City officials want to move forward with designs for indoor sports complex

Conceptual designs exist for the indoor youth sports complex that city leaders are planning.

Members of the Lawton Youth Sports Trust Authority got a look at the results earlier this month, as plans move toward full designs and construction after the authority secured land in east Lawton for the complex. The City Council created the trust authority to oversee youth sports in Lawton and that includes control of facilities used for those sports, including a new complex that is to contain indoor basketball/volleyball courts and turf fields.

John Wack, president of Eastern Sports Management, outlined conceptual designs in a virtual presentation to authority members, similar to a presentation expected for the City Council. Wack has said that once conceptual designs exist — something that couldn’t be completed until a site was chosen — they could use that information to seek grants to help with construction.

Wack, whose Eastern Sports Management is the project manager, outlined an indoor complex that features two distinct areas: one holding eight basketball courts that can be divided into 16 volleyball courts; one to hold two indoor 85-feet by 185-feet turf fields.

The courts area is large enough to allow player and audience benches for each, while the turf area will include room for equipment storage. The indoor turf area, which looks like hockey rinks, can be used for flag football or “any sport that is played indoors,” Wack said. That area of the complex also will include a fitness area that can be used by outsiders, locker rooms for men and women, mechanical and IT rooms, and a kitchen and cafe.

“We’re still working out some ideas,” Wack said, adding that while some changes may occur, conceptual designs “are the most probable footprint.”

The next step is pricing the work, which Eastern Sports Management plans to do by talking to local contractors later this month. That local connection is important, Wack said, noting Lawton’s clay soil produces unique problems for construction projects.

The update comes as the authority finalized plans to secure almost 80 acres of land around Eastside Park, which will house the complex.

Eastside Park, owned by the City of Lawton, is east of the MacArthur High School and MacArthur Middle School campuses. The authority has completed purchase of 40 acres from the Frank L. Richards Trust while also approving a long-term lease with Lawton Public Schools for an adjacent 39 acres. Henry said the result is a tract large enough to build the sports complex and five outdoor athletic fields.

Henry said officials closed on the $300,000 Richards property sale and earlier this month, the Lawton Board of Education voted to lease 39 acres to the trust authority. That 55-year lease, with a 55-year extension, specifies a monthly rent of $4,013.92, to increase by 5 percent at the end of each five-year period. The rent will be waived for the first 24 months, giving the trust authority time to develop and build the complex, to include a pedestrian bridge to link the site to the MacArthur schools.

That link is important because the contract also waives the monthly rent in exchange for MacArthur students being able to use the indoor facility for at least 602 hours per school year. Officials had said the deal gives LPS an option for indoor facilities for its student athletes without having to build something of its own, with hours of usage equal to the per-hour fee others would pay. If students can’t use the facility, the authority would pay LPS $49,000 a year.