In a bid to support sports tourism, City Council approved a plan to renovate the Cooper and Killian sports complexes with a unanimous 9-to-0 vote.
The $27.4 million plan has been in the works for more than five years, city officials said earlier this month. Along with local funds, more than $20 million for the plan comes from federal coronavirus recovery money. Those recovery funds were routed to states and local governments by an act of Congress known as the American Rescue Plan, or ARPA. It was passed early in President Biden’s term.
The combined funds will pay for a host of improvements to the Cooper and Killian complexes, including turf for eight soccer fields, new bleachers, locker room, picnic area and entrance plaza, and more than 400 new parking spaces.
Councilman Abe McGull represents northeast Springfield, home of the sports complexes being renovated. Here he is speaking earlier this month when Council debated whether to spend $13.5 million dollars of the city’s ARPA allocation on the project. The city was required to match an identical amount of funding state lawmakers approved earlier this year.
McGull said, “This is going to be a major draw for a lot of communities to come here to play soccer. I think this is a prudent use of the taxpayer dollars and moving forward in this direction is going to reap huge benefits for this city.”
The project is divvied up into two phases, with construction on phase 1 expected to begin early next year.
As Council debated before its vote on Monday night, Councilman Craig Hosmer saluted President Biden’s leadership in passing the American Rescue Plan, and Councilman Matt Simpson praised state Sen. Lincoln Hough for his role in securing funds controlled by Missouri lawmakers.
