Months of research turned up seven real concerns. The Parish has committed to address every one of them before a shovel goes in the ground.
By Tim Magner, President & CEO, Greater Shreveport Chamber
On November 3, Caddo Parish voters will decide whether to authorize $60 million in general obligation bonds toward a regional indoor sports complex. The Greater Shreveport Chamber supports it. Our Board of Directors voted on October 7th to support the proposition with the published conditions described below. We want to explain why, and we want to be specific, because a project of this size deserves more than just enthusiasm.
How we studied it
Over the past three months the Chamber did what we would want any public body to do before asking taxpayers for money. We:
- Profiled 40 publicly owned sports complexes, half of them in markets the size of Shreveport-Bossier.
- Went looking for failures, and built case files on 18 facilities that struggled, closed, or needed bailouts.
- Read the Parish’s own feasibility study, operating projections, and site analysis line by line, and checked them against Shreveport’s development code and drainage ordinance.
- Tested the proposed debt against the Parish’s audited 2024 financial statements.
- Screened five candidate interchanges along the I-20 corridor.
The most important thing we learned is that the size of the market does not decide whether a facility like this succeeds. Rockford, Illinois, a rust-belt city that has lost population, beat its forecast by 60 percent. Virginia Beach, wealthy and growing, lost $2.7 million in its first two years. Gulf Shores, Alabama, with a population of 15,000, thrives. What decides the outcome is a short list of choices: who pays, whether the building is sized and sited for how it will really be used, and whether the costs that always come (early operating losses, worn-out floors, and equipment) are planned before the ribbon cutting rather than discovered after it. Those are decisions. Decisions can be made right.
Why it is good for Caddo Parish
• It is built for us first. By the Parish’s own projections, tournaments use about 11 percent of court hours. The other 89 percent are available to residents: youth leagues, school teams, adult rec and open gym. About 62,000 people within 30 minutes already play indoor court sports, and the complex is designed around them. It also allows expands the court space available for youth sports such as volleyball and cheer that currently must practice late due to lack of court capacity at local high schools.
• Caddo Parish needs family friendly amenities to attract new homeowners and keep existing families. As we look to attract families to move to Caddo Parish, and keep families who are already here, family friendly amenities such as sports venues are key. We have invested in new outdoor baseball fields and pickleball courts, and an indoor facility of this scale will complement both of those new amenities.
• We don’t have to dominate to benefit, just participate. Travel sports is about a $50 billion market meaning that the $20 million forecast does not require Caddo Parish to dominate anything. It requires us to capture a sliver of a very large market and to be the only purpose-built option for 90 minutes in any direction. This will also complement existing facilities such as Brookshires Grocery Arena because large scale NCAA and Olympic sports require backup facilities to host tournaments and events. To date we lack comparable facilities to compete for competitions of this scale, and having this facility will allow us to do so.
• It would lead the region. Ten basketball and twenty volleyball courts would be more than any facility in the region. West Monroe, 90 minutes east, offers 16 volleyball courts; Ruston offers eight. About 3.4 million people live within a four-hour drive of Shreveport.
• It brings visitors who spend money here. The feasibility study projects about 31,750 hotel room nights and roughly $20 million a year in visitor spending by year five. Those are consultant estimates, and we treat them as estimates. But they are the reason hotels, restaurants and retailers along I-20 should care how this vote goes.
• The dollars are already being collected. The Parish’s debt service millage of 1.5 mills is already being collected, so this would not change a taxpayer’s bill. This 1.5 mills equates to about $15 per year on a median house price, and about $65 a year on a $500,000 house. Because of the way municipal financing works, the Parish must obligate debt service collections through either acquiring debt or roll back the millage. Even if the parish were to roll it back, it would only decrease by .25 mills. That would save the average household $2.50 per year or $11 for the $500,000 homeowner.
• The Parish can afford the debt. Caddo holds an AA+ rating from S&P. After a $60 million issue total debt would stay under one percent of residents’ personal income, well inside the range rating agencies consider low. The Parish’s legal borrowing capacity is more than $870 million. The balance sheet is not the constraint.
• Parish Debt Service is limited in what it can pay for. The City of Shreveport has significant infrastructure expenses that must be met. However, because the Louisiana State Constitution prohibits donating public funds, Parish dollars must be used for Parish, not City projects. Parish projects can reside inside the city (as the city is located entirely within the Parish) but must be owned by the Parish. Working to locate the Sports Complex inside the city limits is a win/win, allowing the city to benefit financially from the sales taxes generated by the complex itself as well as the surrounding hotels and restaurants visited by players and their families.
• It adds jobs and amenities. In addition to local construction jobs, the completed facility has a projected payroll of about $1.9 million by year five, plus a family entertainment center, leased medical space and meeting rooms that serve residents year-round. A comparable center, the Hoover Complex in Birmingham for example, created about 18 full-time and 170 part-time jobs.
