MIDDLETOWN – A massive new indoor-outdoor sports complex on the south side of Middletown would be a natural complement to the hotels and eateries blossoming on the town’s rapidly growing west side.

The 170-acre Delaware Sports Complex would contain 15 full-size fields for soccer, lacrosse or field hockey, all reducible depending on the sport and age group, and 16 baseball diamonds. Also, there would be a 160,000-square-foot indoor facility with a World Cup-size indoor field and three hard courts.

Developers Brian Ellis, Brian Laity and Scott Lobdell envision regional sports tournaments and big crowds at the site, which would extend to the north from Green Giant Road, just to the southwest of The Estates at St. Anne’s. In a bonus for golf-loving residents of that development, they also propose completing a promised 18-hole golf course, 11 unfinished holes of which lie to the east of what they hope to build.

The course will be complemented by the additions of a clubhouse and pool, to be built by the Capano Group, one of the original St. Anne’s developers, said Morris Deputy, town manager.

Ellis and Lobdell also see a faster track to approval in Middletown than with a parcel under contract north of town in New Castle County, near Summit Airport, where they first hoped to develop the concept.

“There’s a chance, if we can get through the approval process, we could be breaking ground this fall,” Lobdell said. “With the county process … we weren’t looking to break ground until next fall – another year and a half.”

At this point, it’s only a concept, presented Monday night to Town Council. It won’t come cheap. Including the golf course and 1,200 parking spaces, Lobdell said, the overall 360-acre project will cost somewhere between $8.5 million and $10 million.

That estimate doesn’t include the land, which was acquired several years ago by the town. Ellis and Lobdell hope to be granted a long-term lease for its use.

Ellis and Lobdell co-own the far smaller MTown Sports Complex, southwest of town on Middletown Warwick Road. It’s an indoor training facility, about 14,000 square feet, that isn’t nearly large enough for their ambitious plan.

“There’s nothing in the state of Delaware that’s as big as this building’s going to be,” Lobdell said before the meeting. “Our facility is what it is. We have a field that works. But it’s not big enough for a lot of sports that want to play there. We’ve had football clubs approach us about doing arena football. We’ve had lacrosse teams and clubs that want to play leagues there. So we started talking about a full-size facility. … What can we do to provide both the indoor and the outdoor in one place?”

The facility would also offer an economy of scale for leagues – not to mention parents with kids playing on different teams.

“For soccer, for example, you’ll [now] go to a tournament, and you end up playing games at three different locations … not a centralized location where you can host all of your games at one time on a Saturday or a Sunday.”

Lobdell also points to the local economic benefits. “On a tournament weekend, you’re talking about teams coming in and staying overnight at the hotels that are being built, using the restaurants,” he said. “It’ll be a pretty substantial boost for the economy each time we have a tournament.”

Lobdell said he realizes there could be a significant impact on surrounding roads, such as Green Giant Road and St. Anne’s Church Road. Levels Road, which runs into St. Anne’s, is slated to connect to the planned Del. 301 bypass and could at times see a lot of traffic.

“There’s a lot of improvements planned out there already as part of the Westown agreement,” Lobdell said. “And there’s a lot of contributions that have been made, by developers, into funds to improve these roads. We have to talk to DelDOT and see how they want us to handle that. It may be that we have to contribute to that fund so that they can start building these roads and then upgrading them.”

If they get final approval, Ellis and Lobdell will shift gears on the MTown Sports Complex. “We’re looking at different options for that,” saying it could become a “strictly baseball facility” with batting cages. As for the Summit Bridge Road property, he said, “We’re putting that one on hold for a little bit. … But we’re not going to build a sports complex in both locations.”

As of now, the council is behind the proposal 100 percent. “We’re fast-tracking it,” Mayor Ken Branner said.

Contact William H. McMichael at (302) 324-2812 or bmcmichael@delawareonline.com. On Twitter: @billmcmichael.