Jefferson Parish, Louisiana is set to join the competition for hosting youth sports tournaments with its plans to construct a new outdoor recreation complex worth over $20.6 million. The project will be situated between Avondale and Marrero on Nicolle Boulevard and is expected to feature three multi-sport fields with artificial turf, a concessions building, paved parking, restrooms, fencing, and bleachers.
The John Alario Jr. Sports Complex, named after the retired Louisiana legislator who secured state funding for the project, is primarily aimed at tourism, intended to host youth baseball, softball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and rugby tournaments over long weekends for out-of-town teams and their families. John Alario said, “So these people come to your community, they rent your hotel rooms, they go to your restaurants and maybe play golf and go on swamp tours. It’s sports economics.”
The U.S. youth sports industry generates a significant amount of revenue, with families spending around $30 billion to $40 billion annually on their children's sports activities, according to Aspen Institute estimates. The trend is fueling an arms race among states and municipalities to attract visitors and their money. Westfield, Indiana's 400-acre Grand Park Sports Campus, for example, offers 26 baseball and softball diamonds and 31 fields for soccer, football, and lacrosse. Other locations with national profiles include Orlando and Panama City, Florida; Branson, Missouri; Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; and Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Louisiana has several smaller-scale sites for regional youth tournaments, including those in Baton Rouge, Youngsville, Hammond, Pelican Park, Coquille Park, and the former Six Flags amusement park site in New Orleans East. Louisiana State Baseball Director for the United States Specialty Sports Association Joey Odom, who owns two tournament companies, said that tournament organizers typically prefer artificial turf, low fees, security, a single point of access, and a pool of local umpires. But one of the most important factors is nearby attractions for families.
In that regard, the John Alario Jr. Sports Complex is in a prime location. The site is adjacent to the Tournament Players Club Louisiana golf course, across the street from the Nola Motorsports racetrack park, less than five miles from Bayou Segnette State Park on the east, stables that rent horses for trail riding on the north, and a club-operated airfield to fly remote-controlled planes on the west. Renowned fishing charters are 20 miles to the south. Across the Mississippi River is New Orleans, and Gulf Coast beaches are a couple of hours away.
The Alario Sports Complex has been in development for nearly a decade, including feasibility studies, market analyses, design, alterations, land acquisition, adding fill dirt, and waiting for it to settle. John Alario wrote the legislation to fund it with state capital outlay money and ensure that the development would be administered by the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, known as the Superdome Commission. Doing it that way spread the burden on taxpayers throughout Louisiana, whereas requiring a 25% local match would have pinched Jefferson Parish and Alario’s Westwego-based district.
The Louisiana government purchased 90 acres of land on the north side of Nicolle Boulevard for $3.1 million and spent $4.4 million clearing and filling the site. Duplantis Design Group of Thibodaux designed the complex, and Ratcliff Construction Co. of Alexandria holds the $20.6 million contract to build the initial phase. The first phase is projected to open in May 2024, and if it proves successful, they will move into the next phases of development.
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