Why an indoor sports facility would benefit Pensacola
Shannon and I spent a good part of Monday evening sitting in her car at our youngest daughter’s soccer practice, watching a meeting of the Tourism Development Council. (As one does.) You’re forgiven if it’s not an entity you know, but it’s an important one. It's tasked with recommending how to best spend tens of millions of tax dollars to bring more people to Pensacola.
That’s tourism.
The big topic of the day had to do with allocating money toward a major rehabilitation of the Pensacola Bay Center (I still call it the Civic Center in my head), and also whether an indoor sports facility should be built at the Ashton Brosnaham park complex off 10 Mile Road in Cantonment. The included presentation is long one (500 slides is maybe a bit much), but it's definitely worth looking at.
Neither the indoor sports facility or the Bay Center rehab is, strictly speaking, a City matter — the Bay Center is downtown, but run by the County. NorthEscambia.com has a good recap of what went down. The discussion at the meeting was good, and the questions and concerns were thoughtful. And they should be — they’re talking about allocating $90 million between the two projects.
Why am I writing about this? A couple reasons. First is that I know that area extremely well. Back in the mid-1990s my soccer team was among the first to practice at Brosnaham. (Go West Florida Hurricanes!) Back then there wasn’t much at Brosnaham — it basically was an empty field.
I also know a thing or two about sports tourism. I spent countless weekends as a teenager on the road, at tournaments in South Florida. Alabama. Georgia. South Carolina. Louisiana. Mississippi. Anywhere but Pensacola.
And I’ve spent a good chunk of the last five years or so commuting to Foley, Ala., which has an excellent soccer facility — aptly named Foley Sports Tourism. If you have a kid who plays travel soccer, there’s a good chance you’ve played there. Or will play there.
Nearby is a rather nondescript warehouse type of thing, with a similarly nondescript name — Foley Event Center. Inside is a space segmented for a half-dozen basketball courts. Or 12 volleyball or pickleball courts. They have cheerleading competitions there. It can house any event that needs a good bit of space. It has locker rooms. Concessions. Meeting rooms.
I had the privilege of coaching in a futsal tournament there in January 2020. It’s very impressive. It’s also right next to the Tanger Outlets in Foley. And the massive OWA entertainment complex. And all the restaurants and hotels. And not far from Orange Beach.
And it’s exactly the sort of thing they’re talking about for Brosnaham.
Indoor sports are as important as outdoor sports. Maybe more so given the climate. And this sort of facility is something the Pensacola area should have had years ago, whether at Brosnaham or somewhere else. You don’t have to go far — just an hour drive to the west — to see the difference between a community that says “let’s make it happen" instead of "here are a bunch of reasons why it shouldn’t happen.”
Just an hour drive away and families are buying lunch and dinner in Foley instead of Pensacola. They’re buying gas in Foley instead of Pensacola. They’re staying in hotels in Foley instead of Pensacola. In between games they’re shopping at Foley instead of Pensacola. (And spending hours in the upstairs eating area at Publix. If you know, you know.)
I, for one, am tired of driving to Foley and back, wondering why we don’t have anything remotely close to that here. Nothing’s done yet. The TDC voted to recommend the money for the project. The Escambia County Commission still has to approve it. That'll take a while.
But we’re just a little closer to maybe having the sort of facility Pensacola deserves. And maybe it’ll be ready in time for my grandkids to one day enjoy it.