Major sports complex promises to put Homestead on the map
Operating on the "Field of Dreams" theory that if you build it, they will come, a group of investors is spending $275 million to build a massive sports complex in Homestead, with the city pitching in zero tax dollars.
It's called the Sports Performance Hub, and it will rise on the current site of Homestead Regional Park. The plan is to upgrade the playing fields that already exist at the park, and build many more.
City officials signed agreements Thursday with the Sports Performance Hub group, which consists primarily of former professional athletes, including NBA legend Manu Ginobili.
The project includes a 10,000-seat stadium. Miami FC, the soccer team from the USL, a pro league one tier below MLS, will play its home games there and train at the facility. The Homestead rodeo will also call the stadium home.
"It's a really big deal, probably one of the most positively momentous things that's happened in Homestead in decades, it puts us on the map, it provides a public amenity, it's just a win for everyone involved," said Steve Losner, mayor of Homestead. "It will regularly bring thousands of folks into our community who eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels."
The complex will include baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, a hotel, and a dormitory for athletes who will live there.
"We are extremely happy, this is a dream come true for the whole group," said Dario Sala, a former goalkeeper and one of the founders of the Sports Performance Hub group.
Sala said they envision a European-style, residential sports academy, where kids go to school and play a sport.
"Absolutely, it's a combination of several components, residential academy like you just mentioned, it's one of the main engines of this project and it's gonna have global visibility through Miami FC, international tournaments, the hotel, the stadium, including a sport and entertainment district," Sala said.
There's also symbolism in this project.
"We try not to any longer be the victims of Hurricane Andrew but we can never not mark time in before and after," Losner said in a promotional video produced by the city.
Thirty-three years after the hurricane that devastated the city, including destroying the baseball stadium at which the Cleveland Indians, as they were known at the time, were supposed to use for spring training, Homestead is turning a corner.
"It's finally happening," Losner said.
The mayor pledged the facilities, including pickleball courts, would be open to the public, not just to professional athletes training there.
The Sports Performance Hub is expected to open in about 18 months.