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Youth Sports Tourism Boom · West Insider

0:13
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, hello, friends, and welcome to another episode of the West and Mid Rivers Insider Podcast.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: My name is Tim Weber, and today I am joined by managing editor Dan Fox.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Hey Tim.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Freelance reporter Elizabeth Carino.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: And our very special guest, O'Fallon's Economic Development Director, Patrick McKeon.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: So we are here today to talk about uh uh Elizabeth's excellent story that's coming out in today's paper.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: So as you are all standing at your mailboxes this afternoon waiting for the mail to arrive so that you can read the story, um we're we're gonna go ahead and give you a bit of a preview on it, okay?
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And and and that story is called Game On, and it's the race to attract youth sports dollars in the St.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Louis region.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about sports tourism, right?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about all of these facilities that you see going up across the region uh designed to bring in uh local, interstate, and out of state uh uh uh sports tourism dollars.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And and and it's just an it's just an absolutely uh absolutely booming industry.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the the growth of it uh nationally has been has been exceptional.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And then and and and here locally, Chesterfield and O'Fallon are are really taking the lead in and driving that.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: So so guys, let's let's let's get into it.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: What what are we seeing in uh what are we seeing in sports tourism here locally?
1:37
SPEAKER_03: Well, definitely here in Chesterfield where our office is, uh you know, every day I drive to work past like five of these things that are being built in Chesterfield Valley.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: Uh I think the the Car Shield, uh the their giant uh over 300,000 uh square foot complex that just opened a couple of weeks ago.
1:57
SPEAKER_03: There's another place that's gonna have, I think, cricket and pickleball and all these other things.
2:03
SPEAKER_03: Um it's a we've been talking about doing this story for a while just because we've seen such a boom here locally.
2:10
SPEAKER_03: And then, of course, out in O'Fallon, there's been a number of uh redevelopments with the existing sports complexes and and other proposals for uh you know uh bigger uh uh bigger uses.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: So it's it's kind of an exciting topic.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: The square footage estimates have become useless to me because they're just too huge.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you.
2:33
SPEAKER_03: It's like when you ask a five-year-old how how much$10,000 is, they have no idea how much a nickel is, but it it's it's like that.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: That's that's me and in sport tourism facilities.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: So um so Elizabeth, according to your reporting, uh Chesterfield alone brought in$25 million last year uh in sports tourism uh economic impact.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about economic impact and what that means when it comes to when it comes to sports tourism.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: So um so uh so so I come in, I pay my entry fee to the tournament.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: What what else do I do?
3:10
SPEAKER_00: How else am I spending money in the community?
3:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely, Tim.
3:13
SPEAKER_04: So when a visitor comes from out of town, whether that's out of the county, out of the city, whenever they travel to a different taxing municipality, there is an opportunity for economic growth for that municipality, that taxing district, because you're gonna be buying hotel nights, you're gonna be buying dinners out, you're gonna be buying maybe attractions, because I mean these sports games can be long, but that's not where the families are the whole time.
3:38
SPEAKER_04: And maybe big sisters tell, oh, I'm tired of seeing little sister playing soccer, I want to go see a show or something like that.
3:45
SPEAKER_04: So a lot of money going into businesses, and that produces sales tax as well for whatever taxing districts you're in.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm traveling in from out of town, I'm I'm gonna go eat out.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna, you know, sit in my hotel room and snack on on granola bars, is is is I is I think the hope.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Patrick, how do how do the cities view this?
4:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, I I think we see this as a real opportunity for us to utilize the assets that we have and our ability to attract visitors and maximize that opportunity for them being in our community.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: And so that's kind of what we have uh focused on in the city of O'Fallon recently is we had the Ozzy Smith Sports Complex, which is ten baseball, softball fields, and or excuse me, seven, and uh we made a four million dollar investment in turfing those fields to increase the amount of play on the fields in inclement weather, uh lengthen the season that this fields can be played on, and uh and reduce the amount of potential cancellations or our or postponements of games.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: This is our first year, first season, and we have seen an exponential increase in activity on those fields.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: Um our concession sales went in the first, I think, 30, 45 days exceeded all of last year's sales.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: No kidding.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow, wow.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: We just had um and that's what is Elizabeth, I think, is really driving home in this article and and in our conversations is that you put people in your community that are gonna spend time, uh, they're going to uh stay overnight, they're gonna buy gas, they're going to entertain, they may have breaks between games, you know.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you play at 10 a.m.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: and you're gonna play at 4 p.m.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, I've got some hours to entertain these 15 kids.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: What are we gonna do?
5:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we let's take them bowling.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh let's let's go to the arcade, uh, let's let's go to the mall.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: I mean, and those are all things that help drive economic opportunity in a community.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and they're a bit of a captured audience, right?
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Because because they're they're not gonna go that far.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: They are you know, they're they're they're gonna stay fairly close because their schedule is dictated by the tournament schedule, I would think.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: And uh depending upon the tournament, if you're able to concentrate the activity within one location, right?
6:11
SPEAKER_02: Uh we have a um Missouri Rush is another example in O'Fallon.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh they've got four soccer fields there, uh turf fields that they've had now for about eight years, I believe.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: And um but when they have these major tournaments, their positioning teams and games kind of spread across the region.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, that's a example of we may get 30% of the crowd in O'Fallon.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they may be in St.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Peter's, they may be in St.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: Trois County, but hopefully they'll all end up collecting back into uh O'Fallon for the final games and all that, and that's that's when we really get our full benefit.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and a uh uh a lot of these facilities or or some of these facilities anyway, and you guys are gonna have to help me with the names of them because I've uh there's too many.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: But but some of them are like building hotels on site.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Um that's part of the initial construction, is they they they literally want you to play and stay there, right?
7:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's that's the concept.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, and that's part of the economic model that makes these things work.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: These facilities in and of themselves are at best a break-even proposition.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh they don't generate revenues, and especially in youth sports.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: Now, if it was professional sports, that would be a totally different thing, but in youth sports, it's not the facility in in terms of its rent of whatever that's going on in that in that building.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: It's everything ancillary around it.
7:41
SPEAKER_02: And so these tend to be um multi-use developments with, like you said, hotels, restaurants, retail, uh, entertainment, uh, uh experiential entertainment that then build that whole model that makes it work.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: And uh and this is the other thing that uh from a city of O'Fallance perspective is most likely it's gonna have to be some sort of public-private partnership.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: These things can't survive on their own.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so it it is incumbent upon the city to look at this in terms of the its long-term economic benefit and how we can help support this project to make the same work.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it it almost has the feeling to me, um, this might be a bad analogy, but but but but that's it's becoming uh a community amenity, right?
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Twenty-five years ago, everybody was trying to build water parks.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Right.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Every city had to build its own water park because the city next door had a water park.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: It never has to have a lazy river.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And and and now it feels like a little bit it's going that way with sports tourism, where you know, we're where you we we we we need to have our own version of it to satisfy our residents and and and uh it's a community on its very basis has to serve its citizens and its residents, right?
9:05
SPEAKER_02: And so I think as you said, water parks, lazy rivers, we're all about serving the local community.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: And I think we have in the last number of years started to begin looking outwardly and saying, okay, how can we bring other individuals into our community, provide for our own citizens, but yet serve the value of others coming into our community and spending dollars there?
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that's that that's why I'm interested in that concept of a of a public-private partnership on stuff like this.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: So so Ozzy Smith is just a city-owned facility, correct?
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: That's it's 100% correct.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Just that that's O'Fallon.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: Um what what are examples of of public-private Well, I would, I would, I would put Car Shield Field in that um uh category.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh we, even though the city owns it, we have a um uh a lease agreement with the O'Fallon Hoots, which then provide not only their own content in that space, but they then work with other groups to bring in youth soccer, uh, a concert, uh, you know, uh holiday events, whatever else.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: And so it's a it's a relationship that we have with that private organization in terms of helping fully utilize and maximize the benefit of that space.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: Um uh Missouri Rush is another good example of where there was nothing out there in that space for years other than a half-used movie theater.
