An underserved Sacramento neighborhood could get a $50 million sports complex in mayor’s plan
The city of Sacramento may build a $50 million major sports complex in Meadowview, Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced Wednesday.
The complex, which still needs City Council approval, would be built on about half of a 102-acre property the city bought in January, a dirt lot off Meadowview Road behind the Sacramento Job Corps Center.
It could include 24 full-sized multi-use fields, and also a championship field with 2,000 permanent seats, lighting, locker rooms, meeting spaces and food facilities, Steinberg said.
“We won’t just be building fields, we will be building up kids,” Steinberg said during his State of the City address, at the YMCA on W Street.
Steinberg proposes paying for the project by using hotel tax revenue — money the council planned to put toward revitalizing the Old Sacramento waterfront. When the coronaivrus pandemic hit, hotel tax revenue dried up, and the waterfront plan was put on hold. But now the hotel tax revenue has “largely recovered,” Steinberg said.
Using a conservative growth estimate for the hotel tax, the city should be able to afford another $90 to $100 million for projects that boost tourism and hotel nights in the city, Steinberg said. The city would not increase the hotel tax to fund the project.
Hotel taxes cannot be used for housing, public safety or general services — only projects that will boost tourism and hotel nights.
A sports complex in Meadowview, a traditionally underserved neighborhood, will help improve equity as well, Steinberg said. The city spent $14.4 million to open an aquatics facility in North Natomas, a more affluent neighborhood, which opened this year.
“Only 13% of the city’s parks with sports fields have at least one field with lights,” Steinberg said. “There are no lighted soccer fields north of the American River, and just one lighted field in Meadowview. Nearly half of our sports fields have no bathroom close by.”
The complex could help Sacramento attract major youth sports tournaments and other events, Steinberg said. Currently, the city does not have those facilities, so families tend to travel to other cities and states, he said.
With a complex, the city could host regional state or national tournaments for soccer, baseball, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball and rugby, Steinberg said.
Steinberg, using figures from Visit Sacramento, estimated the facility could attract 70,000 attendees per year, $28 million a year in visitor spending, 51,000 hotel nights, and $3.5 million in total tax collections.
If the city is able to float bonds for $90 to $100 million, it could fund both the sports complex and the Old Sacramento waterfront revitalization, Steinberg said.
When the city first purchased the 102 acres in January, officials said a safe parking facility for homeless individuals would open there. Nothing has opened there yet, as the city has not yet been able to build roads to access the property.
A temporary safe parking site is still a potential use for the site, said Mary Lynne Vellinga, Steinberg’s chief of staff.
Meadowview residents have been telling Councilwoman Mai Vang for months they want a youth sports complex on the site, she said.
“The need for investment in our youth was a clear message throughout our sessions that many felt was long overdue — and a civic amenity that was called for time and time again was a multi-sport youth recreation complex,” Vang, who represents Meadowview, said in a statement. “Our youth’s vision for community-centered amenities, services, and programming inspired me. My hope is that the community will see this and continue to bring forward exciting ideas that address their needs.”
Steinberg and Vang plan to bring the project to the council this summer, Steinberg said. If the council approves, the complex could break ground in 2024.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 10:53 AM.
