VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach City Council members heard a presentation on the Virginia Beach Sportsplex on Tuesday, ahead of a potential vote to extend its partnership with the current operator.
The sportsplex opened in 1999 and originally was a facility of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. It transferred to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department in 2003, and in 2009, the city outsourced its operation to Hometown Sports Management with a contract that ends in 2025.
They’re now in the process of awarding a new contract, for which Hometown Sports Management was the sole bidder. If the proposal is accepted, that group would continue management of the facility through 2045 – a 20-year term.
The city has invested millions in recent years to upgrade the sportsplex, helping attract travel sports tournaments and other events that can bring in dollars to the city.
The new contract would be on similar terms as the old one. Hometown Sports Management is currently responsible for all of the supervision, management, scheduling and operation, all utilities, and repairs of facilities. They must conduct at least 35 events per year at each facility, including the sportsplex itself as well as the USA Regional Field Hockey Training Center. There is a revenue-sharing agreement of 5% of the annual gross revenue above $850,000 for the sportsplex and $400,000 for the regional training center.
Council Member Chris Taylor balked at the two-decade contract and questioned why the management of other sports facilities in the city is done differently.
“A 20-year commitment, that’s a pretty serious commitment,” Taylor said. “We still have a lot of unanswered questions.”
Council Member Barbara Henley said she also had questions about the inconsistent approach between facilities.
“I want it all to be successful, and I want to make sure we’ve cleared up any impediments,” she said.
Parks and Recreation Director Michael Kirschman said there are different ways of managing different facilities because they all have a different history and different situations.
Council Member Joashua Schulman encouraged council members to keep sports tourism a priority due to its outsized impact on tourism spending.
“We have thousands upon thousands of visitors come into Virginia Beach every year, who stay in hotels, who eat in restaurants, who spend money with local businesses,” he said. “There’s that kind of indirect aspect of these arrangements that provide great benefit to our city and our local economy. … There’s a bigger, broader narrative there that I think is important to keep in mind.”
