Hi.

I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Thanks for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

Recently, the Mishawaka Field House opened on the city's northeast side.

The $38 million project will help drive tourism in our region as we compete for youth and adults sporting events such as basketball, volleyball, pickleball and field sports.

Today, we're diving deeper into the Fieldhouse project, and we'll take you out to the fieldhouse for an inside look at the project.

In 2016, community leaders completed a feasibility study looking at the potential impacts of youth sports complex in our region and how such a project might drive tourism and economic activity in the region.

Now, eight years later, the community is celebrating the opening of the state of the art Mishawaka Fieldhouse project.

Joining me today for a closer look at the Fieldhouse and its expected impact on our community.

Our Tony Stearns, the general manager of the Mishawaka Fieldhouse, and Jeff Jarnecke, the executive director of Visit South Bend Mishawaka.

Welcome, guys.

Thank you.

Good.

Thanks for coming to.

Actually, we talked about the topic a couple times in the past, but we're now celebrating the opening of it.

So guys, thanks for coming back.

And we're excited to take our viewers out to give them an inside look at the project.

But Jeff just for level set, let's go backwards a little bit.

First a little what what's visit South Bend Mishawaka and why it cares about, this space.

Yeah.

So Visit South Bend.

Mishawaka is the lead destination marketing and management group that's responsible for attracting out of town visitors and tourists and business and meetings and conventions and events and youth sports to Saint Joseph County.

So we work, as part of the South Bend Regional Chamber to attract individuals to come and experience our communities.

So whether that's bringing their meeting here or bringing a youth sports tournament that we've had incredible success with, our group works day in and day out to attract those groups to tell this story, to work with our partners, to champion all things tourism within Saint Joseph County.

Great.

Let's stay with you for just a quick a second and just sports.

So again, eight years ago or so, this feasibility is happening because because parents are traveling on to give us the the state of youth sports and why the why this became such an important priority.

Yeah, we're far from an early adopter in terms of, building an indoor sports facility.

Yeah, that was the missing piece that we didn't have within Saint Joseph County.

And youth sports, being an a multi-billion dollar industry that it is across the country has also largely proven itself to be recession proof.

And then ultimately, pandemic proof as well.

But youth sports, especially on the outdoor side of it, were things that hidden activities that were still taking place throughout the entire pandemic.

And so a lot of community is really, were able to sustain themselves or at least buoy themselves during that time because of youth sports.

So kids were still traveling, their parents were still traveling.

These tournaments were still taking place, in this part, with that social distancing that was required at that point in time.

And so Saint Joseph County was the beneficiary of that, that youth sports wins within Saint Joseph County.

And this past year alone, our organization helped to bring in more than 93 different events, majority of those being outdoor sort of events.

Plus, then youth ice hockey as part of that.

That resulted in about $28 million worth of economic impact.

And so this idea of this indoor facility that started, you know, some eight years ago and being study that now is open and is available and really that missing piece that we didn't have within our community is going to really transform and enhance and, provide some really meaningful returns, even in its first year of operation.

Great.

And, Tony, let me come your way because as, as this is happening and the community is looking for partners, they find a partner in Card and Associates.

We've had Indy Card on with us before kind of sharing the vision.

But but tell us again, for folks who might have missed that show a little bit about card and Associates and what it's doing in this youth for space outside of the area before we dive into the fieldhouse.

Sure.

So, Card and Associates is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

They have or we have, Fieldhouse is located there.

Three field houses, one being the pack, which is the Pacers.

The Event Center, has eight indoor basketball courts.

We have Mojo up, which is in Finch Creek.

And then Lebanon, which is the farmers Bank Fieldhouse, very similar to the one that we just opened in Mishawaka.

And so, so dive a little deeper into so so card sees like Jeff talks about this, this opportune and sort of dives into the space.

But but also to to make this happen needs kind of this public private partnership to to get it going.

Yeah.

Of course working with the local community to develop this idea, find the space.

The geographical location obviously makes sense to and in Mishawaka is case, the location centrally to all the larger cities.

Indianapolis is great.

But for us, Mishawaka proves a great space for Chicago, Michigan, Ohio and Indianapolis to come up and, to bring a centralized place for all those travel agencies to to meet together.

Yeah.

Jeff, let's dive a little deeper.

So you talked about kind of this missing piece you've had you have this experience with the outdoor stuff.

