David Meeks admits he’s not an elite athlete, but he’s excited to help bring famous dual-sport pro Bo Jackson to Hilliard.
“I was captain of the bowling team,” said Meeks, Hilliard’s economic-development director.
Meeks has been negotiating to bring the Bo Jackson Elite Sports program to anchor a planned 100-acre sports complex on Cosgray Road in northwest Hilliard. It is proposed to be a $5.5 million, 129,000-square-foot facility with a 70-foot-high dome covering several training fields. The Jackson facility will sit on seven of the 100 acres of the sports field complex.
The facility actually is a small brick building adjoining the dome. The dome is vital because the market for the program is cold-weather areas where athletes, especially those in high school and below, can get year-round access to training.
“There’s a need in the market for everyone who plays a travel sport,” said Jim Thompson, chief executive officer and founder of the program.
“Kids keep playing more and more games. It used to be 15 (per season) and now some are over 100 — without practice and without repetition. To be a better athlete, you need skill work.”
Bo Jackson, who played professional baseball and professional football including both sports from 1987-90, will be at the ribbon-cutting for the Hilliard facility Thompson expects to open in November.
Jackson is lending his name and other services to the program because he believes in it, Thompson added. He met Jackson through a mutual friend and Jackson loved the idea. That’s because, he added, the program is about more than throwing or kicking a ball.
“We’re not really about sports. We’re really in the business of changing kid’s outcomes in their lives,” Thompson said.
“Some kids are going to play high school baseball. Some kids are going to play college baseball. Some kids will play beyond that but most kids we have … don’t even necessarily play at a high school level.”
Meeks and Hilliard like the idea as the beginning of what is planned to be a mega-complex that is attractive to area residents as well as attracting major tournaments for field team sports such as baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse.
The facility also will be a boon to area sports and economies, said Bruce Wimbish, spokesman for the Greater Columbus Sports Commission.
“What we hear from our sports communities is we don’t have enough” of these facilities here, Wimbish said.
“By giving these student-athletes the ability to train, it only raises their level of ability to compete.”
It also will make this area more attractive to hosting sports tournaments. Since the sports commission opened in 2002, there has been an average of $24.5 million added to the local economy by spending from visitors coming for sports events.
“Tournaments are a fantastic boost for our small businesses in town,” Meeks said.
While the target market for the facility are those youths 18 and under, individual accounts also will be sold to anyone. The cost, Thompson said, averages $20 to $25 per hour.
This is the second time the facility has attempted to come to Hilliard. Two years ago, Hilliard had a ground-breaking but the deal died when Jackson’s team decided it wanted to own the property under the facility instead of lease it.
Hilliard was chosen by Jackson’s team as the second such facility — the first is in the Chicago suburb of Lockport, Illinois — because one of the original investors was from Hilliard. It’s also situated ideally in the middle of the country, in the middle of Ohio with easy access to interstates and large populations. Two dozen similar facilities are planned in cold-weather areas.
Already, the facility is hiring and marketing its programs.
“It is a big deal. There’s a tremendous need in central Ohio for field sports and training facilities,” Meeks said.
@kimballperry
