Better use for Betz Farm?

Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent time photographing the 352 Legends flag football league out at the park complex in Homosassa. I have had a couple of conversations with coaches and parents about the need for more fields. All of the commissioners have discussed it recently and all seem to agree that more fields are needed. Commissioner Davis has mentioned tourist tax collections may be able to help pay for it. Commissioner Finegan has made this one of her priorities of her term.

But what does this look like?

The county is currently doing a feasibility study. I do not know where that stands, but it is not done yet. In the meantime, someone passed along this graphic to me. This is designed on the 44 acres the county owns in Homosassa.

This is not necessarily the final layout the county will go with, but I think this gives a general idea on what is possible for this location. Appears to have space for 5 soccer/football fields, 4 softball fields and 4 baseball fields.

The problem we have in this county is field space. There are several leagues that are trying to share the county assets and its a struggle. Not only is the issue scheduling, but field restoration. Part of the problem we have is that the fields are in constant use. There is no time for the grass to recover. High School fields get used basically non stop from August through January between football and soccer seasons, but largely unused after soccer season through spring, except for track season, but they do not utilize the field grass as heavily.

So there is time for the fields to recover. The rec fields... no downtime from my understanding. Someone shared some images of the poor conditions at Holden Park a few months ago which is largely a soccer facility in Inverness. Not even sure I would call them grass fields based on those images.

This new facility will help alleviate some of those problems by adding more fields. But as you can see, that location is capped. It is 44 acres and once built out, thats it. There is no room for growth... and I am willing to bet, these additional fields do not even meet the demand of these youth leagues/programs, but certainly better than we have now.

What if we had a large parcel of property where this could work... hmmm... Wait, we have Betz Farm.

The problem is that it is under contract for development to sell it for $6m. The BOCC for whatever reason decided to amend the contract to allow him to close whenever he gets the approvals he needs. That was foolish.

Here is the latest plan.

1400 homes/townhomes. Roads.. Commercial property and so on. LOTS of development. I've written a ton about this, so will not dive into specifics.

However, importantly, I found a way out of the contract, so if commissioners wanted to get out, there is likely an out. This might give them motivation.

What if we looked long term and thought about a sports complex that can also generate revenue? Youth sports are skyrocketing in popularity. Travel teams, rec leagues and so on are more popular than ever... and parents are willing to spend a TON of money for their kids to participate.

There are opportunities in this space to generate a ton of revenue. My daughter plays competitive volleyball and we are traveling all over the place playing in various facilities, spending money out of this county. Why can't we bring some of that here?

The major problem is the lack of fields, but Betz can solve that problem. Here is an example.

First... I am not proposing that this is the layout. I have no idea the best way to layout a facility. I just wanted to show you what it could look like. These are drawn to scale based on high school field dimensions. May not be 100% accurate but pretty darn close using Google's measure feature to get the scaling.

This proposes 9 full size football/soccer fields.... 8 full size softball fields... 8 full size baseball fields... and my favorite... a 8 lane rubberized track, which would have space for another full size football/soccer field in the middle. This could be a stadium type thing for championship games.

Still plenty of space to expand if needed. The County can add walking/running trails. That opens opportunities for cross country races and adventure races. There is plenty of room to build a large gymnasium for basketball and volleyball... speaking of.. there really isn't a basketball league in this county because there is not nearly enough indoor space for that. This can help solve that problem.

But more importantly, look how much space is left and how many trees remain? Replace this with a housing complex and you see what we lose. Now, this doesn't include parking, so more area will be used for that, but you get the idea. Its largely protected and not developed.

We are the nature coast right?

As far as revenue sources. Citrus County is in Central Florida. The parkway entrance/exit will soon be right down the road. There are several hotels around this area... several RV parks as well. Why would this area not be desired by traveling teams to travel here for their sports tournaments.

The county can add sports tourism board or something to help guide this. Work with local businesses to build sports packages that also utilize other businesses throughout the county. Not only can the local youth use these facilities, but it helps the county generate revenue in an ever-growing industry that spends billions annually.

Now.. big question.. What does all this cost? I have zero idea... but it wont be cheap. However, I am told there are several large entities that have money to spend on youth fields like this throughout the country and we can tap into those funds. We can explore local fundraising. I would have to think that if the animal shelter could raise around $4 million, there is no reason to think that something like this could not do the same.

But this is going to take the BOCC to get a backbone and cancel the Betz Farm contract. I know of two that will likely be on board with that tomorrow. However, you have three that appear to be fond of the idea of turning this into another housing development.

The question is... do we want 1400 more homes and commercial property developments over at Betz or something else?

Still lots to figure out before this could potentially be a thing... but remember, Betz was accepted by the county for this very reason... to create youth fields and conservation... NOT for a housing development. Maybe it is time we remind the commissioners about that.