Wildgrass Ranch Sports Campus SFC operator agreement
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 17, 2025
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 17, 2025
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What was said
Machine transcription of 35m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 54% of 127 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Good afternoon everybody. My name is Consuelo Sanchez. Sorry. I'm the tourism deputy director for Pasco County and today I'm gonna be presenting the award of the bid for the invitation to negotiate for the Wildgrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County and future expansion. Do I get the control piece?
I'm gonna start with a little bit of background information for some of our newest commissioners. So the Wildgrass Ranch Sports Campus is the result of over twenty years of county efforts in order to build a multipurpose event facility. I included as part of the presentation some of the milestones that the county achieved, but I'm gonna start in 2017 when the county approved the agreement with Radsports,
the former operator. and increase the county's tourist development tax from two percent to four percent in order to be able to cover for the bond for this facility. In 2020, we had the grand opening for phase one, which is the indoor facility. Ninety-eight thousand square feet of indoor space. Unfortunately, the relationship didn't work as expected with the former operator. So in 2023, we went over mediation.
In twenty twenty-four, we release a new ITN. which is the invitation to negotiate for a new operator of this facility and for potential investors to develop the available land. This is the facility I'm presenting today. So we have 98,000 square feet of indoor space. We have eight basketball courts or sixteen volleyball courts. It's become a national and international venue
for sports events. We recently opened five additional multi-purpose fields. The investment has been mainly from the tourist development tax. So you can see that originally we put $11 million. For the bond, $15 million for phase one. Phase two, which is the additional five multi-purpose fields, we got a bond for $10.5 million. And we got additional expenses for $1.3 million in
order to cover a shortfall from the original construction. The public investment total $37 million. And we also got private investment through a hotel on site. That total nineteen million dollars, so the full project is over fifty six million dollars. The invitation to negotiate. So We worked for almost one year with purchasing, putting all the pieces together, also with the county attorney's office,
trying to find out the best way to present this uh procurement process because we had fail already with the former operator. So we came up with the structure of the invitation to negotiate which allows proponents to basically present proposals. We tell them the basic information and what we would like to achieve, but they let us know how to get there. So project A was to seek for proposals for
the management, operations, and maintenance of our current amenities, which basically were phase one and two, including the indoor facility. the two long fields and the five multipurpose fields. Project B is to seek for proposers to invest and develop the available land, which is phase three. And Project C would give the option to any vendors to actually propose A
and B in just one proposal.
So the county started the process. They released on June 14 last year the documents for the ITN. Then we received four proposals, but three of them seemed to be unresponsive. Only Sport Facilities Companies was found to be responsive. So Sport Facilities Companies was founded in 2003. I've been in this industry for 10 years already, attending national and international events, and I get to see them everywhere I
go. They have great presence, over 2,500 members across the country. They manage 90 venues. All of them sports tourism facilities. They have great experience. And they submitted proposals for project A, meaning maintenance, operations, and management of the current amenities, and project C, which is a mix of project A with potential investment. I'm gonna be presenting the
key terms of this agreement. So we negotiated a ten year agreement with the option to auto renew for up to four five additional Terms. The initial financial commitment from the county is $500,000 because that's gonna be used in order to offset any shortfalls. Management fee, and this is where it gets to start really interesting. It's
gonna be eighteen thousand dollars a month. However, the county doesn't need to pay for that fee. What we're gonna achieve with this agreement is that SFC is gonna take on the financial responsibility for the venue, meaning that they are gonna be managing an operation operational account where they're gonna be responsible for all the revenue as well for the expenses, and they're gonna pay themselves out of that account. The facility
floor resourfacing reimbursement, that is something that we have to do regardless of who has control over the venue, because this venue was open in 2020, and we have been very successful hosting national and regional events, plus some local programming. So the floor needs to be resurfaced. That's an additional expense of two. hundred and fifty thousand dollars that we're building into this agreement, with that we will be able to reimburse SFC
for that expense.