Seven concerns, seven commitments
Our research did not give this project a free pass. We found seven places where the plan, as first published, could disappoint the people of Caddo Parish who are paying for it. We took every one of them to the Parish. We attended Parish information sessions and questioned Parish leaders at our Board Meeting and in follow-up conversations. Parish Administration understood our concerns and committed in writing to address each one if voters approve the bond issue.
1. The court floor was too tight. The plan to fit 20 volleyball courts into 89,440 square feet, is below the layout standard USA Volleyball uses for sanctioned events. Hoover, Alabama, the best performer in our study, markets 16 or 17 courts on a similar floor. At 17, Caddo would merely tie West Monroe. The Parish Commitment: The complex will be designed to accommodate at least ten (10) basketball courts and twenty (20) volleyball courts on a court floor that meets the NCAA standards and the USA Volleyball tournament layout, and the Complex will be able to, at a minimum, bid for sanctioned twenty-court events.
2. There was not enough parking. The plan showed 695 spaces for a building with 4,000 seats, enough for roughly half of a sold-out crowd before anyone else parks on site.The Parish Commitment: The Complex will be designed to provide required parking to serve the designed seating capacity on event days. The parking will include dedicated bus and recreational vehicle staging. A licensed traffic engineer will determine the allotted parking before final design. The recommended allotments are 1,300 paved parking spaces and 350 stabilized overflow spaces.
3. The site was too small, with no room for drainage. The published site plan covered 12.46 acres and included no stormwater detention, loading area or bus drop-off, all of which a real site will require. The Parish Commitment: The recommended phase-one site will include stormwater retention meeting all applicable requirements, including those for any site located within the City of Shreveport, loading and service areas, and bus and recreational-vehicle drop-off. Sites that provide a contiguous phase-one development area of 120 acres or more, excluding land for floodplain, wetlands, easements, and rights-of-way.
4. The Plan relies exclusively on General Obligation Bonds. Nearly every successful complex we studied is paid for at least partly by the visitors and new businesses it attracts. This plan uses general obligation bonds to support the building alone. The Parish Commitment: The Administration will explore additional revenue opportunities such as a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) or an Economic Development District (EDD) to support the debt management and operations of the Complex.
5. Visitor hotel taxes would not help repay the debt. Tournament visitors would generate an estimated $319,000 a year in hotel occupancy tax, but none of it currently reaches the Parish. The Parish Commitment: The Administration will hold meaningful discussions with outside agencies such as the City of Shreveport, Visit Shreveport-Bossier, the Shreveport Bossier Sports Commission, and any other agencies that benefit from the sales taxes that will be derived from the Complex to determine the viability of partnerships to support the construction or operations of the Complex.
6. Nothing was set aside to replace worn-out equipment. Floors, turf, scoreboards, and HVAC wear out on a schedule. Overland Park, Kansas, faced a $5 million turf replacement with a $2.3 million reserve; Lubbock, Texas, raised its field rates 75 percent to close a similar gap. The Parish Commitment: The Administration, beginning with the second fiscal year after the Complex begins operations, shall establish a dedicated capital reserve fund dedicated to capital replacement for the Complex, subject to review and approval by the Caddo Parish Commission. This reserve fund will be established based on a lifecycle replacement schedule to be prepared and made public. A warranty will cover all first-year maintenance issues.
7. There were no protections in the operator contract. Virginia Beach paid more than $6 million to buy out an operator that did not perform. The Parish Commitment: The Administration will select and recommend a third-party operator to manage the Complex to leverage specialized expertise, enhance performance, and expand available opportunities while retaining ownership, policy control, and public accountability.
The Parish has gone one step further. The Administration will recommend to the Caddo Parish Commission Sites along the Interstate 20 corridor west of Interstate 49 as recommended by the Caddo Parish Economic Development Committee. The Administration has identified the following interchanges that have available property that meet the acreage requirements: Exit 5 (Greenwood Road), Exit 8 (West Bert Kouns Industrial Loop) Exit 10 (Pines Road), and Exit 11 (1220/3132)
Why this time is different
We have all watched public buildings in this region open with fanfare and become permanent line items. The Chamber has not forgotten that, and it is exactly why we did this work. The difference this time is that the hard questions we are asking before the vote, and the answers we received are in writing. And should this vote be successful, the Chamber is committed to being at the table throughout the process to ensure that this facility meets the expectations of our citizenry.
A complex where our kids practice on weeknights and visiting families fill hotels on weekends is worth building. Built to these commitments, it will be built right. We urge Caddo Parish voters to vote yes on November 3. Early voting begins October 20.
Tim Magner is President & CEO of the Greater Shreveport Chamber