You have an idea of kind of where people come from to participate in these sports.

And, and so now we're going to offer some new sports.

We haven't give us a just a feel for kind of the geography that we serve in a, in a with a complex like this.

Yeah.

It's just incredible because so often the teams that we have and we have these sports teams that are already playing, they're just playing at local high schools.

And so now the idea that they can be concentrated under one roof is going to be additive for them.

It's going to expand their business and even grow those opportunities.

And to oftentimes we saw those same families that are have their kids playing now as part of the Mishawaka Fieldhouse, go out of town on those weekends, they're going to Indianapolis, they're going to Cincinnati, they're going to Louisville.

They're still going to Florida, Texas, these other places to compete in these youth tournaments.

And the idea that not only can then they stay home and enjoy one more weekend at home, albeit at the Mishawaka Fieldhouse.

They're saving on dollars.

And so, that part was the missing piece for us.

And so while we have no shortage and we're grateful for that, our baseball fields or softball fields or soccer fields Lacrosse fields within Saint Joseph County, that gap that I've mentioned now really falls in our most, need time, our greatest need time in the months of December, January, February, March, where hotel occupancy is at its lowest points within Saint Joseph County, where the visitor is not coming to town, where maybe even town is hybrid hibernating a little bit as well.

And so that sense of life and energy that's going to result because of this 220,000 square foot building that now can host volleyball that we couldn't before now can host basketball that we couldn't before in a concerted sort of way, including now pickleball on top of that is really a transformational project that's going to provide those dividends in real short order for us tonight, we're going to take our guests out in a few minutes to see the inside.

But but help describe this facility.

If somebody was asking you about, the Mishawaka Fieldhouse on what it is and they never heard about it, tell us.

Tell us what they'll find when they walk through those front doors.

I would say, the easiest way to describe it is a 220,000 square foot multi-sport facility.

When you walk in your greeted by the front desk, and then the question is, you want to go to the left for basketball, volleyball, do you want to go to the right for pickleball and anything turf related?

So, on the left hand side of our building or the western end, we have ten basketball courts that convert into 19 volleyball courts.

So, we're really excited about the opportunity of what 19 volleyball courts can bring to this area.

As well.

On the eastern side of the building, we have 12 pickleball courts.

These pickleball courts, they're not just, acrylic surface painted on top of concrete.

They're actually on top of a Cusion X system, which is, revolutionary to the area and helps with recovery for anybody that's playing the game, as well as our 70 yard on turf space, which is, divisible into two sections, can provide a variety of opportunity for sports.

Is baseball, lacrosse, football, soccer, anything that can be played outdoors can and can be brought indoors for either practice or some small sided games.

Tony, I, I didn't have the chance to travel the world and look at youth sports complexes, so I don't have a great frame of reference.

I know when I walked through your facility was a little bit blown away.

You know, give us a feel for how special this facility is compared to some of the others that you've seen around the country.

Just size and scope alone.

I mean, the ability to bring in volleyball, for instance, to have that many courts under one roof, just provides an opportunity to bring in a larger audience to create competition levels from, a standpoint that's really not capable in a lot of areas.

That's from the, the regional standpoint, but locally too, this provides an opportunity for all of our teams, clubs, athletes to provide them a space that in most cases would have had two gyms and it provides limited opportunity.

Now.

And, 19 courts or, you know, ten basketball courts really provides a variety of opportunities on a daily basis.

So we can have volleyball going at the same time as basketball practice, as well as, there's families that are watching their, athletes play.

They can play pickleball or they can, do a variety of things inside this building that commonly is, is is not available in a lot of these facilities.

Great.

Guys.

We're gonna take a quick break.

We're going to go out into the field.

George Lepiniotis, my co-host, is out for an inside look at the Mishawaka Fieldhouse.

George, let me toss it to you.

Welcome back.

I am on the northeast side of Mishawaka and I'm joined today by Nick Kleva Nick, you're the VP of marketing and sales here at the Mishawaka Fieldhouse.

Yeah.

Thanks for joining us.

First.

Thanks for having me.

And then secondly, thanks for letting us in this facility.

We've been talking about it for a couple of years.

Last year, Mayor Wood, and I did a segment out in the parking lot.

So this was still there's a lot of welding and and climbing going on, but it's an amazing place.

I mean, I don't know if our viewers can get a scope of the scale of it just on camera, but it's massive.

Yeah, it's 220,000 square foot facility.

