Venue could start hosting events, attracting visitors to hotels as soon as 2014
The Round Rock City Council formally approved $7.8 million in bonds for its long-awaited indoor sports complex on Jan. 26, moving the project one step closer to its estimated December 2013 completion date.
The sports complex is expected to fill a hole in the schedule for “The Sports Capital of Texas” which, until the $12 million facility is completed, does not have the ability to hold large indoor sporting events on the same scale as its outdoor events.
“Hopefully, if we’re doing this with the out-of-town folks, this opens up a whole new world of sports that we can recruit here,” said Nancy Yawn, director of the Round Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The facility is expected to draw thousands of visitors to the city yearly, generating additional tax revenue and further cementing the city’s image as a sports mecca.
The complex
While plans for the sports complex will not be available for several months some details are known.
The indoor sports complex, which is planned for 23.65 acres near the intersection of FM 3406 and Chisholm Trail Road, will likely be 75,000–85,000 square-feet, Round Rock General Services Director Chad McDowell said.
McDowell said he expects plans to be finished in about six months with construction starting in October. And while the initial cost estimate is set at $12 million, McDowell said he expects it could go up as plans are drawn.
“We’re going to try to make this a showcase; we’re not going to make this a warehouse,” he said. “It’s going to be a very professional facility.”
Additionally, McDowell said his goal was to include shade spots outside, outdoor warm-up courts and to make the facility roomy enough so space is not an issue.
“We want to make it pleasing to not just the athletes that play sports here—we want to make it pleasing to the referees [and] the coaches,” he said.
The plan, said Round Rock City Manager Steve Norwood, is to create a place to attract outside tournaments.
“These type of facilities are not typical city recreation. It’s much more oriented to activities such as tournaments,” he said. “It’s not a Cedar Park Center. It’s not for concerts or a recreation center.”
Whatever the complex eventually looks like, Yawn said she is already starting to look at the types of activities Round Rock could host come 2014. She said the arena would open up Round Rock to a number of sports it previously could not support, including basketball, volleyball, martial arts, cheerleading, wrestling and badminton.
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