LAKEWOOD RANCH -- A 70-acre sports complex touted as an economic development engine for Manatee County has been named the Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch.
And it has a logo, too: a shield with soccer, lacrosse and baseball players, a few of the sports expected to be played on the sea of grass near the Lakewood Ranch Post Office.
In announcing the new name Monday, Rex Jensen, president and chief executive officer of developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, invited guests at a press conference to look from State Road 70 north to a treeline on the horizon and envision it filled with thousands of players.
That is the scope of the Premier Sports Campus, a place where families, recreation and economic development will merge, he said.
Hundreds of soccer teams are expected to participate in a series of tournaments planned at the complex, with the first one hosted by anchor tenant Clearwater Chargers on April 30.
Each player is typically accompanied by at least three family members, filling restaurants and hotels, and pumping fresh cash into the economy of Manatee and Sarasota, said Jason Puckett, sports manager for Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The economic impact of that one tourney has been forecast at $700,000.
It’s likely that one or more hotels will eventually be built in the vicinity to help accommodate the visitors, Jensen said.
“We have had many inquiries already from across the United States and Europe,” said Tim Mulqueen, director of sports.
The inquiries have come from youth sports teams, as well as professional teams, looking for a new training facility, Mulqueen said.
Among those expected to come to the complex is Tim Howard, American national team goalkeeper. Howard will start a goalkeepers’ academy at Lakewood Ranch this year, Mulqueen said. By 2012, the Howard academy will operate year-round.
“America’s future national team players are playing on youth fields across the country and the Premier Sports Campus is the perfect facility for maximizing youth development,” Howard said in a statement read at the press conference.
The Premier Sports Campus will be the largest of its kind in Florida, Mulqueen said.
Rob O’Nan of the Clearwater Chargers said Lakewood Ranch is well known to his organization, which has held a number of events over the years at the Sarasota Polo Club.
One of those events, the Puma Challenge, was worth $4.5 million to Manatee-Sarasota over a five-year period, O’Nan said.
“There is nothing else like this in the state of Florida,” O’Nan said.
The gates are wide open to a new kind of economic development with the new complex -- “the Daytona 500 in grass sports,” said Joe Pickett, Manatee County sports commissioner.
The sports complex shows how a master planned community can become a regional hub of economic development, said Craig Cerretta, a board member of the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance.
Mercedes Movilla, a Lakewood Ranch architect whose 14-year-old son is a soccer player, submitted the winning name of Premier Sports Complex. She received a $1,000 prize.
Michael Muscarella of Sarasota submitted the winning logo design. He received a $2,000 cash reward.
Nearly 500 entries were submitted in the two contests, Mulqueen said.
The Clearwater Chargers have set tryouts for their soccer academy on May 4. Tryouts for a competitive league have been set for May 31. The Chargers are expected to form a recreation league for players 4-19 this fall.
James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.