We are planning to start operations with SFC, taking over the facilities management operations in maintenance on August 1st. That's the way that we are gonna try and work it out. However, if the agreement is approved today, we're gonna start a transition with parks and recreation and the destination management organization. The staff that is working on site at the Wildgrass is gonna transition into SFC.
Just the main staff as part of the agreement. We included an exhibit that includes the people who will be moved under SFC. This is something really huge for the county. Right now we don't have any kind of capital reserve funding for this facility. Through negotiations, SFC agreed to allocate five percent of gross revenue, not net, which is huge for us because within the next five years we're gonna be able to build almost
one million dollars in capital reserves for this. Facility. Infrastructure investment. Sports Facilities Company is proposing to convert the Toulon fields into artificial turf, which is gonna provide us the opportunity to bring additional events because right now those two fields are not at tournament level, therefore we cannot use them for tournaments.
Room night generation. So we learn from our mistakes. This time we actually have in the contract some language that requires SFC to generate at least thirty thousand room nights in Pasco County hotels.
Annually.
Annually, yes, ma'am. Then the feasibility study, this is something really important because the county doesn't have that right now for the development of the additional land. So they're gonna have six months in order to run the due diligence and come up with the feasibility studies for the available land that we have at the sports campus. Takeover date, as I mentioned before, is gonna be August first, twenty twenty-five. Our investment
is a one-time payment of $500,000, which is gonna be used for SFC in order to cover potential operational expenses, such as payroll. utilities, maintenance, and any other expense that they need to go through during this transition. And the $250,000 that I mentioned before that are needed in order to be able to resurface the floors of the gyms. The funding
source is tourist development tax, so we're not affecting the general fund. The return on investment You can clearly see that SFC is gonna invest immediately between two to three million dollars into the artificial turf for the two loan fields, but more importantly, we're gonna have the capital reserves contribution, which is the 5%. Let's think for a moment, even if we remove the
two million dollars for the investment, we're gonna be able to recover what we're investing today in less than five years because SFC is taking over all the expenses for this facility.
The recommended board action today is to approve the agreement with SFC for the management, operations, and maintenance of the Wildgrass Ranching Sports Campus. Any questions? Commissioner Mariano.
Thank you. Uh one of the things we talked about is parking out there. Parking is an issue now. Never mind if it gets even busier. Why isn't this part of the proposal and why isn't it included in there as far as dealing with that issue?
Yes, sir. It was part of the proposal actually. So again I'm gonna go back to the projects. Project A, project B. Project B open the option for any vendors and I understand that. Purchasing sent that proposal or the bid to over 7,800 vendors across the country. We only got one proposal that included parking and is SFC proposal. So it is there. However, the county didn't provide any kind of feasibility studies.
They run in that study within six months in order to be able to move forward with this investment. Includes additional parking and also includes five additional multi-purpose fields.
Okay, so How many years ago did we do Red Sports? We had Rad Rad Sports on contract, what, five years? Or so
it was three years.
Three years, okay. And then we had to pay them off. How much do we have to pay for that?
Three million dollars.
Is that all paid off yet or we still paying that off?
We're still paying that.
Okay. So
we're gonna finish in twenty seven.
So I'm gonna remind the board we made the decision and I thought it was rushed, uh People were worried about not doing things quick enough. When we rushed that decision, we put ourselves in a bad spot. We couldn't guarantee the roommates, we couldn't put ourselves in a a good firm position what we're gonna do with it. And because of that, we were locked in the contract and we ended up p buying them out and we're still paying that debt. You saw all the money? I didn't see that accounted in for the money we're paying. I don't want to see us jump into something else. Right now the facility is fantastic. And I want
to tell you our parks team is doing a phenomenal job since they took it over. Room nights are up. Consuelo, you did a phenomenal job with it. Thank you, sir. I mean what you did to bring those people in, just like you said you would, working with Keith, the team, phenomenal. So we know the thing's running good. It's not costing us a lot of money to go.
The parking is still a big issue though. We when you have any event down there, and if we're not gonna deal with the biggest issue we have in the park, I don't think we need two artificial fields, number one. And if you have an artificial f surface field that's low and you need artificial turfice, if you don't do that properly, which is raising the field up, you're gonna get An unusable field there as well and have other issues. So I mean if we need to rebuild the field, let's rebuild the field. If you can have five fields of grass and two artificial, you're not gonna have any extra tournaments there anyway.
