This proposed $150 million soccer complex could be home to a Fort Worth pro team
To capture an estimated $16 million from the youth soccer industry, a Fort Worth city councilman is championing a plan to bring an 8,000-seat stadium and more than a dozen soccer fields to a vacant area in the middle of the city’s booming suburbs.
The ambitious plan, tentatively called the Fort Worth Star, also features an unnamed professional soccer team to anchor the stadium and significant development at Interstate 35W and Basswood Boulevard. A performing arts center is also included near 16 soccer fields. The land is owned by a South Carolina-based charitable trust that signed a letter of intent to sell part of the land to city for community use.
The $150 million project requires the backing of the city, the Keller school district and private developers.
The pitch came not from a soccer association or developer. Instead, Fort Worth councilman Cary Moon spearheaded the idea and briefed the Keller school board on the concept Monday night.
“There’s a lot of demand, a lot of people knocking on the door to bring sports to Fort Worth,” Moon said.
Moon hopes to broker a deal between the city, the school district and a private sports operations firm. The concept would require a special 25-year taxing district to support city bonds and a financial commitment from the school district.
He hopes the project will break ground by late 2021.
Preliminary talks have been with Neltex Sports to operate the sports complex. That’s the group led by Donnie Nelson, the Dallas Mavericks general manager and president of basketball operations. It brought independent baseball to Cleburne and Grand Prairie.
Moon, a member of the city’s Sports Authority board, has been working on the project for some time and described it to the Star-Telegram last week. His presentation to the Keller school board was the first public unveiling of the elaborate concept, though City Hall officials and council members had been aware of it. The proposed complex is in Moon’s council district and he has two children in the Keller school district.
He told the Star-Telegram he would not personally profit from the development.
“As a parent, I want to give our kids a better field on which to compete and better a stage on which to perform,” Moon said.
The pitch is in response to a 2019 Sports Authority study that showed the city would gain nearly $12 million to more than $16 million per year in economic impact if a large multi-field sports complex existed. The study called for a multi-sport approach and a $50 million commitment from the city. A second study looked at possible locations near Texas Wesleyan on the east side and the massive Walsh development in west Fort Worth, Moon said.
The project has two hurdles: budget impacts and crowd limits from the COVID-19 pandemic. Moon said the project should be budget neutral if costs are paid for with increased taxes, ticket sales and other revenues.
“We just have to decide if we want to prioritize this,” he said. “Prior to COVID we had this need identified.”
Keller ISD
Superintendent Rick Westfall told the school board the project takes care of two needs identified in the district’s long-term plan: a performing arts center and a large sports complex, he said.
The performing arts center would feature a 1,200-seat theater, a smaller 240-seat space and 4,000 square foot dance floor that the school district would have priority to use.
The district, in a letter, asked Moon to look into possible partnerships last year.
During discussions, school board members seemed open to the idea, but wanted the district to study the finances and ensure other priorities were not sidelined for the sports complex. Trustees were also worried about parking, which may be shared with proposed commercial development at the site.
Westfall told the school board the district would forgo part of the taxes generated from new development to pay off the school district’s portion.
“There’s obviously a lot to deal with before we ever move forward with it,” Westfall said.
Board Vice President Chris Roof said he was one of many parents who drove routinely to Plano for his son’s soccer games, so he understands the need for a large complex.
“I think this is a good idea for all of us,” he said.
Fort Worth youth sports
There is no question Fort Worth’s lack of a large soccer complex means local families as well as those from West Texas are spending their weekends and money on the east side of the Metroplex, said Rob Martella, director of operations for North Texas Soccer, which promotes and organizes youth soccer.
He called the concept “spectacular” and said the organization is constantly looking for new fields to host tournaments.
Before COVID-19, Fort Worth families interested in competitive soccer traveled to Dallas, Plano, Frisco and McKinney for major tournaments, Martella said. The number of fields combined with the stadium depicted in the Fort Worth Star concept would allow the city to host major regional youth tournaments that would draw families from across the South, he said. It may also attract the interest of NCAA teams.
Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena is scheduled to host the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship, first- and second-round games of the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and regional rounds of the 2026 NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Martella said a week-long regional tournament could easily support 4,000 hotel nights, a major boost to Fort Worth’s hospitality industry.
“That would be awesome, “ he said. “Right there you just opened up your door for a ton of regional tournaments, being that large.”
But Janet Norman, the director of Fort Worth Youth Soccer Association, had doubts about the Fort Worth Star’s location and size. Her program is associated with North Texas Soccer.
While Fort Worth has a few soccer fields dotted around the city, it lacks a large enough complex to host a major tournament, she said, confirming that local families routinely travel to the Dallas area. She estimated that 90% of the Fort Worth league plays in Dallas.
To truly benefit the program, Norman said a soccer complex would need at least 25 fields, making Moon’s concept too small. At that size Fort Worth can host hundreds of additional players a weekend, she said.
She also questioned the location.
North Texas Soccer pulls together teams from as far west as the Panhandle and Odessa, she said. A site on the west side of town, possibly near the Walsh development or Lake Worth would be better, she argued. The amount of undeveloped land opens the way for a larger complex and is closer for many West Texas and Fort Worth families, she argued, calling the spot in the Keller school district “basically Dallas.”
“To me that doesn’t benefit Fort Worth. That doesn’t benefit my association as far as having a place for my players to play,” she said.
Moon said development of the Basswood location would not necessarily prevent projects in other areas of the city, noting that the Fort Worth school district also has sports complex needs. He noted nearby North Park could be used for additional fields if a tournament needed more space than what the Fort Worth Star would provide. The complex could also host regional football games.
Pro soccer in Fort Worth?
Eventually, the 8,000-seat stadium would be home to a professional soccer team and a development academy.
Scott Sonju, president of Neltex Sports, said Fort Worth’s growing youth soccer market is underserved. A complex like the Fort Worth Star would attract significant sports tourism, even without a professional team, he said.
Details were sparse on the nature of the pro team, which Neltex would own, but Moon said it may be a United Soccer League team or a women’s team. The USL has 32 men’s teams across the county. Some are associated with MLS teams, like Rio Grande Valley FC, which is affiliated with the Houston Dynamo. Other Texas teams include Austin Bold FC, El Paso Locomotive FC and San Antonio FC.
Neltex will work with a top 30 international soccer club to run a development academy, Sonju said.
“This creates a great pathway for kids in the area to really grow in soccer,” Sonju said.
More North Fort Worth development
The site plan Moon pitched features much more than soccer fields.
To the north of the sports complex the rendering shows multiple apartments, town homes and a single family development.
Office space, retail or hotel sites are dotted along the flood way that curves through the property. The creek may not have a constant level of water, Moon said.
In the south, the plan speculates interest in a hospital and office complexes, hotels and more retail. More apartments would include ground floor retail and at least one of the hotels would be large enough to include a small events center.
These concepts are all hypothetical and would require the charitable trust to sell off additional land to private developers. Moon said he believes traffic and parking will be accounted as plans are finalized.
“Anyone who drives up 35 sees the opportunity here,” Moon said. “You have the land, you have the population.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 6:07 PM.
