GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ) – A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday for the Fox Cities Champion Center in Grand Chute.
The indoor sports facility will be a massive 164,000 square foot building that is expected to generate revenue immediately. Matt Ten Haken, the Director of Sports Marketing with Fox Cities, speaks towards the financial impact.
“Our formal estimates are that the facility will have an economic impact of $8 million in year one,” he says.
It’s a high number but seems realistic after considering all the different activities that can take place inside the complex.
“It’s going to be travel teams in hockey, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, you name it,” explains Ten Haken.
The flexibility to host so many different sports paired with modern amenities has organizers setting a lofty goal for the future building.
“Our goal is for this facility to be best in the Midwest tier,” says Ten Haken.
The opportunity for a complex of this magnitude was identified a while ago.
“We started in late 2013 with the idea that we needed to explore adding new indoor sports facilities in the Fox Cities,” he explains.
Five years later organizers saw the start of that dream come to fruition with a ceremonial groundbreaking.
Construction on the complex is expected to last around one year and a tentative open date has been set for Fall 2019.