Uh just because I know I do my due diligence after we met last time, that was a great point, Commissioner. So my team actually reached out to several outdoor event organizers including football, lacrosse, kickball, and soccer. And we actually run a little survey to see if they were b willing to actually come and play and mix um So they were completely fine with that. One of them out of
nine that we received responses said that they would prefer all of them natural grass. But all of them were actually willing and actually very accepting of the fact that we would have two different kinds of Um turf, the natural and the artificial.
Yeah. I mean and as far as my I'm concerned, if anybody's had their kids play in artificial turf, it gets hot in Florida like you can't believe. And I mean I got people in the audience that are nodding their head right now. I know who's pla that plays soccer. I've coached my I don't coach my kids. I was with my kids and the temperatures were unbearable. Um Um I know they had a great Pumplex complex up in Altamont Springs that does very well. It's all artificial turf. They use multiple purpose things. But again, if you're gonna have five of one surface and then two of another. If you if fields aren't built right, let's go build them right. But again, back
to the parking, back to the agreement. Um How many room rights this year have you generated?
Twenty-one thousand.
Twenty one thousand? Is that f for the like the whole previous year?
Yes, and fiscal year.
How how how far are you now? How how how are you tracking this year?
Oh I I think that we're right now in track to achieve the same number. Uh I don't think it's gonna be higher because we always are gonna have a slow season, which is basically summertime, all the way through November. So we already locked a bunch of events before. So we're targeting the same amount of room nights this year. Um when it comes to the use of the outdoor field. We have been a little bit slow because we have a lack of multiple amenities that
have been preventing us from bringing additional events. So we have the concession stand, but it's just a shell. We don't have any equipment, which is also part of the agreement. SFC is gonna actually move forward, purchasing all the equipment that we need in order to be able to bring these tournaments.
So if I'm going to try to go hire someone to do this whole project and these guys are going to invest their money in, I'm not sure they're going to put their money in and not expect to get it back if in fact somebody else comes in because they don't want the parking garage and now we're going to entangle another contract that could cost me another three million dollars or more because of the investments they're going to put.
So, Commissioner, we address that. The county is making a huge investment, $500,000 upfront in order to move forward with this agreement. So if you review the ITN, the two million dollar or three million dollar investment for the artificial TORF, it was not part of the original proposal. That's something that they offer in order to show good faith. And their long-term commitment to keep this facility a state of the art for tournaments.
So, based on the agreement, there is nothing in the agreement that requires the county to pay back SFC if we terminate the agreement. Meaning that if that is the case and we end up terminating the agreement, which is something that I want to clarify also because we didn't have In the past with Radsports, we can terminate the agreement by convenience anytime as long as we provide a 12-month written notice. Also they can do the same. So that means that we are not in any
obligation in order to pay back that investment. And this is good because it's an additional motivation for SFC in order to keep the relationship going with Pasco County. I don't think they wanna forfeit two million dollars.
I'm gonna say we were pretty well assured too with Rad Sports that we wouldn't have to worry about if we're gonna end the contract, end the contract. And that did not turn out to be the case. So I don't trust that statement. But my my thinking is this if I'm gonna go do A agreement on And they they know that we do a feasibility agreement. That's part of the reason they don't want to sign with the f with with the parking garage, because no feasibility has been done. I think what's wisest for the board to do is to go do the feasibility study, put a pause on this if you want. Do the feasibility study and then let's go negotiate from there.
But until that feasibility is done, I think if you go put all that money into it, they go put all that money into it. Our money too. And then this doesn't work, then what do we get?
I just have a comment. So Remind us how many other organizations they have throughout the country.
Nighty venues that they're managing throughout the country. Right. Yes, ma'am. And sir to your comment, this is what I'm thinking. I think that If we go back to the right-of- We would need to start over from scratch because we don't have the feasibility study. Just the procurement process to go over to get the consultant to run the feasibility study is gonna take about six months. They have six months right now in order to run those feasibility studies at
no cost for the county.
