Progress Continues on the Rochester Regional Sports Complex

Sports Academy staff continues to reach out to all Rochester area groups to gather information as they put together the Market Research Report for City review by September 20^th. David Grade of Sports Academy is doing most of the contact information and will be wrapping up his findings for the report in the next few days.

Grade reports he has held interviews with numerous groups to date including leadership from youth baseball, curling, youth soccer, youth wrestling, adaptive sports, pickleball, volleyball, youth fastpitch softball, local hotel sports sales folks, youth lacrosse and competitive youth dance groups. “I am trying to be as thorough as possible with the community as I gather the data,” Grade stated. “I have been very impressed by how open they have all been to speak with me and how I have gotten so much positive reaction regarding the facility. There is an obvious need and an obvious desire for this facility in Rochester, not for just local use but for regional and tournament use” he added.

In addition to area groups Grade has reached out to several national organizations to gauge their interest in bringing regional or national events to Rochester and the responses have been very positive. He stated the baseball tournament leadership response was that there would be “incredible interest” in Rochester if they had 6-8 turfed diamonds for baseball as there are limited options of that type in the Midwest compared to other areas of the country. Competitive dance groups (both youth and high school level) would find the planned indoor facility desirable as long as it had elevated seating for spectators.

Ben Boldt, City of Rochester Recreation & Facilities Division Head and Sports Complex project leader, feels the progress being made is moving at a brisk but responsible pace. Boldt shared,  “Sports Academy has really hit the ground running on the Market Study and has really worked hard to reach out to a wide variety of the user groups.  Our goal is to talk to all users or potential users to assure that the Market Study is solid”.

If you have a specific group or potential user you feel has not shared input to this study, please get in touch with Ed Hruska at the Rochester Sports Foundation and he will coordinate the contact with the Sports Academy group.

In addition to the ongoing research and the upcoming report, there continues to be additional work and research on the potential site location. The City is looking at not only the cost of the land but the cost of adding proper road access, utilities and services, grading and other site preparation expenses.

Deadlines have been established by the city and the recent Request for Proposal (RFP) for design services related to the Regional Sports & Recreation Complex was released on Monday, August 26. Additional actions that will take place include:

Consideration of Architect Contract 10/7/2024

Consideration of Contractor Contract 10/21/2024

Consideration of Land Purchase 11/18/2024.

OVG and Sports Academy have also determined a timeline for completion of their work to the city. These dates are as follows:

Market Research Report – Sept 20

Operations & Programming Consultation for Design – Oct 18

Programing Feasibility & Financial Forecast Report – Nov 14 

A formal presentation of all the data to city leaders will be sometime at the end of 2024 or early in 2025. All of these dates are scheduled to change but create a road map of progress for the complex.