Opinion
Big maybe
TBO.com
Published: January 23, 2013
When Pasco County began levying a 2 percent tax on hotel and motel rooms and other short-term rental accommodations nearly 23 years ago, the goal was boosting Pasco's miniscule tourism industry. The nature of the Pasco Gulf coastline ruled out beaches such as those in Pinellas County, and Orange County already had a death grip on big-scale tourist magnets like Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. So Pasco officials decided to foster less-conventional visitor lures. Most of these were based on the two ideas, eco-tourism and sports. On the sports front, there have been proposals of varying levels of seriousness to use tourist tax revenue to build a rodeo arena, Major League Baseball spring training-minor league complex and professional tennis stadium. Most recently, there were thoughts of building a 200-acre amateur sports complex in the Trinity area, but that plan ran afoul of the people who would have been the complex's neighbors.Published: January 23, 2013
The county is seeking bids from someone interested in building and managing an athletic field complex in the Wesley Chapel area of south-central Pasco on land donated by the Porter family, the developers of Wiregrass Ranch. The county wants whoever wins the management contract to put up 10 percent of the roughly $14 million cost of developing the complex of soccer-lacrosse fields, softball-baseball diamonds and a lakefront park, and share the revenue it would generate.
The county couldn't work out this sort of deal with the Porters, which is why they aren't building the complex themselves. We wish the county luck finding a more-willing partner — if one exists.