Um I have a question, but let me ask if you have any questions.
I don't have questions, I have statements, but you can go ahead.
Um on the parking gr on the parking issue. Um So are you saying we're gonna do a physical feasibility study to look at a parking garage?
Yes, ma'am. Actually that was part of the proposal that SFC submitted includes a parking garage because they understand the need.
So I don't really know how far away this is from the parking garages that JD Porter's gonna build that we're helping with David's over there. But uh I think this is somewhat near So I'm not sure. That parking garage, I mean we should make it a paying parking garage, right? So people pay to park and then we
That's gonna be how they're gonna recover the investment. Yes ma'am.
Um yeah, I I have faith in this company. Nin ninety venues um across the country. I this is in their backyard because they're a local company. I I feel pretty good about this deal personally.
I I just can I add to just what you're saying is that also I think easily we'll get to the thirty thousand knights due to them marketing their product.
And this is something that I appreciate commissioners Mariano faith in me because I know that you trust me. But unfortunately, and even with all the relationships that I have been building over the last ten years. nationally and internationally I don't have the outreach that these guys have just because they can move or rotate All kind of tournaments around because they have that leverage. I don't have it.
Yeah. Mr. Oakley? I didn't have a question.
No, I don't. I do, Chair.
Okay, uh Commissioner Mariano. If you s if we'll go
ahead and say something, I'm just I'm just glad to finally see this this project coming back into compliance. It's been a long time coming. Um parking is an issue, something that we've explored extensively. What are we twenty eight twenty three to twenty eight thousand dollars per per Per lot. Right. Um my understanding is as as the program evolves and get gets back on track and with other stakeholders within The overall footprint of wire grass Um
Right. I feel We've had some very positive conversations about uh a a parking garage somewhere someway. Uh legacy is not not very far away. Um they're going to be complementary to each other. So uh for the county to to get this off its books. Keith, your your team Kathy, your team's done a great job in interim running running the facility and and keeping things stabilized. It'll be good good to have private operator back in operating it and
and then again saving what, the the tourist development tax, eighteen grand a month. Getting that off your off your bankroll. Uh I'm sure that'll add some relief to you guys and and then, you know, start growing that fund again. So I'm supportive of of this of this project or this uh This proposal here today and we move on to the next chapter of the sports campus.
Commissioner Oakley.
Yeah, and I'll and I'll say I have nothing but good things to say about the company as well. No animosity whatsoever. I think they do a great job, et cetera. The problem I have with the deal, back to it again, is the biggest issue we have out there is parking. We're not addressing the parking and if the RFP process wasn't done the way it should have been to be done, so be it. They in Raz and and uh this company also says that The feasibility study needs to be done. I think I'd be con I'd be happy continuing it until that feasibility is done and then negotiate that and look at it as a one shot.
Because you if you're gonna tell me that someone's gonna go spend one point four million for two artificial turf fields, which don't gel with the rest of it, there's an issue there because I know they're gonna want to get their money back. So that means either they're not gonna approve the fields or they're gonna approve the fields. And if do you think if anybody thinks they're gonna put up one point four million to do these fields and not expect to get the money back if they don't get the contract renewed and extended out? I I think you g I I think you're gonna have an issue with it. I mean just like with rad sports.
I also wanna mention, sir, that if you look at the history of these guys They have really good reputation for long term partnership. So I truly don't think that they would be investing two or three million dollars if that were the case. But more importantly, I go with what the agreement says. One, two, we already went through the experience with Ratsports that That left us a lot of good knowledge, and we actually applied all that knowledge, does and don'ts, into this agreement. We didn't
enroge this agreement whatsoever. Commissioner Weightman knows that we took our time. We hired external outside console and we hired The person who leads sports tourism facilities in the country as our consultant in order to be able with us reviewing not only the ITM terms but also all the terms of the agreement. So it's not something that we're coming up with. We have worked very diligently towards
this agreement, countless hours, not to mention that we got Different departments from the county. We had insights from OMB, we had insights from facilities, we had insights from Parks and Recreation, who has done an amazing job operating the facility, also from the DMO and our assistant county administrator. So it's something that we didn't rush whatsoever. We took our time, we learned from our past mistakes, and we put everything together, counting with professional concept. that measure to cover the county's back.
