Youth sports becoming big business for Central Mass

The former assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox opened the New England Baseball Complex in 2015 in Northborough with three full-size turf fields.

The Worcester Business Development Corp. is remediating the former GKN Sinter Metals site for $2.7 million in order to create a hockey rink in the city.

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By Sam Bonacci

Sports complexes across Central Massachusetts are tapping into a youth sports market that has proven recession proof and continues to grow. Whether looking at this from an economic or commercial development standpoint, youth sports are more than just fun and games – and Worcester is set to get in on the action with a new hockey facility.

With its central location, the greater Worcester area has been capitalizing on this surge in youth sports. Whether it is weekend-long cheer competitions at the DCU Center, the World Series of Youth Lacrosse, rowing, or the plethora of hockey games played at rinks throughout the area, this is a year-round endeavor for the area.And it means real money.

The youth lacrosse tournament, which will be hosted on a collection of fields throughout Worcester, is expected to bring in more than $500,000 in economic prosperity to the region through restaurant and other travel-related purchases along with more than 1,500 hotel rooms, said Tom Fitzmaurice the sports sales manager for Destination Worcester.

“The youth market is booming,” he said. “We actively bring in new events to get out of town business spending, and it also works to promote Central Massachusetts as a place to visit and a place to invest.”

The DCU Center has seen a huge growth in youth and amateur sports – with the hosting of dance and cheer events contributing a significant portion to the facility's bottom line, said Jim Mowen, assistant general manager and director of sales at the DCU Center.

Each cheer competition can bring in more than 130 teams with up to 30 members. Once you count their families, that is a real impact for the city, Mowen said.

“When you do the numbers that adds up pretty quick, and it's usually 1.5 spectators per participant,” Mowen said.

These type of youth events have been growing greatly in the last 20 years. This has to do with the increasingly organized nature of youth sports, he said. These aren't pick-up games down at the park, but highly competitive gatherings of youth dedicated to their particular sport, with equally dedicated parents.

“Everyone has their kids in structured activities, and dance and cheering is a big part of that on the female side of things. And you have the hockey, soccer, baseball that are big for males and females,” Mowen said. “It is a total different world from the one I was growing up in 30 years ago. A lot of these kids take part in these competitions. It is a major part of their world.”

Businesses have been capitalizing on this burgeoning market. In December, Mike Covino, who is best known as the president of the Niche Hospitality restaurant group but is trained as a physical therapist, opened Peak Fitness in Worcester. This facility caters to adult fitness but also extends to injury prevention and fitness training for youth athletes. For Covino, this was about serving a growing need in the youth market that keeps kids on the field.

“How do we keep these kids from getting hurt and predisposing them to injury, and a certain number of kids want to get better,” he said.

Large, dedicated playing facilities have been cropping up throughout the region. In 2010, the New England Sports Center in Marlborough undertook an expansion to seven rinks.

The latest facility to join the ranks is the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough. This facility with three full-size turf baseball fields – two of which can be converted into four little league size fields – opened in 2015. It was the vision of CEO Steve August, who has a long history with baseball, having worked as assistant general manager for the Red Sox among other various baseball-related positions.

August views this unique to the northeast facility -- complexes in the south and Midwest can have over 10 fields – as not only an investment but also a community service. During the extended winter season, high school teams were clamoring to make use of the fields for their spring training.

“We were slammed with high school baseball requests,” August said. “These guys couldn't get on the field, they were begging us for practice time.”

These facilities can also add an extra stamp of approval to programs that make use of them, Mowen said, noting that many of the cheer competitions have moved from large high schools to the DCU Center, which is a full-service facility and location. The central location of Worcester helps not only with travel to and from the event but with the affordable hotel rooms, Mowen said.

Dedicated facilities like the Marlborough location are still expensive to build and maintain, making them a bit of a hard sell for developers and landowners, August said. The Northborough baseball complex is making use of office space on their grounds to help round out the baseball facility's business case.

No one is arguing against the need for more playing space.

That was a major factor in the Worcester Business Development Corp. getting involved with the creation of a hockey rink in the Canal District. Not only does this project help with the organization's mission of cleaning up contaminated brownfields sites, through state and federal funds, but it puts the property back to a positive, taxable use, said Roberta Brian, WBDC's vice president of projects.

As the organization was rehabilitating the former Telegram & Gazette building at 20 Franklin St., among the challenges of intellectual issues and retaining graduating entrepreneurs in the area, ice time was raised.

“We started to hear a similar theme. That it would be great to have Worcester ice,” Brian said.

The location at 112 Harding St., a former GKN Sinter Metals site, will be remediated by the WBDC to the tune of $2.7 million, clearing the way for re-use.

“Twin rinks in that area serve not just the schools but a very large youth pop that is now traveling outside of the city,” she said. “The private market has responded, but they really have been responding east of us.”

The downtown location will be a departure from the suburban model but bring with it access to hotels, shopping and dining all within walking distance in the Canal District.