OUR TURN: If Marble Falls wants a sports complex, seek consensus
Hopes are growing that Marble Falls will someday have a regional sports complex to bring teams and supporters to the Highland Lakes for tournaments and competitions.
These visitors also will bring their money.
As the theory goes, this revenue will boost the local bottom line by putting “heads in beds” — the hospitality industry term for filling hotels and motels — which also means increased business for restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and even local attractions, such as the Falls on the Colorado Museum.
There’s only one problem — the cost of building such a complex.
And whether it’s in one location or spread across the city, make no mistake — it will be expensive to construct.
In a cash-strapped economy like the one Marble Falls is enduring, it will be hard for the City Council to justify a property-tax increase when there are so many other needs.
Perhaps Mayor George Russell had the best idea when he recently suggested that other cities could also help pay for the complex.
After all, their children and their teams will also be using the facility.
The true cost won’t be known until a feasibility study is finished later this year.
Even more important, the study should answer whether such a complex even makes sense for Marble Falls.
Similar centers have for Taylor and Round Rock, which built their own successful sports facilities catering to diversified athletic interests. Those facilities have generated millions in sales-tax revenue for the two towns and surrounding communities.
For example, the Taylor Regional Park and Sports Complex cost $8 million, but officials said it paid for itself in less than two years.
If the Marble Falls study does indicate a sports complex is a sound investment for the Highland Lakes, then the Economic Development Corp., the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce, the Parks and Recreation Commission and others should start beating the drum, seeking consensus among other communities for their support.
Hotel-occupancy tax funds from Marble Falls alone will not be enough to make the dream a reality. There would have to be an outpouring of support from other municipalities.
Convincing them may also take some work. Granite Shoals is already committed to building a short-court tennis facility on city-owned land, and Burnet has the Galloway-Hammond Recreation Center which offers a variety of sports-related venues, including swimming, and spots for recreational vehicles.
These cities may see the Marble Falls complex as competition.
So the real trick for proponents of a sports complex in or near Marble Falls may be showing how such a facility benefits the entire region, how it will create partnerships and how it will spread revenue across the board.
Though construction of such a complex is still a ways off, it’s not too early for Marble Falls to begin planning a strategy to make such a creation a regional goal. And all of that, of course, hinges on what the feasibility study says.