By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Elected leaders have some soul searching to do, according to Bloomington’s mayor, whether to move forward on a $43.6 million indoor and outdoor multi-sports complex.
A sports complex feasibility study was presented to the Bloomington and Normal councils earlier this week. Mayor Tari Renner places higher on his priority list reviving Eastland Mall and building up Downtown Bloomington.
“Do we have money laying around? Of course not. Does Normal have money laying around? Of course not. That’s not the question,” said Renner.
“The question is can we move forward with a vision that is truly a public-private partnership. I think we have some interesting ideas here. We’ve got to look at these numbers, and we’ve got to do some soul searching,” Renner also said.
The two councils and the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council shared in the $47,000 cost of the consultant’s report.
The consulting firm’s chief operating officer said Bloomington-Normal would have to build a complex “spectacular enough” to compete with other communities vying for sports tourism dollars.
The consultant has come up with four undisclosed prospective sites for a facility that would feature 16 outdoor fields, 12 of them lighted and with synthetic turf, and a 130,000 square foot dome large enough for five multi-purpose fields or two full-sized youth baseball and softball fields.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
