In 2012, entrepreneur Andy Card sketched a youth sports complex on a napkin. Two years later, Card sold his successful trucking and pizza businesses and raised $9 million to build an indoor basketball facility at the 400-acre Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana.
Card made this risky decision after being dissatisfied watching his children compete in numerous gymnasiums with poor and uncomfortable conditions. Fortunately for Card, his decision allowed him to find a job he enjoys. Regarding his occupation, Card commented, “Dude, there’s no better business, I’m telling you.”
As of July 2022, Card has owned numerous youth sports complexes and has bid for ownership of the Grand Park Sports Campus.
For the past few years, Grand Park Sports Campus has attracted millions of visitors to Westfield. Taxpayer money from Westfield contributed significantly to the 31 lacrosse, soccer, and football fields and 26 softball and baseball diamonds in the complex.
Recent estimates predicted that roughly 60 percent of the youth in the United States play organized sports. Furthermore, according to the Aspen Institute, American families have spent over $30 billion annually for their children to participate in sports programs. Between 2010 and 2017, the currently valued $19 billion youth sports industry’s monetary worth grew by 55 percent.
Since Card built his first basketball facility in 2014, he has designed over a dozen more youth sports facilities across the United States. In July 2022, the city council of Lebanon, Indiana, approved about $25 million in bonds for constructing Card’s new 190,000-square-foot youth sports facility.
In Whitestown, Indiana, the city council also discovered the allure of youth sports complexes. Clinton Bohm, the council president of Whitestown, hoped to increase tourism and the population of Whitestown.
Regarding attempts to achieve that goal, Bohm remarked, “When we started to do feasibility studies and run the numbers, what … started to come to us is that the best we could do for the community is invest in youth sports.” To maintain competition for tourists with neighboring towns like Westfield, Whitestown had been developing a 220,000-square-foot facility featuring some facilities for youth sports.
Youth sports researcher and associate professor at Indiana University, Cassandra Coble, described, “[Towns and cities are] constantly competing with each other to try to be the next, new big thing. If these facilities [are not benefitting] the community, then [they will need] to be marketed and built to compete with all the other surrounding towns that are trying to do the same thing they are.” As more towns and entrepreneurs continue to escalate the youth sports facility industry, the demand for and the value of youth sports expenses will continue to skyrocket.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659266175478x662479946829997600/Massive%20youth%20sports%20complexes%20are%20latest%20front%20in%20war%20for%20visitors%2C%20dollars%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://indianaeconomicdigest.net/Content/Default/Major-Indiana-News/Article/Lebanon-offers-24-million-in-incentives-for-proposed-190-000-square-foot-Hickory-Junction-Fieldhouse-/-3/5308/111843
Card made this risky decision after being dissatisfied watching his children compete in numerous gymnasiums with poor and uncomfortable conditions. Fortunately for Card, his decision allowed him to find a job he enjoys. Regarding his occupation, Card commented, “Dude, there’s no better business, I’m telling you.”
As of July 2022, Card has owned numerous youth sports complexes and has bid for ownership of the Grand Park Sports Campus.
For the past few years, Grand Park Sports Campus has attracted millions of visitors to Westfield. Taxpayer money from Westfield contributed significantly to the 31 lacrosse, soccer, and football fields and 26 softball and baseball diamonds in the complex.
Recent estimates predicted that roughly 60 percent of the youth in the United States play organized sports. Furthermore, according to the Aspen Institute, American families have spent over $30 billion annually for their children to participate in sports programs. Between 2010 and 2017, the currently valued $19 billion youth sports industry’s monetary worth grew by 55 percent.
Since Card built his first basketball facility in 2014, he has designed over a dozen more youth sports facilities across the United States. In July 2022, the city council of Lebanon, Indiana, approved about $25 million in bonds for constructing Card’s new 190,000-square-foot youth sports facility.
In Whitestown, Indiana, the city council also discovered the allure of youth sports complexes. Clinton Bohm, the council president of Whitestown, hoped to increase tourism and the population of Whitestown.
Regarding attempts to achieve that goal, Bohm remarked, “When we started to do feasibility studies and run the numbers, what … started to come to us is that the best we could do for the community is invest in youth sports.” To maintain competition for tourists with neighboring towns like Westfield, Whitestown had been developing a 220,000-square-foot facility featuring some facilities for youth sports.
Youth sports researcher and associate professor at Indiana University, Cassandra Coble, described, “[Towns and cities are] constantly competing with each other to try to be the next, new big thing. If these facilities [are not benefitting] the community, then [they will need] to be marketed and built to compete with all the other surrounding towns that are trying to do the same thing they are.” As more towns and entrepreneurs continue to escalate the youth sports facility industry, the demand for and the value of youth sports expenses will continue to skyrocket.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659266175478x662479946829997600/Massive%20youth%20sports%20complexes%20are%20latest%20front%20in%20war%20for%20visitors%2C%20dollars%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://indianaeconomicdigest.net/Content/Default/Major-Indiana-News/Article/Lebanon-offers-24-million-in-incentives-for-proposed-190-000-square-foot-Hickory-Junction-Fieldhouse-/-3/5308/111843
