Potential sports complex could be split between two locations
By Chris Fortune
Recent findings show the city of St. Joseph could save some money by splitting the indoor and outdoor facilities of a future sports complex.
City council members continued to discuss the possible sports complex at a work session late Tuesday afternoon.
Based on information from a feasibility study, city engineering staff found that it might be more cost-effective to have the indoor facility at East Hills Mall and the outdoor facility at Missouri Western State University.
“One potential upside could be the availability of both buildings and the parking associated with both buildings to be holding major events at the same time,” City Manager Bryan Carter said.
News-Press NOW previously reported that these facilities could include volleyball, basketball courts, baseball and softball fields.
Carter said a price is difficult to pinpoint while the possible project is in the early stages of planning, but the range could fall between $85 million and $103 million, according to the feasibility study. City engineering staff discovered it could cost even more.
“They determined that those costs could run up at the Missouri Western site,” Carter said. “The Missouri Western site would need some added utilities, and also would have a fair amount of dirt work to get the site properly leveled for athletic use.”
Most of the money to pay for the project would come from general obligation bonds. The earliest the bond could appear on a ballot is April 2025, but it is more likely that the issue will appear in 2026, where there are more opportunities to seek a lower supermajority of votes.
A supermajority is needed to pass a bond in certain elections. Some elections require a two-thirds vote, but in other elections, the supermajority is a 4/7 vote.
“In 2026, it’s February, August and November,” Carter said. “So those are the more likely targets for a bond election. If you go in one of those election cycles that requires a two-thirds majority, the challenge of getting it passed virtually can’t be overcome.”
As for what’s next, the city will begin to work on agreements with East Hills Mall and Missouri Western to determine how the sites will be used. But Carter does not rule out the possibility of going back to the idea of a single sports complex.
“We’re still working through pulling a lot of information together from analysts and people who know this world best,” Carter said.