We have ten basketball courts that can convert to 19 volleyball courts, 12 pickleball courts which are right behind us, and we have a 70 yard turf field as well.

So a lot of, amenities to offer.

Yeah, it's really, really impressive.

And, for those of for those of our viewers who may not be familiar with this neighborhood, it's just off Capitol Avenue, real close to the toll road entrance, the Granger Mishawaka Toll Road exit.

And it really is a unique development for the city.

Can you talk a little bit about the history of the development and how your group came to be involved in this project?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's kind of predates my previous role, with the, the county, Visit South Bend Mishawaka.

But I've been involved in this project for about 7 or 8 years from the where are we going to put it?

What's it going to include?

Who's going to develop operate it.

But, eventually was, Card and Associates, based out of Indianapolis.

They have four other facilities very similar to this, in the Indy area.

This is their first one outside of the Indianapolis market.

But yeah, this, accessibility was a big thing getting people here for those tournaments.

Where are they coming from?

They're coming off of the toll road.

They're coming up, from Indy off 31.

So Capital Avenue kind of, serves that purpose.

So it was very, strategic on where they're going to put this facility.

And I think, we got a perfect location here in Mishawaka.

Well, and not only that, but the city really does have a desire to grow into this area.

And and then even further east and even further north, the county's doing a lot in this area as well.

So it really is going to be an anchor, right?

Yeah.

They're hoping to do a campus kind of around a sports campus, around this, fieldhouse, whether it has hotels, restaurants, more, attractions for those visitors to come.

So I would say in the next three, five, maybe ten years, eventually you'll might see some other developments around this, because there's a bunch of land, ready for development.

Yeah.

And for those of us who are parents and have young kids still at home, like I do, and, the these types of facilities play a big role.

And so I think, with that, I know the pickleball is interesting, but maybe let's move over to the turf field and see what that feels like and what it's like, you know, just the scope of the thing and how families are going to be spending a lot of time here with their kids.

All right.

Let's do let's do it.

So, Nick, you know, as as I mentioned, it's an impressive facility.

So tell me a little bit about this field.

We were talking about it before we went back on camera.

It's it's turf, but it's maybe more carpet.

Yeah, it's it's a unique, turf.

Carpet.

Kind of, field surface.

So it's it's what they use over in England with a lot of those soccer clubs.

So it's, it's padded.

Then it's a carpet surface, then you have sand, and then it's an infill with some plastic to get the fibers of the carpet to stand up, to play like a true grass surface.

And it really does feel like as I'm standing on it, it's got almost that sponginess of grass, of a thick grass.

So, it's exciting.

It's exciting to, to, to play on.

So.

Okay, so it's a soccer field, right.

But I see canes that's actually field hockey.

That's baseball.

Baseball softball okay.

All right.

And so that would be a backstop.

Yes okay.

All right.

So it can be indoor softball baseball.

It's a multi-purpose field for soccer flag football or even some ultimate frisbee.

Potentially.

But then we have agreement with Canes baseball softball teams that they use half of this turf field for some of their trainings throughout the season.

Oh, I gotcha, okay, so not necessarily a tournament indoors, but at least training throughout the offseason.

Yep.

Awesome.

All right.

And as we look to the future what do you think is coming down the pipe?

I know we've got you know you've got some tournaments in pickleball.

You've got some soccer tournaments coming up.

You have some volleyball tournaments coming up.

What do you see the future holding for this facility?

Well, our goal is to fill this, facility 52 weeks out of the year.

But then this is also just a phase one of what could be here on this campus.

We could even have a phase two phase three.

That could include a hotel, maybe some housing.

Maybe some additional baseball softball fields, outdoors, soccer fields, football fields, potentially some ice hockey rink.

So the, the conversations are still ongoing.

So again, this is just the start of what could be here on this, sports campus.

And before we talking about schedule, before we went on air, you said that you are booked through the middle of 2025 already?

Yes.

If you had have you guys put numbers to that?

I mean, we're talking about thousands and thousands of visitors to the Mishawaka area.

We are.

Yeah.

So it's primarily volleyball tournaments because we have a NIVA Northern Indiana Volleyball Association using this home as well.

So they have about 1800 kids and all those teams will be practicing here.

But then they're going to be using, tournament time as well.

So we have a large, tournament, 300 team tournament, Mother's Day weekend.

So, I mean, the numbers are incredible.