Well I'll say this with the council, with the purchasing part, if parking is such an issue and it's still gonna be an issue and you didn't address it and not you. But if it wasn't done the RFP process, then we haven't done it the proper way or the best way possible. Now you're gonna have to do another contract and and renegotiate again. I think we should do it all up front.
I just have one comment. So to maybe solve your turf issue, we could just make two travel ball baseball fields because that would bring in a ton of money. Just saying we're lacking in travel ball fields.
No Chair.
Hindsight being twenty twenty on this, when this But still we're going to be able to do that
When the county designed this facility, I think the county, knowing what we know now I think the facility's too small. We un we we built it. Too small. And the county probably should have looked longer term in building a better parking design. And all this was done obviously before prices went through the roof. To put the onus on any potential operator to solve the parking problem when the county designed the facility initially. the
parking and the f and the facility space I don't know if there'd be any bidders if it was gonna be a full requirement right out of the gate, just knowing how expensive parking garages are. And then we're asking a private provider to come in and solve Many problems. for us, but then the parking problem, which has a huge financial price tag, use price tag on to get it done. Yeah it it um I
just think there has to be a balance there. And I'm confident that time time and if the if the if the relationship works out. uh in the way that we're I'm seemingly hopeful It will then system and and the markets and the success of that building I think would lead to a a better opportunity for for for parking. But I think we need the fields before the parking. I think we can figure out parking, ride shares, drop offs in the meantime. People are kind of accustomed to the parking
headache there. I'm not accepting that. But it is the nature of the situation today. Um but I think we need to move forward and and and and bring a crew in to To keep building the brand. It has its building keep leaning on them in partnership with the county to figure out the parking problem because it's no secret parking's a challenge but We need the field tree done first I think for the parking and then, you know, work it towards parking as as soon
as possible. I I Today I think if we could go back in and redesign that facility, I think th it would be designed probably pretty different, right? So um I'll leave it at that.
Kathy Pearson, Assistant County Ministry of Public Services. So a couple of comments from myself. I was one of the leery ones going into this. in the beginning, to be honest with you, but as we have dug and studied and learned and gathered all that information. I am very for this elite company to be taking it over. We cannot compare this company to Rad Sports. It's totally different. This is their business, this is their expertise. But I really want to
publicly thanks Keith Wiley and the team at the Y Grass. Complex for the months that they took over this, the years that they took over this, the work and the heart, sweat, and tears that they did to keep this facility alive. And to this lady next to me. You won't find a more tenacious, ferocious lady that knows how to negotiate, knows how to get things done. So I just want to publicly thank you, Consuelo, and Keith and the committee. We really learned a lot through this process, and
I am confident we will solve this parking issue. We did do the right RFP. We did A, we did B, we did C. Thank you to Carrie for all of that. We've had no bidders on it. So I mean that's how it is, that's how it is, but I'm c sure we will get to that, Jack. I'm sure we will.
Well you s you say you we did it right, but I again We don't have we've got one bidder. How many times you throw a contract you have like one bidder? So it's a very tough thing to bid on anyway. And maybe they just look at maybe I can't do maybe I can't do more notes. Look. If they did a great job at twenty-one thousand units a year, and now we're gonna go to thirty thousand units a year, As far as like hotel nights. And you don't have the parking to get any more fields out there. It's gonna be a mess going on. And maybe people walked away from it. But even this company, and by the way, I heard all the great things about rad sports when they were coming
in too, how awesome they were. Everybody backed them up from the chamber, porters, the world, everybody loved rad sports. And look what we ended up with. But what I'm saying is, if they, this company coming in, even says you need to do a feasibility study. And you haven't done that, you can tell me you think you did a good job as far as getting the RFP setup, but there's a flaw in they even exposed it. So don't tell me it's a perfect setup, because if you get one bitter, then something's wrong. And they even say you need a feasibility study.
