Ohio mill town wants to grow into youth sports destination
HAMILTON, Ohio — Hamilton has long been a city in search of an identity.
During its heyday, its industries churned out paper, and it was home to a company that produced safes that could with stand a nuclear blast. But as demand for paper and bombproof safes declined, those industries took Hamilton down with them. What was left of this city of 70,000 along the Great Miami River was then gutted by the Great Recession a decade ago.
Over the years, leaders tried to reinvent the city, sometimes in ways that brought more ridicule than redemption.
Hamilton gained notoriety in the 1980s when the city officially added an exclamation point after its name (an addition promptly rejected by mapmaker Rand McNally). Then the city christened itself the City of Sculpture, and it still boasts a highly regarded collection of sculptures and an awardwinning sculpture park. Still, the artsy moniker couldn ot break throughthe city’s Rust Belt image.
The city’s manufacturing ghosts continued to haunt it in the form of abandoned factories and smokestacks pointing like frozen fingers into the sky.
Perhaps no facility illustrated the city’s fortunes more than Champion Paper’s empty plant, which had closed in 2012. Some potential buyers began circling with offers, but city manager Joshua Smith saw promise, and Hamilton bought the Champion complex along with its 40 acres of riverfront land for $400,000.
The 1.3 million-squarefoot site is poised to be come what is being billed as the largest indoor sports complex in North America: Spooky Nook Sports Champion
Mill.
Spooky Nook is an indoor-company based in Manheim, Pennsylvania, where its 700,000-squarefoot complex draws more than1 million visitors a year, bringing in more than $50 million for the local economy, according to Tourism Economics, a travel analytics firm.
Through tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades, Hamilton has provided $20 million in funding for the $170 million Champion Mill complex in the hope that it will have the same draw when it opens in late 2021. To achieve that, the development will go beyond sports to include a fitness center, restaurants, residences and stores. The city estimates it will create 380 permanent jobs.
The shift to sports is a natural fit, said Mayor Pat Moeller, who added that he envisioned legions of tourists visiting Hamilton’s restaurants, bars and shops.
“It will transform us,” he said.
Around the country, youth sports have become big business, and cities often covet the facilities as a way to spur local development and lure out-oftowners.
The industry generates $19 billion in revenue nationally, up from about $9 billion several years ago,
said Norm Gill, managing partner of Pinnacle Indoor Sports, a consulting service that has helped build 50 complexes across the country but is not involved in the Spooky Nook project.
“Sports tourism is on steroids,” said Gill, who estimated that each visitor might spend $110 to $180 a day on food, lodging and tickets.
More than $550 million has been spent developing complexes to host youth sports over the past three years, according to Sports Business Journal, a trade publication. And there are 1,250 indoor soccer facilities across the country, according to the U.S. Indoor Sports Association, a trade organization. They can range from less than 25,000 square feet to Champion Mill’s size, but only the largest attract major tournaments.
“These sports complexes are a symptom or the result of the professionalization of youth sports that has occurred over the last 40 years or so,” said Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Elite traveling teams, increasingly expensive gear and more rigorous practice schedules are part of the experience for today’s players.