Well, good luck in the future.

Thanks to you again for joining in and hearing about our stories.

The Mishawaka Fieldhouse is an impressive facility and just another example of how our municipalities are working hard to attract private development and make sure they continue to grow in unique and very fun ways.

Great.

All right.

We're back in the studio.

We're continuing our discussion about Mishawaka Fieldhouse.

Tony, thanks for the sneak peek inside.

We're glad we could take our viewers in there and get a chance to look at it.

So Jeff, I want to follow up.

We were talking right before we went out.

Just the uniqueness of this.

You've had a chance just to, during your travels to be in different places, give us a feel for this versus maybe some of the others that you've been in.

Yeah, it's really incredible.

I mean, there is so many factors that go into and I think that was part of Indy Card's vision that really started when he was a traveling sport parent himself, and going in and out of these facilities that were dilapidated or didn't have natural light or didn't have good concessions.

And you're there and you're trapped and you're trying to figure out what to do and, how to entertain not only the kid that's playing, but the other kids of yours that are with you.

And so and on that day and so, the design and especially as a former volleyball coach, that on the club side of it, the creature comforts those things that you expect, not only in terms of the competition side, but then the rest of it when you're not playing to be able to spread out, to certainly have ample Wi-Fi, to have an incredible kitchen that's built out within the fieldhouse, that makes it so that you don't have to even leave the facility.

And beyond that, I think another five years from now, the Juday Creek business Park, it's going to look a lot different.

There's going to be infrastructure in the sense of hotels and restaurants and amenities and attractions and things to do while you're not perhaps playing or experience being there.

But until then, certainly Mishawaka Fieldhouse says all you might want, and even more than what you might expect.

Tony, I'm gonna come back to you because I want to spin on a point.

You were talking about before because, like, we we love the tourism impact.

If people are going to come stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants and some of that stuff that you touched on the the local community really benefiting from this too.

You've got a facility that you need to fill seven days a week.

You can't do tournaments probably seven days a week, build on just sort of the local community benefiting from what you're doing there.

Sure.

Yeah.

From the standpoint of the facility, obviously the club sports, will be frequenting them and the 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. when the kids are in school.

Which is great.

We have NIVA for volleyball and 5 Star for basketball, canes for baseball.

We also have, pickleball that runs from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., which provides, a variety of times for people to reserve and, and jump right on the, court reserve and reserve their time for them.

Outside of that, too, we have space in our non-peak hours that are great.

They were looking for all types of partners, whether it be local colleges or adult leagues.

Any type of, opportunity.

We're we're definitely interested in entertaining.

Great.

And, Tony, I want to stick with you a little bit because as you're now working to fill the schedule, you're filling it with sort of those locals, but also the tournament kind of stuff.

Just just talk about the maybe the reaction from from folks who are looking to bring a tournament here.

Some things that we might see at the Fieldhouse even in the year to come.

Yeah.

So, we're fielding calls all the time.

We get calls daily.

Nick Kleva, who's in, responsible for booking those larger events, has put a bunch of them on the calendar.

We have, large volleyball tournaments coming in and starting in January, all the way through May.

February will actually see a cheer event that will be hosted there nationally.

So that's, pretty exciting.

We're have pickleball tournaments that will bring in some of the nation's best players from the surrounding area.

We, we have a variety of opportunities.

We're looking at, boxing matches, basketball tournaments that are coming in, that weren't able to be hosted before.

So the ten courts give us a lot of opportunity to do so different come your way.

Because as we kicked off the official opening, there was a little pickleball happening there.

You and Tony, teamed up with that.

Talk to us a little bit about just sort of the the thing that opened the doors there.

Yeah.

You know, well, it's not a new sport.

It is newer to Saint Joseph County in terms of having that sort of quality facility in conjunction then with another venue that's just down the road, about a mile and a half college H2 pickleball.

And so the idea to then have a critical mass of courts, let alone have something that's going to be that local amenity, but they can also bring in sports tourism that wasn't specific to age or ability level.

But we wanted to differentiate ourselves as a tournament in a first ever tournament.

So we're pleased to be able to sponsor the event to the tune of about $15,000.

And that went to the ultimate prize purse.

That was about $19,200, that went to each of those different age groups, or divided against those age groups.

And, that brought in 403 players from across, I think 13 or 14 different states, that stayed and competed for three different days.

