MIDLAND, Texas — Midland City Council approved a lease agreement with Midland Athletic Syndicate Tuesday for some new additions to the Scharbauer Sports Complex.
The new facility will come with six basketball courts, 12 volleyball courts and two indoor soccer fields.
“It’s very needed in Midland, an indoor sports complex, it's something also that complements what the city is trying to do as far as, in my mind, what we're trying to do and being a sports mecca of West Texas,” City Councilman John Norman said.
The project in total will be around $38 million, but none of that money will come from the city.
Instead, the whole project will be privately funded through donations.
“We have just a little under $29 million or just under $30 million, so a little over $29 million committed," Midland Athletic Syndicate Vice President John Scharbauer said. "So we feel comfortable go ahead and starting this project in getting the dirt turned.”
The turnaround time is quite quick.
After city council approved of the lease agreement, Scharbauer thinks they are right on schedule in terms of getting shovels in the ground.
“We feel pretty comfortable where we can start turning in for permits the first part of June," Scharbauer said. "So hopefully, we can start we can break ground and once we break ground we feel like you know we're looking at 14 to 18 months."
With the new facility, the city is hoping to attract new sports teams and tournaments to the Tall City to make Midland a premier sports destination.
However, the local teams and kids can also benefit from this as they would have new courts to protect them from the West Texas conditions.
“There's several indoor facilities across the plains and across the Permian Basin, but this one will solidify Midland as as the hierarchy of sports," Norman said. "Having an indoor facility with the way weather is out here nowadays, the weather won't have a factor in in all of those things.”
Giving the local kids in the Permian Basin a proper place to practice and play was always the main purpose of Midland Athletic Syndicate.
“Our main goal is to serve the kids of our community and just try to give them a place and an opportunity that they may not have right here right now," Scharbauer said.