10:36
SPEAKER_02: And um when they came in in 2016, the city uh worked very closely with them to structure a deal that would allow them to put in those four fields, build a a building with a restaurant space, and really start to develop that full space uh and uh it's paid back dividends over and over again.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: And as you can see now, when you go by Missouri Rush late in the evening, people can't find a parking spot.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: I mean the place is you've got hundreds and hundreds of kids running around, parents, there's restaurants there, there's a brand new hotel in, level up has uh has got this great family entertainment space there.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: So it's all working together, and it's part of the the investment that we have made in in that partnership to make that happen.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: So quick quick Garfield Field story.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Um uh it's this is technically this is Car Shield Field's fault.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Um uh about about 20 years ago, how long has Mid River's been around?
11:36
SPEAKER_03: Uh 20, I think 20, 25 years.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, something.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Um shortly before that, we we as as West News magazine, uh several of us went to a game out there.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: It was TR Hughes ballpark then and it was the River City Rascals playing.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh we we we uh uh drove out there, watched this game, had an enjoyable night.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: At the end of it, I looked at my partners and I said, we're starting a paper out here.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And and and and and within six months we'd we'd launched Mid Rivers News magazine.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: So so it it is uh it's absolutely Wow, that's a good origin story.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: We'll have to that's yeah, not easy to do.
12:17
SPEAKER_02: We'll have we'll have to put the birth of the Mid Rivers on the back on the on the wall.
12:23
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
12:24
SPEAKER_03: And and then it with with things like the Ozzy Smith Sports Complex, I think the really interesting statistic for sports tourism is a lot of these players and families, like they they aren't they aren't from the region.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: I I think um, Elizabeth, in your story, you talked to Fallon's recreation manager, um, and the number he gave you was out of 680 teams, 21 percent were from St.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: Charles County, 57 percent were from Missouri, and then 22 percent were from out of state.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: So the the revenue that's being collected is is I mean, at least from from that complex, is mostly from non-residents.
13:05
SPEAKER_03: Uh 80 percent of it or so is is being collected from a source that otherwise would not be putting money into the city.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: It's true tourism money.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: And and we we hope to continue to uh while serving the needs of our local residents, continue to push the bounds of increasing out out-of-region, out-of-state visitors to that location.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: And uh and so that's that's where our role comes into play in terms of what the city is doing now is we've got a a a proven asset here that can make things happen.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: How do we maximize its full benefit?
13:43
SPEAKER_04: Right, because you've had a lot of these facilities around for I mean, you just told the story about you went to a game at what is now Car Shield Field about 20 years ago, and it sounds like, from what I understand, a lot of these facilities were mainly geared towards residents to come and see a game, um, but now it's turning more towards the outside because that's what you're seeing will serve residents.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: No, I exactly right.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh things like the Beale Center, Car Shield, um uh the hockey uh uh Meryville University's you know, hockey's ice there.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh they have they really have shifted it in terms of saying we're not because we're in this public-private partnership or more private than public, we have the benefit of not having to worry so much about serving the local residents.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: But you know, the deal can be that they can take full benefit.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: Our new sports uh complex, O'Fallon Playfield Commons, uh as part of our partnership deal with them, the city will be gained access and time within that structure uh on a weekly basis so we can continue to serve our residents and they'll get benefit of having that facility there.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: But then primarily the weekends will be reserved for these major tournaments to draw in individuals from the outside that will spend the night in the hotel and eat meals and shop in O'Vellan.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: What what is um what's the resident reaction to these facilities?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Are are are they are they pretty they seem pretty non-controversial.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're but but but nothing's non-controversial to this stuff.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: True.
15:17
SPEAKER_02: Um well there there are I don't want to say downsides, but there are pr pros and cons of these things.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: Um when you have 3,000 people in your community over a weekend, it causes a lot of traffic.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: The uh when you go to your favorite restaurant and you can't get a table for an hour, you're not happy.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: I live here and you don't.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: Um the um uh it also is it's a cost and it's a long-term maintenance cost.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: And uh and you you know you are sacrificing through a public-private partnership, you are giving up s potentially some tax revenues to help support that.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: And could that money be better served?
15:59
SPEAKER_02: But would could you generate that money s elsewhere doing something else?
16:05
SPEAKER_02: And what this has shown nationally, not just here in this region, is that these things tend to create enough long-term benefit through additional revenues that they'll outweigh those costs.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Um our sports complex project, you know, is gonna be right near Highway 70, so great access highway access, but you know, that's uh it's uh it's gonna be at a challenging intersection that's gonna need major public infrastructure upgrades to accommodate all that growth.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: And so that that's gonna be some growing pains.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Are are there are there unique um taxing structures in O'Fallon for tourism dollars?
