Field house a new goal for Aurora Sports Park super-complex

AURORA | The massive 224-acre Aurora Sports Park on East Colfax Avenue may grow even a little larger and attract even more athletes, as the city is exploring adding a field house to the complex that already keeps busy all year long.

Aurora Parks, Recreation and Open Space purchased two parcels of land along Colfax in 2014 with a park expansion in mind. The western parcel was developed with synthetic turf fields, which have been a major draw in the last three years. The fields, which opened in December 2015, are painted for various sports, and because the fields don’t require sunny summer weather to keep green and are equipped with lights, the fields stay packed even when there is less daylight and summer is long gone.

This fall the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams at Johnson and Wales will practice and play home matches on the Aurora fields.

“In 2017 we have (so far) booked over 60 rentals on the synthetic turf fields and 90 percent of those rentals are recurring rentals,” said Paul Smith, a recreation specialist with the city. “The Triple Crown Fireworks Tournament utilized the turf fields this year to host a Speed and Agility Combine for the softball players to use to for college recruitment.”

The 12 baseball and softball diamonds and up to 27 soccer or multi-purpose fields at the complex attract more than 350,000 athletes each year.

But the complex’s east parcel is vacant, making it an obvious potential spot for an indoor facility, a field house. The addition is only in the “idea stage,” Smith said.

In 2012 Parks, Recreation & Open Space hired a consultant that completed a Field House Feasibility Study. The report concluded the location of the later-purchased parcel was a good future spot for a field house because of easy access, existing facilities and population base.

The study also recommended looking for sponsorship opportunities, according to city documents.

“We would look to have the field house complement, support and enhance the existing sports that we offer and host at the Aurora Sports Park,” Smith said.

The potential for the field house could be just as much as the turf fields with accessibility for soccer, softball, baseball, football and lacrosse.

“We would also like to incorporate sports camps, college camps, day care field trips, team rentals and potentially some youth and adult leagues with the addition of a field house as well,” Smith said. “Our initial idea would be to have turf space that is multipurpose and multi-functioning in the field house. That would include field space for rentals, practices, camps and leagues as well as indoor tunnel space for softball and baseball training.”

The new venue would obviously mean many more events and options for athletes, too. Unlike the turf fields the field house would be indoors, offering protection from wind and rain. Most field houses look like giant warehouses from the outside, but often with indoor full-sized turf fields.

“We feel that the community and our current customers would value and be excited about the possibility of an indoor space to train and practice at Aurora Sports Park during and in between seasons,” Smith said. “The field house would give athletes who visit the park for competitions an opportunity to elevate their game even more.”

The field house is far from a done deal, even though the location looks promising.

The next step for Parks, Recreation & Open Spaces is preparing a request for proposal to look for potential private partners to develop and operate a future field house at the sports park.