(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
SPOKANE, Wash. -Spokane County Commissioners have approved a $25 million bond to help build the Spokane Sportsplex. The Sportsplex would be a multi-purpose sports facility. It would be able to host national and local sporting events "We are almost at the end of the big phase which is we've identified the funding. The county, as you know, quoted to sell bonds for us, and the cities provided the land and will be providing us a 5 million dollar contribution as well." said Vice-Chairman of the Facilities District Larry Sohren.
Sohren says that since this project is in the very early stages of development, the look is still a work in progress. But the Sportsplex was inspired by the Birmingham Crosssplex in Alabama. Spokane's would be smaller in size. As of right now it's slated to be about 180,000 square feet and will have a lot to offer "So what we'll have is two main components a field house and an ice house. So the ice house will be an NHL sized rink with some seating capacity in there, and the field house will have one of its marquee attractions a 200-meter indoor banked track which is a new trend in track and field," added Sohren.
1,000 seats will also be added to the rink. The Sportsplex will have 17 volleyball courts, 10 basketball courts, and 21 wrestling mats. Once built, the Sportsplex would generate an estimated $33 million in direct tourism spending with an expected 46,000 annual hotel stays bringing in at the high end 23,000 more tourists to Spokane each year.
This sportsplex will be the only one on the west coast. The design and build process hopefully will start in June with a final design at the end of the year with groundbreaking starting early in 2019.