Frederick Indoor Sports Center to close its doors after March

Jan. 19—The Frederick Indoor Sports Center, a mainstay of athletics in the city, will officially close its doors on March 31.

The announcement came via a letter posted on FISC's website and social media pages Monday. In an interview Tuesday, the building's owner, Tony "C" Checchia, told the News-Post he's as disappointed as anyone the facility has to close.

Located on Brookfield Court, the FISC facility has been open since 2000, initially called Frederick SportsPlex. Checchia took over the company after being approached by the previous building owner in 2009.

According to Checchia, he and business partner Roby Malandrucco have been looking for a buyer to take over the facility for the better part of four years, hoping they would continue to run it as a sports facility.

But without any offers from sports-related businesses in recent months, the decision was ultimately made to sell the facility for industrial use. Checchia said a prospective sport related operator was lined up immediately before the pandemic began, but COVID-19 and other issues caused this deal to fall through.

"We had an operator in place. We were working toward transitioning the ownership to that operator," he said.

Checchia said a series of "personal health issues" on both sides of that deal caused it to fall through, and there has not been any follow-up offers from sports companies.

Checchia said he and Malandrucco decided to put the business up for sale in September and began seriously entertaining offers from non-sports businesses for the first time.

"The offers started coming in September, and we kept turning them down, because we wanted to exhaust every possible option for securing the buyer who was going to keep it going as a sports center," Checchia said. "But for both personal and economic reasons, we finally came to the realization that we can't just keep wishing and hoping and praying that we're going to find a sports buyer."

Checchia said he could not confirm on the record who the facility would be sold to, as the deal is not officially finalized, but he did say the facility would be used for industrial purposes. Checchia said this is what the building is zoned for, having received a special exception in the city's zoning ordinance in 1999 to operate as a sports facility.

However, Checchia did emphasize — in an attempt to combat rumors he had seen — the building was not sold to Amazon.

Checchia said the financial issues caused by two years of a global pandemic were partially to blame for the decision to close, even though they were looking for buyers before the pandemic. He said before the pandemic, FISC reached a peak of 110 adult soccer league teams; as of now, only 60 teams are playing at the facility, which constitutes a major loss of revenue for the business.

"We still only got to 60 percent of our audience, and a lot of our adult audience isn't playing because of COVID," said. "And I don't fault them, I'm just saying that's the reality."

He said it was a difficult personal decision to come to; a long-time soccer player himself, Checchia said he was one of the first customers in the building long before he took it over, and he frequently played multiple soccer matches per week.

Checchia thanked his business partner, staff, family and the community for supporting FISC throughout its time.

Several Facebook users wrote tributes to the business in the comments of the announcement.

"We had so many years of indoor soccer, soccer camps and many birthday parties there," wrote one. "Thank you for the memories!"

"Had many indoor soccer games at FISC and enjoyed an overnight WHS graduation party there too," commented another. "Lots of happy memories. Wishing the owner and staff continued success."

The FISC building is home to a number of smaller businesses like Frederick Soccer Supplies, ITNeedsHelp and a location of PIVOT Physical Therapy. Checchia, who is also the founder of Verita Commercial Real Estate, said he is working with the businesses to find them new homes.

Checchia said operations at FISC would continue as normal until its March 31 closure. FISC is working to refund those who have booked events or paid for use of the facility extending past that date, he said.

Follow Patrick Kernan on Twitter: @PatKernan