BUCYRUS—On Wednesday morning, Gary Frankhouse from the Crawford Partnership, met with the three Crawford County commissioners to discuss a business venture he would like them to invest in to bring money into the county, which is classified as a distressed county.
“Over the course of the last five years, you have heard me discuss the idea of bringing the travel sports industry to Crawford county. The reason I think that is so important is because in 2008, the state invested 315 million dollars in the U.S. 30 widening, and in 2010 or 2012, this county wrote a strategic plan called ‘Crawford 2020 Vision’ that focused on multiple areas, but one of those areas was quality of life,” Frankhouse began. “Under quality of life, it talked about building a sports complex along U.S. 30 to bring in travel sports tourism. So, when I was hired at the Partnership in 2014, I started the process of understanding and doing my due diligence to propose what you’ve heard, and what I wanted to reinforce today.”
It started with Don Schumacher, the National Association of Sports Commissions, who came in and said that travel sports tourism is fantastic. Schumacher told Frankhouse that the facility would have to be supported locally Monday to Thursday, and he would help determine if that could be done.
Schumacher oversees multiple sports organizations such as the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Tennis Association—he works at that level along with travel and tourism. After visiting the school districts and venues where travel sports could host practice or tournaments, he concluded that Crawford County needed a sports complex.
The travel sports industry is a 9.8-billion-dollar industry.
“After Don, we got a USDA grant, we were given some property, we used the grant to do all the due diligence—the wetlands, the threatened/endangered species, preliminary site and renderings done. With that, we went to a group out of Clearwater, Florida called the Sports Facilities Advisory LLC (FSA), had extensive proforma institutional financial statements created to show how this can and will work. We are using that today with the data that I have been sharing,” Frankhouse said.
Crawford County back in the 80s, used to have around 50,000 residents, where, as of 2019, we have 41,494 residents. “That’s a problem for the three of you because every time our population declines, it costs all of us in Crawford County more because fire, police, roads, none of that is going down. The formula is that’s the numerator, the cost, and the denominator is the number of people. As we continue to shrink, and we are shrinking because of quality of life because we can’t bring people here. The young generation is not impressed with what we have to offer—it’s things like this, and I know that it works because since this discussion started back in 2014, even along St. Rte. 598 where the property was given, we’ve seen over 10 million dollars of commercial investment from Arby’s, to Sleep Inn, and gas stations. It’s legitimate,” Frankhouse said.
The SFA predicts that on average in the first five years, it’s 2.9 million dollars of economic impact. “That’s business growth outside of the complex because of the complex,” Frankhouse said.
Rod Steiger, a longtime Crawford County resident and owner of many businesses, also spoke to the commissioners at the meeting.
“In Erie County, which is obviously Sandusky and Cedar Point, I’ve become affiliated with a restaurant in that county in 2010. In 2014, Erie County, Sandusky, and Cedar Point went together and collaborated on a similar, but different scale project, and as soon as that got announced but before they even moved any dirt, the number of housing and commercial starts went from low double digit, to triple digit almost immediately,” Steiger said.
“You would think that with Cedar Point being open very limitedly this year, the area would have been more affected than what they were, but I think that had they not had their sports tourism venue, I think they would have been a lot worse,” Steiger said.
Steiger also said that you can definitely see a change in that community, and when he was working with a real estate broker, she informed him that she was starting to get interest from people out in California for real estate investment in Sandusky. She told him that when people see these markets that are exploding, they want to get in on where the money is at. Steiger stated that he and some business partners invested 400,000 dollars into the area because they felt that confident in its growth.
That is what they are hoping will happen in Crawford County.
“What I see is so interesting from Rod’s perspective is you see property value revenue, sales tax revenue, and income tax levels. So this decision impacts so many levels of tax revenue that I needed to have a serious discussion with the three of you because what I have proposed to Joan Wolfe (county auditor) and Cindy Edwards (county treasurer) is that I went in and looked at ‘19 vs. ‘18 sales tax numbers for Erie County and I’ve seen that it’s grown at least four percent, and I’d like to thank you three for leadership because we have also seen this year that Crawford County’s sales tax has increased, and I want to start the discussion to create a resolution to commit money for maybe a five-year period towards this project,” Frankhouse said.
The total that Frankhouse is projecting the commissioners commit is about one million dollars, which is about ten percent of what the total cost would be for the complex. Frankhouse is confident that with roughly 200,000 dollars in returns each year, they will have their one million dollars back in five years.
The facility could also serve as more than just a travel ball facility. Each year, the Partnership brings seniors from all the county schools to the Youth Building at the Crawford County Fairgrounds for senior day, musical presentations could be held there along with job fairs, bigger business meetings.
Commissioners Mo Ressallat and Doug Weisenauer are in favor of the project, while commissioner Tim Ley is more hesitant on the matter.
As of right now, there is 1.2 million dollars pledged for the project— 5000,000 dollars from the state, 200,000 dollars from The Timken Foundation, and 500,000 dollars from the community foundation. Six million dollars that will come from the Galion Freese Foundation that is designed for parks and recreation within the city of Galion, and there is a capital campaign for 1-1.5 million dollars that would be involved, too.
“Have you given this speech to Avita, Ohio Mutual, or Hord’s Livestock? Their revenue income is about triple what Crawford county revenue is,” Ley began his questioning with.
Frankhouse stated that he has talked to them, and is still in the process of such conversations, which is common when trying to receive funding for a project like this. He also projects that from a healthcare standpoint, they will make five to six million dollars from this project due to injuries that unfortunately do happen in sports that do require medical attention. The SFA projects that there will be around 25,000 people who could end up coming into the county for travel sports, and that ten to fifteen percent will be seen by healthcare professionals.
In Ley’s next question, he asked why, when there are sports facilities in places like Sandusky, Indianapolis, etc. with more opportunities for people to explore and do things, would anyone want to come to Crawford County?
“People are coming to play the games, they’re not necessarily looking for the benefits,” Frankhouse said. “Five years ago, I took a group of boys down to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and they had a waterpark. We had free passes if we went to their place, and we were able to go there for four hours out of the five days we were there. We went to that venue because of their customer experience, which is what our venue will have. I go to one tournament a year like Erie County, that’s one weekend. If I am scheduling an eight-weekend event, the other seven are going to be at places like the Galion, Ohio complex because they are more affordable, the hotels cost less, the tournament entry fees are less, and when you have a budget as the coach getting parents to pay into it, you have to plan that out, therefore making our venue one they would schedule every year.”
There will be another meeting at a later date where an expert from DiPerna Associates, who are municipal financial advisors, will come in and talk to the commissioners on the financing plan and structure.
To see the general idea for the facility, go to Freese Center | Galion, OH – Official Website.