About six months ago I was asked to sit on a committee that Fairfax County was putting together. The focus of the committee is to generate additional revenues for Fairfax County by bringing sporting events to the County and to encourage businesses to become involved in supporting the County’s athletic infrastructure. (For example, encouraging businesses to invest in parks, etc.)
One of the topics that has come up several times is the fact that Fairfax County does not have a field complex. This is a location that would have multiple sports fields in one place that could be used for tournaments, etc. There has been talk about trying to put one together but it has never come to fruition.
There is a complex like this in Montgomery County. The Soccerplex & Discovery Sports Center is a great venue. It has something like 24 rectangular fields, four diamonds, an archery range, etc.
One of the rectangular fields is the home field for the Washington Freedom women’s professional soccer team. It is a stadium that seats about 5,000 people.
They have a 46,000 square foot indoor arena floor encompassing eight basketball and/or volleyball courts on a lined urethane surface from March to November. In November, they construct two NHL hockey rinks complete with netting and a dasher board system and roll out a layer of artificial turf for indoor soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, baseball, and rugby.
Now comes word that they are going to build a 17 field complex in Fredericksburg. This 80 acre complex is going to be built on land donated to Fredericksburg Area Soccer Association and the Virginia Youth Soccer Association. The fields will be all be online within 10 years.
Congratulations to FASA, VYSA and the Fredericksburg Board of Supervisors for putting this all together. And thank you to the Tricord Company for donating the land.
Fredericksburgofficials estimate that 11 VYSA tournaments could generate $7.6 million, with $403,527 in new county revenue through sales, lodgings, gas and meals taxes. The four FASA tournaments a year could generate $8.5 million, with $422,450 in new county revenue through sales, lodging, gas and meals taxes.
Now if only we could do something like this in Fairfax County.