The Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted 4-1 to approve Clearwater-based Sports Facilities Companies (SFC) as the new management company to operate the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus (WRSC), which has been managed by Pasco’s Parks & Recreation Dept. since the county agreed to buy out the contract of WRSC’s previous operator (RADDSports) in June of 2023.
Under the newly approved agreement with SFC, which manages 90 sports facilities throughout the U.S., the county will pay SFC $750,000 — an initial financial commitment of $500,000, which Florida’s Sports Coast’s deputy director of tourism Consuelo Sanchez called “bridge funding to offset potential revenue shortfalls,” plus a “Management fee” of $18,000 per month “paid of the Operating Account (account managed by SFC, which serves as the central fund to collect facility revenue and disburse expenses) and “Up to $250,000 for Facility Floor Resurfacing Reimbursement,” since the Sports Campus’ “gym floors have never been resurfaced since the facility opening in 2020. This necessary upgrade must be completed regardless of facility management to ensure athlete safety, event eligibility and competitive standards.”
District 5 Pasco Commissioner Jack Mariano raised the question of whether or not SFC was planning to provide additional parking for the Sports Campus, which already has a huge lack of proper available parking, even though nothing in the agreement the commissioners approved mentions parking. Sanchez, however, said that SFC does plan to conduct a parking feasibility study “which they have six months to complete.” SFC founding partner Eric Sullivan, who also appeared at the meeting, confirmed that SFC is planning to conduct the study and noted, “That we know additional parking is needed at the facility.” Pasco Parks & Rec Dept. director Keith Wiley said that it appears that the only available space for more parking at the facility is located north of the 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor gym, which already is north of the five outdoor fields.
The resolution passed 4-1, with Mariano’s the only “Nay” vote because of the parking concerns.
Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter, who attended the meeting, but was not asked to speak, told the Neighborhood News after the meeting, “We are very pleased with the approval by the Board of the outside operator. From our conversations and research, they [SFC] seem more than capable of running the facility as the donation agreement outlines as an upper echelon sports tourism facility. We look forward to [SFC] raising the bar of the tournaments and tax dollars brought into Pasco County.”
More details of the new management agreement will be provided in the July 8 edition of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News.
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