How Jonesboro is Winning Big with Sports Tourism
After years of traveling long distances for major athletic tournaments, Jonesboro residents will soon have a premium venue in their own backyard. The existing recreation venues in Northeast Arkansas are unable to host large, indoor multi-day sports tournaments for youth and other amateur teams. As a result, the growing population of Jonesboro often finds itself traveling an average of four or more hours just to access these sporting events.
The Jonesboro A&P Commission has met this challenge head-on with the realization of the First Community Bank Sportsplex. Stakeholders and city officials recognized that a local sports and multi-use facility was not only a convenience but a necessity. Hosting events on a regional stage (and not losing them to Memphis or other areas of the state) results in additional revenue for local businesses and increased sales tax generation for the City. Community leaders set out to design a venue that could hold its own regionally, attracting teams from surrounding states and hosting competitions typically held outside the area.
The Sportsplex was designed by Crafton Tull’s architecture team in collaboration with Grace Design Studios, Counsilman-Hunsaker and other key consultants, placing strong emphasis on program flexibility and adaptability. Nabholz is the construction manager. With community input considered, amenities evolved to include a 50-meter competition pool, competition diving boards and a separate indoor warmup/leisure pool along with outdoor aquatics including a lazy river and slides with dynamic sprayground features.
Indoor court areas for recreational and tournament use can be configured as 12 basketball courts, 24 volleyball courts or 36 pickleball courts. Key to the facility’s success will be expanded dining options, providing varied offerings throughout tournaments. Using further feedback from focus groups, event center and retail components were incorporated to support various events. In addition to travel tournaments, the Sportsplex will provide a world class venue for high school swim and dive competitions.
Craig Rickert, the Jonesboro A&P Commission’s executive director, highlighted that the facility has been a work in progress for several years and will provide high-demand amenities.
“Jonesboro has a young population with tremendous participation in youth sports,” Rickert said. “Couple that with the rise in travel sports and roughly 90 million people within a day’s drive of Jonesboro and you have a great starting point for a facility like the First Community Bank Sportsplex. The Jonesboro A&P Commission recognized this and worked with the City of Jonesboro to pass a 2% prepared food tax to fund the project. With that funding in place and forward-thinking leadership from both elected officials and citizen volunteers, everything started to fall into place.”
In terms of sports tourism, site selection is key and this facility is conveniently located near amenities for visitors. Sports tourism is typically measured through spending at hotels, restaurants, retail and local entertainment attractions and the Sportsplex was located along I-555 with this in mind, as nearly 40,000 people drive past the site daily.
“The First Community Bank Sportsplex’s impact will be substantial. From the economic impact of an estimated 50,000 additional hotel room nights annually to the addition of a first-class facility for local sports and event planning, the project will touch so many lives in Jonesboro and beyond,” Rickert said.
When designing a multi-use recreation facility like the Sportsplex, it is crucial to gather resident and stakeholder feedback to craft a solution that is not only financially feasible but also enjoyed by people of varied age groups and interests.
Crafton Tull architects and Grace Design Studios incorporated information from numerous public input meetings, posed challenging questions and conveyed invaluable insights from Jonesboro citizens and key facility personnel.
According to the feasibility study conducted by Victus Advisors, the project is estimated to generate $42.8 million in combined annual economic output, spurring significant economic and fiscal impact for the Jonesboro economy annually and over 30 years.
“We expect the Sportsplex to have an impact for generations,” Rickert said. “We had one chance to build it and we had to do it right. The effort and detail that are going into making this project functional, beautiful and strong are a credit to everyone who had a hand in its design and construction. I can imagine people in the future telling their children, ‘I used to play ball in that place.’”
