together. Have been 50 years. Will continue to,” he said.
Already, youth and amateur sports tourism are credited with bringing more than $100 million a year to the area — just a fraction of $5 billion to $7 billion in national revenues traced to yearly business activities springing from youth and amateur sports tourism.
Although a youth hockey supporter, Gunlock said the facility should offer facilities for soccer and lacrosse. He noted plans in West Carrollton and Miami Twp. involving youth sports facilities.
Plans for youth sports complexes, so far focused on outdoor facilities, already are unfolding 11 miles apart in Warren and Butler counties, both so far to be funded by taxpayer dollars.
*The MetroParks of Butler County is expected to break ground this summer on expansion at the 435-acre Voice of America Park just east of Interstate 75, including 26 soccer fields, five baseball fields and five softball fields, according to Mark Hecquet of the Butler County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The levy-funded MetroParks organization is moving forward with plans as private fundraising begins, Hecquet said. The plan could fit Gunlock’s description, Hecquet said.
“Butler County is between Cincinnati and Dayton,” he said.
• In Warren County, plans for a $7 million regional youth sports facility on 77 acres on Ohio 741, between Interstate 75 and Interstate 71, stalled when Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal failed to include a provision allowing an additional hotel tax levy, according to Phil Smith, of the Warren County Visitors and Convention Bureau.
“We have been looking at developing a sports complex in Warren County for a very long time,” Smith said.
While declining to comment on Gunlock’s proposal, Smith said, “We’ll talk to anybody about anything that will help this county.”
• In Montgomery County, West Carrollton plans include a 4,000-seat arena-event center and a 3,000-seat soccer stadium within a proposed 600-acre community entertainment district. The Dutch Lions, a Holland-based soccer club with youth and professional teams, already plan to build outdoor fields through a partnership with the West Carrollton school district.
In recent years, Gunlock and Miami Twp. officials have explored building a youth complex for hockey, lacrosse and soccer, just east of Austin Landing, on land owned by the township north of the Dayton Wright Brothers Airport.
For the complex to become a reality, Gunlock expressed hope that support would come from other companies and wealthy individuals, rather than taxpayers or public funding.
“The private sector has to step up if it’s going to happen,” he said.
Known for developing Walmart stores, RG, located in offices at Austin Landing, has developed 10 million square feet of commercial real estate in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky.
The Gunlock family is a generous donor at Miami University. Gunlock, who lives in Clearcreek Twp., Warren County, also said his desire to build the regional youth sports complex comes from wanting to give back to the community.
“We would like to build here. That’s what it’s all about,” he said.
The Montgomery County Commission welcomed Gunlock’s call for corporate and individual donations toward a regional youth sports complex.
“We realize the importance these events bring to our area in regards to quality of life and economic impact. We are pleased that the private sector is taking the leadership in this particular area,” Commissioner Judy Dodge said in an email.
Gunlock said companies intent on hiring top employees need to support such initiatives in today’s economy.
“We have to have employees here in order to have employers here. The argument is which comes first,” he said.
While estimating costs could climb to $35 million for an optimal facility, Gunlock said regional leaders need to agree on a place to start.
“Maybe we start out with a smaller facility,” he said, calling for a local study. “We need to put our heads together.”
The youth and amateur sports travel industry is booming, according to Don Schumacher, executive director of the National Association of Sports Commissions. Schumacher encouraged Gunlock to commission a feasibility study and to consider the possibility of incorporating public funds into the project to make it a reality.
Gunlock could not be reached about the Butler and Warren county efforts but expressed confidence in the Dayton area.
“We have a wonderful, giving community,” he said. “We’ve done amazing things here all through history. We’ll do it again.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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