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Is there is there hotel-motel taxes and stuff like that?
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Nothing unique that other communities don't have.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh we do have a hotel-motel tax uh that we utilize for this kind of work.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: Um you can create special taxing districts that allow that particular area to collect one cent additional sales tax.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh you can provide some property tax breaks, and that tends to be what you see with a lot of these facilities around the St.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: Louis region.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
17:14
SPEAKER_03: For sure.
17:15
SPEAKER_03: Is there a just you you mentioned nationally, looking around the country, is there like a community or a city that is like a leader in this sort of thing that that the city's been looking at to emulate or steal ideas from?
17:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um our our prime example has been um uh the Hamilton County, Indiana, north of Indianapolis.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh Westfield is well known for Grant Park, and it is a huge complex, baseball fields, football fields, indoor facilities.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Um they made a significant investment to make that happen.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: Um what they didn't quite do initially was build the supporting infrastructure around with hotels and restaurants.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: So they started attracting all these thousands and thousands of people to the community that then would go spend their time.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: All the other communities around them were really reaping in the benefits without any cost.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh that's that's that's a changing now, and they are you're seeing the development around it.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: But that was that was we actually took a team when we started to consider this um about five years ago.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: We took a team to that area and spent some time in Westfield talking to, you know, what did you do right?
18:33
SPEAKER_02: What did you do, what would you do differently.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: Um their level of investment was far beyond what we would ever consider, but it gave us some really good ideas as to, you know, what could we do with what we have and how do we develop then uh the space that we have available.
18:50
SPEAKER_04: So you mentioned that um that community you went to didn't originally build the facilities and their hotels close together.
18:58
SPEAKER_04: I think that was something that you and I talked about.
19:01
SPEAKER_04: That's one of the challenges that O'Fallon is facing because you've had these facilities around for so long, you're having to be really strategic about drawing people who are at these facilities into your businesses.
19:13
SPEAKER_04: Tell me about that strategy.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: When uh Car Show Field was built, uh built our Hughes Stadium, uh Ozzy Smith was built, it was built more in a residential area.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: And we really didn't have the supporting restaurants and gas stations and not uh not really a nearby hotel.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: And so it's been a challenge for us uh to think about uh investing monies in those facilities to do this, but yet where do those people go to shop and stay?
19:46
SPEAKER_02: And um and and so uh we're we're having to really look at land use patterns around there, uh preserving that for potential commercial development versus allowing it to convert to residential.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, we've got a really good example of a great uh senior living facility that's continuing to grow, but it's occupying more and more land that could be used for uh commercial development.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's uh it's one of those things where uh even in the Chesterfield area, I I look at some of these facilities and it's like well they're going in and they're gonna draw more people, but is it gonna be just continuing to benefit the existing uh commercial activity that already is here, or are you adding more commercial activity that's gonna create you know build upon itself?
20:35
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so it's it's it's it's something we have to think about uh in the long term.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: And have we given any thought to um to at what point the pie stops growing and we're just cutting it up into smaller and smaller pieces?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, how how you know it it's um I I I think nationally most statistics show that eSports participation is declining at at some level as a percentage of of the population, but but but the spending on USports continues to go up.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh a reason a study that was done this year said it's a$60 billion industry.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh creating almost$150 billion in economic impact.
21:27
SPEAKER_02: And those dollars continue to go up.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: Um the average family uh for a a child in the family that's involved in youth sports spends about a thousand dollars a year on that child in terms of the travel and the expenditures that come with it.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: And so uh it's it's it's still growing.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh but uh your point is about the the level of participation.
21:53
SPEAKER_02: So is it going to concentrate into m more uh a smaller total number but more dollars?
22:01
SPEAKER_02: But uh hockey is a very expensive sport.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, outfitting the ice time and everything else.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: And yet there is such a shortage of ice out there for teams to practice and play on the complaints.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's where you're seeing the money going.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Um but who would have thought pickleball?
22:23
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole sentence.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought enough?
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, you're right.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Then it would become I mean, there's like a national pickleball center in like Naples, Florida.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: There's there's professional pickleball on TV.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: And what's the next what's the next pickleball?
