By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph community alliance is looking at the feasibility to determine the addition of a new sports facility.
The community alliance is made up of the St. Joseph city council, Buchanan County commission, Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Western, and the St. Joseph Visitors Bureau.
City Manager Bryan Carter says part of adding this new facility would be for youth athletics, but he also says this current study is unique.
“This isn’t a situation where we’re picking out exactly what it would be and determining if that would be feasibly,” Carter tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. ” But instead, we are looking at this general world of youth athletics and seeing if there’s something related to youth athletics that could be placed in St. Jose that would benefit the community.”
Carter says the study will help determine if this new facility is something that will be a help to the community rather than a burden that would take up valuable resources.
With so much sports history in Carter says this new facility won’t just be about adding to the already rich history of softball in St. Joseph
“We’re going to go into it looking at is building our softball history the answer, is that something that would benefit the community?” Carter explains. “Or do we build on something else, do we look at an emerging soccer situation, do we look at a flexible indoor space that would solve a whole lot of basketball court accessibility issues that we have?”
Carter says there are a number of different things that can be used, but views the new facility as something that supplements what already exists here.
Carter says the biggest keyword they’ll look for with this new facility is sustainability
“Because the biggest element to this is we don’t need to come out of this creating a new burden, creating something else that strains existing resources,” Carter says. “Ideally, we come out of this with a new amenity, but one that supplements the amenities we already have, it grows the amenities that we already have.”
Carter says it’s hard to maintain a sustainable mindset, but believes if something hopes to be as successful in year 12 as it was in year one, it needs to be sustainable.
