SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – An indoor sports facility could double the number of visitors and revenue Seminole County brings in each year, but commissioners say they may have to scale back their current vision for a state-of-the-art field house and parking deck.
At a meeting this month, Commissioner Andria Herr said “the math doesn’t work.”
“We all need to have realistic expectations or be willing to have realistic expectations elsewhere in the spending of the county dollars,” Herr said.
For years, the county has been working to develop an indoor sports complex at the Moore Station Fields, just around the corner from the existing Boombah Sports Complex on Lake Mary Boulevard. A plan to build a 172,000 square foot indoor facility with an additional parking deck is expected to cost up to $100 million. A second option without a parking deck could cost around $66 million,
Staff acknowledged during their presentation that it’s likely their vision would cost even more since they first put this concept together.
“As you all know, the prices on anything have gone up since then, so we need to be able to further refine this concept based on exactly what we want out of this complex,” said Rick Durr, the director of Seminole County’s Parks & Recreation Department. “So, a revisit on our various revenue or funding sources for this, for this project has not changed.”
Earlier this year, the county created a Tourism Improvement District (TID) which generates revenue from a $1.75 nightly per room fee for hotels with 60 or more rooms. They estimate it will generate $3.2 million annually, which they could put towards building an indoor sports facility that would attract more tournaments and events. However, they will need additional funding sources if they plan to build a facility that costs between $66M-$100M.
“I don’t think we all agreed on ‘go big or go home’ and ‘find the biggest one in the country and show me that one and add 2,000ft² and let’s build that,’” Herr said.
Commissioner Lee Constantine also agreed that they need to be flexible with their concept but hopes what they do build they can maximize its use.
“I’m not sitting here trying to design it, but we should be able to use every inch of that facility,” Constantine said. “Whether it’s inside, outside, on top of the parking facility. Wherever.”
The county hopes one day an indoor sports complex will draw in visitors for basketball and volleyball tournaments, cheer tournaments, and more — even graduation ceremonies.
Projections presented to the Commission show it could double the number of visitors and revenue for the county. It’s expected to bring in $18 million in its first year, and $34 million by the fifth year.
“Upon the building of the indoor sports complex, we see that we would expect more than doubling of the out of county visitor economic impact to Seminole County to be about $64.5 million,” said Gui Cunha, director of economic development and tourism.
Commissioner Amy Lockhart said she would like to see local families get fair use of the facility too once it is built.
“This has happened a little bit with Boombah. So, I’m not throwing shade, I’m just saying initially when it was envisioned, there was going to be some time for a local teams set aside so that the Seminole County community kids could experience playing on those fields,” Lockhart said. “Slowly but surely that field time gets eked away and there’s not much left for local play. So I, I can foresee a potential conflict where we have seven high school graduations all in a particular month, and we’ve got a great offer on the table from someone who wants to host an event here that’s going to generate a ton of revenue.”
Commissioners have given county staff approval to find an expert who can help refine their vision and how they will pay for it and ultimately bring in more tourists and revenue.
While Orange and Osceola counties see a big boost from the theme parks and convention center, Seminole County relies on sports tourism to bring in business.
In 2024, around 2.2 million total visitors came to Seminole County. Cunha said research shows visitors to the sports facility are 78% more likely to book a hotel room than any other visitor in Seminole County.
“All six of our complexes that we have are all outdoors,” Cunha said. “So, there’s very limited options for expanding on any other possible sports and travel demand.”