Conselho, how many did we have download?
So I understand and Kerry, I don't know if you're here, but this was sent to s over seventy, eight hundred vendors across the country. And again, Commissioner, we split it, so we were not making mandatory for any vendors to submit just one bit for the operations or the investment. They had the option to submit for project B, which was only development and investment for the available land.
If you had if we had done it with the RFP where it had to be park and had to be addressed and you had the feasibility studied that ahead of time, like this company suggests we do, maybe you would have got more bidders. But because it was incomplete, people looked at it and says, Maybe I don't want to mess with that.
Sir, I have to clarify something. The original draft IT and We were making it mandatory to include a proposal for the parking garage. However, we got comments back from the County Attorney's Office saying that that was very restrictive. So they asked us to make it optional. Which even with being optional, SFC submitted that as part of the proposal.
Commissioner Oakley. Are we uh are we working on a parking garage for this facility now?
They're gonna start working, they have six months in order to run the feasibility studies, which is gonna include the parking garage and five additional multipurpose fields.
Okay. And that's the new management company we're asking to go into contract with.
Yes um yes sir they're gonna do it and this is the good thing about the deal Even if things wouldn't work out to move forward with the parking garage, we have saved the county not only dollars running the feasibility study, but also time because if we start from scratch again, we're gonna have to start with the procurement process to try and get a consultant to run those feasibility studies. studies. They're ready already and they have six months to get those studies done.
Um on the parking Is there a uh empty land around it that um we can shuttle people there in the meantime?
No.
She's my assistant.
Actually, I'm her assistant too.
Keith Wiley, Director of Parks Recreation, National Resource. There is an eighteen acre parcel that is due north of the existing facility. Uh that is what we call the undeveloped uh parcel of land.
So we can accommodate, we could get a golf cart and shut up. people and
so
I
um I don't want to get too you know go off on a tangent but um you know the the facility was under construction we were doing the athletic uh uh field ads and so now that that is completed there we can use the undeveloped
But in the last year that was unavailable. So I think the parking complaints were elevated because of the construction that was occurring on site. Not to say that we don't need parking. I you know uh definitely know that we do. Um but yeah, there's there's that 18 acre.
Well that's a good problem if we need parking, that means we're being successful, right? People want to be there, yes.
Okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? Does the applicant want to speak or
Eric, did you want to speak?
Eric Sullivan, uh founding partner of Sports Facilities Companies. I just want to share, we are really excited about this opportunity. We've been working uh diligently with Consuelo and with Keith and with the team to understand everything that's working, things that have the opportunity to be improved upon. Parking certainly has been one of the challenges. Um, it does us no good to not have convenient and adequate parking. So I do believe what Keith shared recently with the construction of Outdoor fields that displaced some of what was the overflow parking previous previously in place. We
have full intention of solving the parking solution as part of what was phase or excuse me part C of the ITN. We have proposals from multiple uh parking garage developers, the builders of these things. Uh two out of the three are local here in the Tampa. Bay region and it's going to be the number one priority we address uh assuming we get the opportunity to coming out of today.
Excellent. Okay. Um this it's not a public hearing kind of item. It's a to the board and
I'm gonna go back to the motion. The motion we have multiple of um motions today, but the main one is to approve the award of the bid number ITN D five twenty-four one thirteen to Wild Grass Ranch. SFM, which is the name of the company, for the management, operations, and maintenance, and for the potential of the future expansion of the available land for 730. Seven hundred five thousand dollars.
Uh no that's not.
I'm sorry my English, you know.
You better be seven hundred. Seven hundred and fifty nine thousand, yes. Yeah. Um All right, and we're gonna delegate to the county administrator.
No are these independent votes? Motions and
votes?
One, two, and three would be the staff's recommended motion for the board to make.
All right. I'll move to approve um
One, two, and three together.
Okay. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Nay. Okay. So that motion passed. Thank you. All right. Congratulations. Whoops. Okay, now we will move on to our public hearing. And we have quite a few continuances here. So P fifty four.