Things are progressing quite nicely with Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe, according to all the principals involved. After years of uncertainty over its viability, a 180,000-square-foot dome is slated to be inflated in the latter part of June, with sports activities expected to start in October. The grand opening of the park’s primary money-making business – travel tournaments for multiple youth from multiple states in multiple sports – is on target by March of next year.
Once complete, the development is projected to attract 2 million visitors per year, most of them out-of-town traveling teams with kids and their parents spending two or three nights over the weekend with disposable income at the ready. The view expressed by Steve Luker, a managing member of Legacy Pointe Development, which owns the land at Scheels Sports Park, is that the park will become a “treasure” for Springfield.
“You’re going to have just an unbelievable number of people coming to Springfield who probably wouldn’t have ventured here,” said Luker.
All this tangible optimism is starting to attract interest from others hoping to get in on the action. Legacy Pointe Development still has available land around the sports fields, roughly 50 acres beyond the 70 occupied by the sports facilities, and Indiana businessman Tim Turpin wants a piece.
Turpin hopes to build a 60,000-square-foot Illinois Sports Hall of Fame on the grounds of the park, which would occupy four or five of the available acres. The ISHOF would house artifacts and exhibits on great players and teams from Illinois, from high school to the pros. The way Turpin sees it, sports-inclined visitors need more than just the tournament games at Scheels Sports Park to fill their time for a weekend, so why not pay $10 a head to see genuine memorabilia from Michael Jordan, Walter Payton or Ernie Banks, or get a picture with a Jordan statue out front?
There are a lot of brick-and-mortar sports halls of fame out there – even Springfield has one, soon to be ensconced in the new city transportation hub currently under construction on Ninth Street – but there is none for a state version for Illinois. To get the proposed venture off to a good start marketing-wise, Turpin has organized a two-night banquet for the first inductees to the ISHOF, June 13-14, at the BOS Center in downtown Springfield.
Inductees who will speak include, among others, legendary Chicago Bears defensive lineman Dan Hampton, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and Batavia native Ken Anderson, Markham native Denny McClain – the last Major Leaguer to win 30 games in a season – and DePaul basketball star Terry Cummings. Famous Illinois sports stars coming to Springfield for banquets and inductions are one of the main selling points Turpin has for the proposed project, which he estimates would cost $7.5 million to do right.
Turpin, a Hall of Fame former semi-pro baseball player (yes, there is such a HOF), says he wants to create “The Cooperstown of the Midwest,” referring to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in New York. Turpin and his company, GEBHOF Sports Hall of Fame, have incorporated other state HOFs in Indiana and Ohio, but none of the proposed projects have yet to result in shovels in the dirt.
“If somebody gives us the land, we’ll raise the money for it,” said Turpin, whose company’s bread-and-butter is selling sponsored bricks and other exhibits around Halls of Fame. “These kids and their parents need something to do when they’re not playing games. And that’s what the attraction is for Springfield.”
How will the $7.5 million be raised? That’s what Luker and Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau director Scott Dahl would like to know. A late May meeting between Turpin and Luker is in the works, and Turpin has had a few informal discussions with Dahl.
“We’d love to have one in the capital city. It would be a nice addition to our other attractions,” Dahl said. “I’m not sure it’d be a destination, but when people are considering Springfield, we try to tie as many things together as possible. Having an Illinois Sports Hall of Fame right here in the capital city could not hurt. We’d welcome it if we could get it done.”
While Dahl said locating the ISHOF in Legacy Pointe would create a “built-in audience,” he’s open to other possibilities if it makes the project more feasible.
“If you have trouble with that $7.5 million, maybe there’s a downtown space? We’re still waiting to see what will happen with the Wyndham (hotel). Downtown will feel (the effects of) Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe no matter what,” he said. “This will branch out and touch all parts of the city.”
Dahl described the Scheels Sports Park as “an amazing deal for the city,” noting that the city doesn’t have to own or operate it.
“We’re giving up 2% of the hotel tax and 1% of the sales tax, only at Legacy Pointe,” he said. “We’re providing the incentives as long as the facility is open.”
What kind of incentives Turpin can wrangle from the city remains to be seen. But with his Indiana country twang and good-ole-boy demeanor, Turpin has, at least, an inviting vision for a building in Springfield. If it’s built, will they come? That is the nagging question, as Turpin’s visions are only that right now. There is no proof that any of his proposed state sports Hall of Fames can be a moneymaker.
Luker, at least for now, is willing to listen to more of Turpin’s ideas.
“We’re in favor of any project coming to Springfield that’s for the betterment of the community. Anything that would enhance or promote the sports complex, we’re more than happy to sit down at the table when the time is right, to see if there’s a home for him out at Legacy, and if it makes sense,” Luker said. “But it hasn’t even gotten to the starting block with us. It’s a dream at this point. That being said, that’s how the sports complex started.”
