Tourism consultants recommend indoor sports venue for Joplin

May 8—A sports and events center in a high-traffic area such as Range Line could be Joplin's best bet for a venue that would attract visitors and revenue.

That was the conclusion drawn by consultants from CSL International, a company with offices on both coasts and in the Midwest, and 25 years of experience in providing studies and recommendations on tourism opportunities.

Two representatives of the firm, Richard Cutting-Miller and Tyler Othen, discussed the details gathered for a study to reach a recommendation for Joplin and detailed the process Monday night at a work session of the Joplin City Council.

That firm was hired to do a study on a potential future tourism booster investment sought cooperatively by the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Joplin Sports Authority, the Southwest Missouri Lodging Association and others.

They looked at what types of venues are available in the Joplin area, and the benefits and statistics on the performance of some of those venues.

"We did a competitive analysis between Joplin and some of the competitive destinations where visitors may go if they don't come to Joplin," Cutting-Miller said. They also looked at industry trends in the different sectors being considered such as sports tourism or meetings and conferences at what's happening in post-COVID-19 tourism economy.

The firm also obtained details of what the market demand is now among agencies or businesses that arrange use of venues and schedule events. A cost-benefit analysis was done for each of the types of venues that included an estimate on the cost to build the venues including indoor and outdoor sports centers, convention centers or flexible trade show and meeting spaces, and amphitheaters.

Othen said that from a visit to Joplin, interviews with the stakeholders and other information, they identified the amenities that were in local demand. Those included indoor sports facilities, especially for wintertime sports and activities, meeting and conference venues both for conventions that would attract people from out of town and as local settings for banquets, weddings and other events.

They gathered local demographics and assembled a list of spaces that are available and put the information together to produce a needs score.

"A lot of the things we were hearing from stakeholder interviews were correlating with what we were seeing as a need area," Othen said.

"There's a moderate need for additional outdoor sports facilities," he said. "There also was talk about a downtown hotel property, fairgrounds, large swimming pools, so we had a wide net we had to cast to look at what might be most worthwhile from a tourism standpoint," Othen told the council.

Midsized meeting and convention venues around the state are "somewhat of a crowded market," he said. But indoor concert halls also are a widely available nearby. There also is a large availability of outdoor sports fields and diamonds for things like tournament-quality soccer and baseball.

Based on the study, it was his conclusion that the most competitive available sector would be an indoor sports complex. Those types of venues started to boom in about 2017, he said, "so there is still room to grow in the industry. Gaps are being filled across the country. This is where we see some type of opportunity for maybe a field house that could compete with some of these other indoor sports facilities that have six, eight or 10 courts," Othen said.

The southeast Missouri town of Cape Girardeau has an indoor sports arena he considers successful with six courts.

Like convention centers, lots of cities have amphitheaters, he said, although he did not rule out that option. But in talking to those in the industries, a flexible trade show space that could also serve as convention or meeting space could make sense here, Othen said.

A convention center is the most expensive type of venue to build. But it would bring in more trade shows and conventions than an indoor arena would attract.

Costs for the different types of indoor sports or convention centers could range from $30 million to $45 million. An amphitheater could cost about $7 million.

The analysts also compared eight sites, some near interstate and some in more remote locations. They ranked the area of the 32nd Street Place and future Menards site as the top preference because of its proximity to hotels, restaurants and Interstate 44.

A second preferred site would be the area of the partially undeveloped Hope Valley district south of I-44 and west of Range Line Road.

Future discussions on the study will be conducted by those involved in commissioning it and also by the council, officials said.