City of Morgan Hill Bikeways, Trails, Parks and Recreation Master Plan

Section 7: Recommendations | May 2017 Sports Market Business Strategy – Morgan Hill, CA PAGE 104

2. MULTIPURPOSE INDOOR FACILITY

We recommend the City also consider a feasibility study on the development of a multipurpose indoor facility. Focus group and stakeholder conversations made it clear that there is local demand for indoor space for sports and non-sporting events, particularly during the winter months. The facility could also be attractive for athletes and teams from cold-weather climates that are looking for winter training locations. Initially, the facility will cater to local use for practice, camps, clinics and local tournaments. Once the market has time to mature and a DMO can be developed the City can begin to consider expansion of the facility to accommodate larger events. The space should be flexible to accommodate as many uses as possible. A new facility should include some or all of the following base amenities:

 Indoor turf field (200’ x 85’)  4-6 hardcourts surfaces  Retail space  Locker rooms  Meeting Rooms/Community space

A facility with this type of program will be approximately 85,000 square feet and would require approximately three acres of land (including parking). The cost of such a facility will depend on a number of factors, including land acquisition, new-build versus renovation of an existing structure, building materials and facility amenities. As such, it is difficult to provide a price estimate, however a feasibility study could include potential cost estimates.

3. BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL COMPLEX

Lastly, the City of Morgan Hill should consider an investment in local baseball and softball fields. Given the inventory of existing baseball complexes regionally, the new fields should focus on an investment at the local level since the regional tournament market is saturated with baseball and softball complexes. As shown in Section 5, the regional baseball and softball market is saturated with facilities with four competitive baseball facilities located within a 50-mile radius of Morgan Hill. Therefore, it would be more practical for the City to focus on local baseball and softball needs in the short term, including practice, leagues and potentially local tournaments. If the goal is to attract sports tourism through large tournaments, it would make more sense for Morgan Hill to invest in a different facility type – one that is not common throughout the region. The City has purchased land in the South East Quadrant that would be ideal for baseball/softball fields. Local participation is strong at the youth level, but there is a shortage of local fields in both sports, particularly for practice. The inventory of local fields includes those at Britton School, Burnett School and El Toro School. We met with representatives of both sports who have resorted to hosting practices on the properties of local residents, essentially in their backyards. Adding new fields to the Morgan Hill market would allow for an

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