And a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

And so as an inaugural event, to really establish ourselves as, having that potential to be a destination for pickleball.

In addition to any number of other sports and events within that facility, as well as open the doors and something that would be not only a good test run, but a good first experience.

It hit on so many different elements, it hit on the experience.

For those that were participating.

It hit on the opportunity for those that came out to watch and is certainly hit on the economic driver that we think the Mishawaka Fieldhouse well to be different.

Stay with you to talk about this economic driver piece because because a lot of different other attractions, restaurants, hotels all tell about just that driver impact on how the the traffic that's here for pickleball, volleyball, whatever.

Then goes out in the community and spends those dollars.

Yeah.

So not only did it take just a ton, just, Tony had mentioned to get to that point in terms of the community, including the Regional Development Authority, that that contributed, more than $5 million to the project.

Certainly the vision from their wood and Ken Prince and the City of Mishawaka side, I believe and frankly, the patience for him and Indy Card to, work with us over those 6 to 7, eight years to bring this to fruition.

But now the impact is going to be real.

And certainly the hotel Motel Tax Board believes in this as well.

With about a $1.1 million going to that facility towards the operation and paying off the bonds that were associated with the construction.

But we also think that return is real, and we think they're going to be more than a million people through those doors each and every year.

We believe they're going to be more than 20,000 hotel room nights that are associated with that.

And as part of our work, we are able to bring in and account for about 43,000 hotel room nights through youth sports today.

And so the idea that we can, bring in 50% of that number and a segment that we weren't able to capitalize on before to get something north of 60, 70, maybe 80,000 room nights and go from $27 million of economic impact to maybe something closer to 40 or $50 million of economic impact just through youth sports.

And those folks then that are coming in, are staying multiple days in hotels or eating at the restaurants or going to our stores and maybe even most importantly, walking away from Saint Joseph County with a really good experience and a really good memory so that they come back and visit us the second time when maybe they don't have to through sport.

Great, Tony, that's coming your way.

As we get into our last few minutes.

So that talk about, you know, maybe two things.

One, a little bit about what's ahead and then two, how our viewers plug in, right.

It like if somebody's sitting at home saying, I, I don't play pickleball, I'm not in a basketball league.

Like help them understand how they plug in up there.

Sure.

Yeah.

The best way to do it, I tell everybody, is first up on our website, we got some great footage of the facility that you can even have a drone fly through, and you can actually see the building without stepping on property.

And if that excites you, and then you're so interested more stop on by.

We'll be happy to, show you around, provide you with as much information as we can, and, hopefully get you connected, whether it's a kid or a grandkid or, membership to pickleball.

Yeah.

And I think that's a great example of as, like, pickleball grows this, as you mentioned, it's 7 to 10 every day.

There's chances probably for leagues and other kind of things there to plug people in.

Yeah, definitely.

If you come out to I would say come between about 6 to 8:00 and that place will be rocking and rolling and it's it's great to see the families, the kids, the smiles.

It's it's really exciting.

Great.

Jeff, for our last two minutes.

Really.

So you've got a new tool in your tool belt is are out, you know, kind of, you know, selling this, give us, you know, kind of the final word a little bit on, on what this means to your efforts to try to help sell tourism in our area.

Yeah, it's similar with the University of Notre Dame is our number one attraction, with more than 60% of the visitors, which total is about 5.7 million people each.

And every year coming to Saint Joseph County, 60% are attributed to the University of Notre Dame.

But now having the sports component associated with that is just tremendous, that that's really a differentiating factor for us.

And so while the youth sports movement isn't new, it's certainly growing.

These buildings and these facilities, from courts to fields to indoor components, are, starting to appear in each and every, neighborhood and, and community around the country.

And so when you put together the total package of what we have to offer in Saint Joseph County, from 50 to 3 different hotels to the incredible Mishawaka Fieldhouse and the Compton Family Ice Arena, and our number one attraction in University of Notre Dame, that's a global brand.

It's a compelling package that we have in Saint Joseph County, and we think it's only going to grow from here.

Guys, thank you both for your good work on this.

Tony.

Wish you much success as this launches.

And like I say, you got an amazing facility, put a good leadership team together.

We're excited about what this means.

Jeff, thanks for the work you're doing on the tourism space.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching on WNIT or listening to our podcast, Find Economic on wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms like us on Facebook.

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I'm Jeff Rea I'll see you next time.

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