As much as I give well-deserved but unmitigated grief to members of the Starkville Board of Aldermen, in the interest of fairness, I must also give a thumbs up to them for their support of a game-changing move for the city’s future.
This was a momentous week in economic development terms. The board approved the LINK’s preferred option for the construction of an industrial park. Though a gamble, it was the recommendation of the professionals we have tasked to help us get industry suited to our community.
Spurred along by the very vocal and visible support of the business community and the university, the board took that leap of faith.
It is an extraordinary joint city and county project whose cost will be shared by both entities. It isn’t a perfect balance of cost sharing, but we think it is worth the differential. That sharing should continue to be the model not the exception for economic development projects.
It isn’t unprecedented. Take the Mississippi Horse Park; it is a product of financial and community support by the county, city and MSU.
What is the next big opportunity? How about tournament level sports facilities? It sounds like a perfect joint endeavor with mutual benefits for all parties…..Like the LINK park, it isn’t a perfect balance of cost benefit, but it could help erase the city’s differential financial burden from the slightly lopsided LINK project.
The city received the draft of a professional, comprehensive look at the existing park system. There were several public input sessions and surveys from attendees as well as mail-out surveys. The result gives us a clear look at what is and what might be. It was designed to develop a vision for city leaders to draw from in charting the future of the park system.
It was a thorough and professionally developed process. From all appearances the resulting product bears that out. It gives an in-depth, very revealing picture of our parks and the needs as viewed by the users and the professionals.
The entire report is a great example of what a skilled team brings to the analysis of an issue. They made recommendations for the efficient and effective use of the existing parks and the personnel who manage them.
Though the quality of our local park system has an undeniable impact on economic attractiveness to potential businesses, it is purely peripheral when compared to the economic development impact of a sports park investment.
That will provide an almost immediate return on the outlay. There will be no 10 year delay for tax abatements or TIFs. It will begin giving back in full measure as soon as the first tournament is held.
Get the report from the city’s website at cityofstarkville.org; skip to page 59 and study the next 7 pages. That is the best argument for immediate action toward creating a tournament level sports complex.
Our local active park system is widely used by residents of Starkville and Oktibbeha County. Visitors come for tournaments and tournaments create the “low hanging fruit” of the hotel, food and beverage tax impact argument.
The conservative estimate says on any given weekend an average baseball tournament at a facility adequately designed for them brings new money into the economy in the neighborhood of $500,000. At that rate, it doesn’t take too many weekends to pay for the note and the maintenance.
We have been eclipsed by cities like Oxford who saw that potential and are competing for big tournaments. They constructed facilities to attract those large softball, baseball and soccer tournaments. That revenue should be ours for the taking.
There is land out there to be donated and the opportunity to create for ourselves a thoroughly competitive sports community is at our fingertips.
Think what it would mean if the city and the county shared some of the cost. Perhaps MSU could see to facilitate a naming partnership with Adidas that would then foster the best of our Mississippi youth athletic talent signing with MSU.
Is this Starkville’s year? A partnership school, an industrial park and an economic development level investment in tournament sports. Let’s see if the business community is willing to step up one more time for a triple sweep.
When our vision of what can be melds into a picture that inspires and creates synergy on multiple plains, we have put our community on a path that has unlimited potential.
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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