Commissioners Get Update on Sports Complex Project

Moving forward with a sprawling sports complex was an easy decision for Flagler County officials. At a meeting earlier this month Jason Boudrie, founder and CEO of Synergy Sports, briefed commissioners on plans for a multi-use sports facility at a recent workshop.

“As you know, we’ve been working with the city of Palm Coast over the past couple of months to continue working through all the details of the sports complex project,” Boudrie said.

Synergy Sports is a national sports consulting firm with several projects in the works across the country, according to Boudrie, with an emphasis on public/private partnerships.

“We have a lot of experience; we have a lot of expertise,” Boudrie said.

The concept for the sports complex, to be located on the west side of the county, includes an indoor facility with 10 full-size basketball courts as well as space that could be used for high school graduations, conferences, trade shows and other non-sport events.

The outdoor component would include 20 flat fields – 16 artificial turf and four natural grass – along with a 2,500-3,500 seat stadium with scoreboard and lights.

“We want to design this with some intentionality,” Boudrie said, adding the outdoor facilities would include shade structures and playgrounds.

In addition to providing recreational opportunities for residents, the facility would increase the county’s tourist development efforts to attract sports tourism.

“We are interested in bringing in events and tournaments to a potential Flagler County sports complex,” Boudrie said. “Not just build something for the sake of building it and hope people would come. We wanted to have commitments and have people who were on board who see the value in this.”

The projected cost of the sports complex is $90 million – $100 million and would use a public/private partnership model.

“That allows the public side to leverage private capital without having to raise residents’ taxes,” Boudrie said. “It presents the least risk and that is why this is the model we generally subscribe to.”

One of the potential sources of revenue to offset costs is naming rights for the various facilities at the complex, an idea that drew questions from county commissioners.

“From the very beginning I was leery about the sponsorship part,” said Commission Chair Andy Dance. “That’s a huge component to making this viable.”

Boudrie said Synergy Sports has a partner who handles naming rights, and the concept has worked in other projects the company worked on.

Boudrie said the financial arrangements and public/private partnerships are designed to pay operating expenses, pay debt and drive sports tourism revenue.

Dance said the impetus the complex would give to sports tourism efforts is important.

“The attraction of the expansion of the fields for sports tourism (and) the indoor facility nails it,” he said.

Commissioners agreed unanimously to have county staff continue to work with Synergy Sports to iron out details and bring back agreements for approval.