Sports Facilities Advisory (SFA) Confirms The Youth Sports Industry is Producing A Real Estate Development Boom

Due to the meteoric rise in popularity of youth travel sports, traditional parks and recreation agencies alone often cannot fulfill the demand in most communities. This service gap has spurred massive investments by private sector developers and pubic private partnerships in the form of real estate and facility development.  As of 2019, the youth and amateur travel sports industry has been valued at more than $24.9 billion (Evergreen Research, Inc) and is predicted to grow to $77.5 billion worldwide by 2026. While this figure is still far from reaching the economic impact of traditional parks and recreation ($154 billion in 2015 alone, according to the National Recreation and Parks Association), the rate of development and growth year over year is producing sports facilities of a never-before-seen size and price tag.

In an effort to capitalize on the multi-billion-dollar youth sports tourism industry, public and private developers are racing to build the next generation of elite sports complexes. “This new facility development boom has been overwhelmingly positive” says youth and amateur sports industry expert and CEO of the Sports Facilities Advisory Dev Pathik.  It has led to billions in construction and economic development and it has provided the many benefits of sports participation to tens of millions of kids”.

Among the industry’s most notable venues are the newly-opened $42 million Cedar Point Sports Center (Sandusky, OH), Elizabethtown Sports Park & Bluegrass SportsPlex (Elizabethtown, KY), the 160-acre Panama City Beach Sports Complex (Panama City Beach, FL), and the early innovator Grand Park Sports Campus (Westfield, IN). As more communities are researching the possibilities of sports tourism, there are new sports complex ideas being announced in local media (like this ‘mega sports complex’ in Temple, TX) and RFP’s for design, consulting, and outsourced management released each month.

According to Pathik, “We have seen increasing collaboration between the public sector and private developers and operators within the competitive youth travel sports space.  We are now seeing signs that parks and recreation departments are increasingly open to public-private-partnerships. There is a real opportunity for parks and recreation to more actively engage the private sector in support of local parks and recreation goals.  With proper financial and economic data, parks and recreation directors can be a leading voice in the promotion and development of sport — collaborating with private organizations when it comes to managing and building business-focused.”

About The Sports Facilities Companies

The Sports Facilities Companies (SFC) are the Nation’s leading resources for the management and development of sports, recreation, wellness, and events facilities. As a turn-key solution for community leaders and developers alike, SFC services span the gamut of sports and recreation needs from sports tourism & recreation master planning, program planning, and feasibility through professional facility management services. Our 50+ managed venues and 2500+ team members, represented by the SF Network, welcome more than 25 million guest visits and produce over $500 million in economic impact each year. To learn more, please visit SportsFacilities.com and theSFnetwork.com.