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Um I saw a concept in um during the pandemic technical I was watching Professional Cornhole.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was the only sport.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: It didn't take off in quite the same way.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Well But there is no limit.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: It requires a smaller space.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: You can probably do that in your bar or something.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: There's no limit to what we'll drop a logo on it and then but I saw in Kansas City shuffleboard.
23:14
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: And the fact that people are now playing shuffleboard in a and so all of a sudden, you know, now you have professional shuffleboards.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean that that is that is one of the things that's happening, is that is that we're we're broadening the number of sports in the specialized fields that are required.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So that's you know, that that's intra.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: That's I think it's a good thing.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: And these facilities have the ability to do multiple things, right?
23:41
SPEAKER_02: Right.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: A basketball court converts to two volleyball courts, converts to four pickleball courts, converts to you know 19 cornhole, whatever they call them.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh I I do see that it it enables us to move beyond the five-year-old to 17-year-old uh in terms of sports and to you know, individuals who are maybe already working professionals but one in involved.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: We we just hosted the National League National League Wiffle no National Wiffle League Association Tournament in O'Fallon.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh three-day weekend, uh 24 teams representing about uh 10 states, and um yeah, they played wiffle ball on Cartoon.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: 24 teams from 10 states.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: Wow, yeah, yeah.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: Playing wiffle ball.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: Playing wiffle ball.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: Throwing the ball 90 plus miles an hour.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, I've it's it's I've seen the Instagram reels or whatever they're called, and yeah, no, that's they've become a lot better.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: We used to play in the backyard.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: And that so if you can open up your imagination to all the possibilities that these things can bring.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: Um and and we don't even touch on beyond just teams, cheerleading, gymnastics.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
25:14
SPEAKER_02: An indoor facility with a hard court can host all sorts of other activities.
25:19
SPEAKER_03: Uh wrestling's probably an easy one to host just throw a bunch of mats down and that's a perfect one too.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, uh St.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: Louis hosts, you know, the NZA National Championship too.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, but you could do all sorts of other sports that um these kind of facilities can bring.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: And so they can virtually fill every weekend uh with something different.
25:44
SPEAKER_03: And and I mean these are all at least for the the you know the 17 and under uh users of these facilities, these are mostly club sports, right?
25:54
SPEAKER_03: Uh not not through schools.
25:57
SPEAKER_03: What what interaction do you like the schools have with these sorts of facilities?
26:01
SPEAKER_02: Well and and that's uh it's it's building those relationships, but if um a school needs additional gym time for multiple teens, um men's, women's, uh vars varsity, junior varsity, whatever else, uh they can then work a relationship with that particular facility, say, hey, on a Wednesday evening from four to six, can we get a court?
26:27
SPEAKER_02: And uh and our the O'Found Playfield Commons, it's in the Wentzville School District, so they're gonna be working with Wentzville School District to say, look, um in exchange for some of these uh benefits we're receiving to do this project, we want to extend to you the opportunity to have events here whether it maybe it's a graduation ceremony that can seat 600 people.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean those those are the kind of things that they can do to benefit school districts.
26:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think one of the more more interesting um development proposals out there, and I I can't remember where this is, you guys will probably know better than me, but but uh hasn't it been proposed that South County Mall possibly transitioned into a sports I just saw they they're uh conducting a study now to evaluate the converting South County Mall into a sports nation.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Lots of closed malls you know uh uh around the country that uh that that's that's a pretty creative reuse of of that land.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: Chesterfield Mall, remember they had pickleball down in the lower level.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Which I thought was great.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: People loved it.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a lot of more pickleball players in there than shoppers at there at the end.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: What was the line?
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Who'd have thought pickleball?
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: That's that's still the line.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I I th I think um I think looking at some creative reuse of of you know big box retailers or or stuff like that, you know, these these these huge swaths of land that are that are really a challenge for for a lot of cities, uh particularly suburban cities nationwide, uh, you know, that's that it's a it's an interesting and creative reuse of the space, I think, if if it works.
28:07
SPEAKER_03: Well, and and and there's there's developments that surround these malls as well, you know, commercial and you know, like for trust food mall, there's hotels there.
