The possibility of expanding on plans for a park in western St. Johns County to create a major sports hub will depend on whether the Florida Department of Transportation agrees to a land swap.
On Tuesday, July 18, JAXUSL President and CEO Steve Livingstone presented a proposal to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners for a private/public partnership that would establish a 15-field facility along County Road 16A.
JAXUSL is the operating company formed to develop United Soccer League (USL) franchises in Northeast Florida. On Aug. 30, 2022, company officials announced their intention to bring professional soccer to the First Coast by 2025. Both men’s and women’s soccer would be featured. In addition to Livingstone, the ownership group includes Tim Tebow, Ricky Caplin and Tony Allegretti.
Currently, the county plans an eight-field sportsplex on 40 acres along C.R. 16A southwest of the Shearwater community. The park would also have a splash pad, playground and other features.
Adjacent to that is a 33-acre property owned by FDOT, which plans to create a lake there to mitigate water runoff ahead of the proposed First Coast Expressway.
Speaking July 18 on behalf of his company, Livingstone proposed that the county contact FDOT and request a swap for comparable JAXUSL-owned property located about a quarter mile away. Then, the county, working in partnership with the company, would be able to develop a 73-acre facility, bringing the total number of fields to 15.
JAXUSL would partner with the county to manage the facility.
The estimated cost to develop the entire property is $30 million. That figure is broken down into $19 million for the cost of the fields, $2.5 million for a pro training facility, $3 million associated with the swap and related engineering of the property, $3 million for parking space and $2.5 million for construction, etc.
According to Livingstone, about $15 million of that could be funded by issuing bonds to be serviced by Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax revenues. The county is permitted to levy the 1% tax on short-term accommodations, so long as the revenue is used in the funding of professional sports facilities.
However, to access the tax funds, the county would need some kind of professional team associated with the site. A few of the proposed fields would be dedicated to that team’s use.
The $30 million expense would be further mitigated by the $10 million to $12 million that the county had already planned to spend on the original 40-acre sportsplex.
Livingstone said JAXUSL would make up the $3 million to $5 million shortfall.
The advantage of having at least 12 available fields is that the site could host tournaments. Livingstone predicted that the county could host 30-40 tournaments a year. That would equate to between 3,000 and 4,000 families visiting St. Johns County on tournament weekends.
The economic impact of that and other initiatives associated with the site would be significant.
According to an independent analysis cited by Livingstone, the county would see a 10-year impact of $150 million and the creation of 1,380 jobs over that decade.
Tournaments would use 12 fields on specific weekends and the community would have access to them on Monday through Thursday. The community would also have full access to the rest of the park and its facilities all year round.
Under the JAXUSL plan, the property would include a small, 2,000-seat, stadium at a designated track-and-field section. Livingstone also described a plan to make the facility user-friendly for kids with special needs.
At the conclusion of the presentation, the county commissioners all expressed support for the idea but wanted more information before committing to it. Commissioner Henry Dean said he wanted to see a comparison of the costs and the benefits.
“The potential to positively impact children in our community is so great that we’d do ourselves a disservice by not exploring this option,” said Commissioner Christian Whitehurst.
Still, he said, “If the FDOT parcel is not available for whatever reason, this is a nonstarter. I think we can all agree on that. If this is not a net benefit to our children … then it’s a nonstarter for me.”
The board agreed to send a letter to FDOT. In the meantime, staff will gather information relevant to the proposal, including any possible impact on the First Coast Expressway project, to be presented at a future meeting.
