Features and Benefits
Proposed Facility Features
As the only facility of its kind in Oregon, an indoor multiuse sports facility at the Lane County Fairgrounds would be a unique draw for people from across the Pacific Northwest. It could add more functionality and year-round appeal to our publicly-owned county property and would include:
- A hydraulic banked 200m indoor track that can raise and lower in just four minutes
- Convertible spaces for nearly every imaginable indoor athletic or recreational event:
- 21 wrestling rings
- 16 volleyball courts
- 9 basketball courts
- 20 pickleball courts
- Gymnastics
- Cheerleading
- Martial Arts
- Ample storage for a variety of flooring and implementations
- A mix of up to 4,000 permanent and temporary seats
- Training and competition space for student athletes from middle schools, high schools, local colleges and universities
- Ancillary spaces for medical, training, hospitality, and other uses
- Locker rooms, restrooms, concessions and more
- Meeting space to replace or add to the fairgrounds current offering
- Indoor climate-controlled space for emergency response
Economic & Community Benefits
An indoor multiuse facility could generate millions for our businesses that rely on visitor spending. It would:
- Draw stable, all-season revenue, projected to draw as much as $91 million in cumulative spending in the community within five years and nearly $486 million over 20 years, all while breaking even in operating costs in year 5, according to consultant estimates
- Boost our hospitality industry by generating 31,000 room nights annually within 5 years.
- Reduce seasonal fluctuations in hospitality jobs, aiding employee retention in hotels, restaurants, tasting rooms and more
- Capture otherwise-lost visitor tax revenues that could better support our broader community to fund parks, museums, arts and marketing the visitor industry
- Improve the health of our local youth by allowing them to participate in year-round sporting events — having adequate community facilities and athletic programs is especially important amid rising obesity rates among our nation’s children, while kids who live active lifestyles are six times more likely to stay active as adults
- An indoor multiuse facility could also provide a critically needed emergency response space for wildfires, earthquakes, extreme heat and more.
- Maximize the use of the county-owned fairgrounds property to deliver year-round community-centered services.