Sunday, July 10, 2005
At NKU, no dream is too big
What if we provided fields, pools, tennis for the community?
By Patrick Crowley
Enquirer staff writer
COMPONENTS OF NKU'S DREAM SPORTS FACILITY
Northern Kentucky University wants to develop a $115 million sports complex that would be used by students, faculty, staff and members of the community. It would be at least six to seven years before the complex would open.
The complex would include:
1,000-seat soccer stadium
1,000-seat track-and-field facility
800- to 1,000-seat baseball stadium
Practice fields
Youth sports fields
Indoor and outdoor swimming pools
Indoor and outdoor tennis courts
Walking and jogging trails
Parking
Retail and residential development
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS - Northern Kentucky University has begun the preliminary planning for a $115 million, 100-acre sports complex that would be used by the university as well as the community.
A master plan of the ambitious - and unfunded - project will be unveiled at Wednesday's Board of Regents meeting.
President James Votruba said the project would provide new athletic fields and fitness facilities for the university as well as youth sports fields, walking and jogging trails, tennis courts, swimming pools and more for the general public.
Formal discussions on how to pay for the complex have not started. It is doubtful the state would pay for such a project, so NKU will likely try to partner with a private developer to build the complex on land the university owns southwest of campus along John's Hill Road.
Some land would be made available for a residential development, which might make the project more attractive to a private developer. Or a developer might be wooed to do individual parcels of the project, such as the swimming pool.
NKU may also try to raise money from individuals, companies and organizations.
"Obviously the resources aren't available in one fell swoop," said Ken Ramey, vice president for administration and finance. "So we'll have to do it in stages."
Votruba and university officials acknowledge it will be, at the very least, a few years before work on the complex could begin.
"This is a large master plan for a recreation center that would include both intercollegiate and community recreation," Votruba said. "In the grandest form it would include swimming pools, tennis courts, soccer fields, softball fields, baseball fields and much more.
"It's a huge cost," he said. "But you have to start with a dream."
Votruba envisions the complex not only enhancing NKU's athletic facilities but also providing a service to the community and attracting people to campus.
"One of Kentucky's challenges is to get more young people going to college and more adults returning to college," Votruba said. "One of the problems is youngsters growing up have never been on a college campus and have no connection to a college in any way.
"The thought of being able to bring young people and families on campus to a hub for community life, much in the same way Newport on the Levee is a hub for entertainment, is spectacular," he said.
According to the university's Facilities Management Presidential Report, building the soccer field would be a priority. Because there is no on-campus soccer field, NKU's teams play their games at the Town and Country Sports Complex in nearby Wilder.
"We don't even have a practice field on campus for soccer," Ramey said. "So that would be our first priority in the first phase."
The complex would also include a track-and-field stadium. NKU does not currently have track-and-field teams, but it is considering starting first a women's team and eventually a men's squad, Ramey said.
Intramurals, one of the most popular student activities, could also use the facility.
Work on most of the complex could not be completed until construction starts on a planned road that would connect NKU's campus with the AA Highway in Wilder. The road is in the design phase but the construction has not been funded by state and federal governments.
Because the complex is planned on land that is largely a ravine, the university needs the fill dirt from the road project to level the ground, said Larry Blake, NKU's assistant vice president for facilities management.
That road project won't be completed for six to seven years, Blake said.
"If we can do something to improve the university and the community with a park-like setting," Ramey said, "it's wonderful."
Neil Hollingsworth, a Fort Thomas parent of four and a youth football and basketball coach, says that with Northern Kentucky's growing population, the sports complex would have no problem attracting teams and generating use.
"I look at a place like (Middleton) Mills Road Park," a Kenton County park that includes baseball, soccer and football fields along with walking trails, Hollingsworth said. "We could use more facilities like that in Campbell County and Northern Kentucky."
Hollingsworth also likes NKU's strategy of using the complex to attract people to campus.
"That's a great idea, because the more kids know about the university the better chance they have of going there," he said.
E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com
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