28:14
SPEAKER_03: So if if that had become a youth sports complex, there'd be infrastructure there to help support it.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: Right.
28:19
SPEAKER_03: Um so so yeah, it is it is a a good a good alternative to just, you know, whatever.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: Whatever else would we go on the land.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, um uh what what what else do we see coming down?
28:31
SPEAKER_00: What what have we missed, Elizabeth?
28:33
SPEAKER_04: I think one of the things that I was curious uh to hear about or talk about um was how O'Fallon is trying to kind of drive uh the these tourists into its businesses.
28:46
SPEAKER_04: You mentioned the National Whiffle League Association.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: I understand that you were getting out stickers and little bucket shit that were playing the O and we were uh we actually created a QR code that we put on a lot of uh stuff that we provided to the players and and enabled them to then scan that and say, oh, here's local restaurants, uh here's places you can shop.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Um so we're we're at our infancy stage and how and developing that, but uh I think that is a way for us to create that connection.
29:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh once we get people in our community, we want to help them find the businesses that could benefit from the uh their presence and dollars spent.
29:32
SPEAKER_02: And and so uh that's that's one of the things that we're really working on is uh being able to do that.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Um I think some communities, again, I'll give St.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: Charles uh you know a lot of credit.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: I think they do a real good job with their Visit St.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: Charles campaign website, a lot of great information on there.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh I think that um uh there's other cities that have been really good examples for us to look at on how to make those connections.
30:02
SPEAKER_04: Right.
30:03
SPEAKER_04: And these campaigns seem to reflect this idea that uh the cities are in competition with each other for these sports tourists.
30:10
SPEAKER_04: You kind of mentioned that earlier.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've we've even developed um a new kind of uh we call it play in the o, but it's um it's it's our kind of our banner for for this kind of an effort, and uh and so you know you'll see a that a lot more in the near future is uh come into O'Fallon play in the O.
30:29
SPEAKER_02: And uh play then means not only that sport that you're involved with, but you know, enjoy your time here and uh and uh see the things that we have available to you.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, go bowling, go see a movie, go out to dinner, go to a park, do all do all the things go visit art, go, you know, yeah, yeah.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: So that's uh that's all good.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: All right, guys.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: Anything uh anything that we've missed?
30:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't think good to go.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, well let's let's wrap it up.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh again, I'm gonna remind you that the story is called Game On.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: It's coming out uh in this week's edition of both Mid Rivers and West, so there is um uh a lot a lot of West County information uh and and in addition to St.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Charles.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean it this boom's happening everywhere, it's a particularly in these in the in in these suburban areas.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's sort of a natural fit story for us.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: You can also check it out online at midriversnewsmagazine.com and westnewsmagazine.com.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And while you're there, go ahead and click on the subscribe button and get subscribed for free.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: And also while you're there, here's a special extra little plug that fits in nicely with our theme today.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Um we have we have recently announced um our our Live Well festival uh that's coming in November.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Um it's gonna be you know uh a health and wellness and and and lifestyle uh expo festival um that that we're really excited to to bring to the community as well.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: So um we are also in the sports tourism business, as it turns out.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Well, health is sport.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, running, walking, you know, all sorts of things that you can do for your own health and be uh involved in the community.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh it's all works together.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: But it turns out that little Katie Trail place was busy.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: They've been doing sports tourism for an awful long time.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh Mo Cowbell is another great example of I would say sports tourism, but you know, it's all was based upon this idea of getting people out and running and walking.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's it's really fascinating that that that a a lot of it is also about having community existing in real life together.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: Yes, which is which is you know that that's the exciting part of the trend I I see is is getting people shopping in person, getting people, you know, out in the communities, not just DoorDashing, not just Amazoning, you know, we're we're existing in real life again, which is fun.
32:56
SPEAKER_03: Right.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: I think there was as the pandemic it's created a kind of a a fork in the road for us in terms of whether we go the direction as you just online shopping, you know, being isolated or being out in the community and doing things and shopping and and uh and I think uh that's that's really what we want to focus on.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a there's a real push for it.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, thank you guys so much for your time today.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: Really appreciated the talk.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And and of course, in conclusion, who'd have thought pickleball?
33:26
SPEAKER_00: See you next week, everybody.