| Six soccer fields at Noble Sports Park in northern Brooklyn Park could one day become the Minnesota Sports Center. A nonprofit wants to build the massive indoor-outdoor sports center and they're pitching the idea to the Brooklyn Park City Council Tuesday night. "It's a big idea that needs a big space," said David Gee, a board member for the Minnesota Sports Center. "The vision of it is to build something that would appeal to large numbers of sports, large numbers of age groups, and make it a Twin Cities community-wide destination." The proposed 400000-square foot building would house three indoor athletic fields that could be used for a variety of sports like soccer, lacrosse, football and rugby. The plan also includes two indoor softball diamonds, batting cages and more. Outside there would be a stadium-style baseball diamond, six more baseball and softball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts and sand volleyball. The site would span 55 acres in all. "It's very interesting and exciting opportunity, I think, for Brooklyn Park and for the entire metro area," said Jon Oyanagi, director of recreation and parks for Brooklyn Park. Oyanagi has worked with the group to determine whether Noble Sports Park might be a good site for the project. "The economic impact is huge, just from tournaments and educational programs that they'll be running. It'll be bringing people from all over the metro area and all over the state and region," he said. "That type of facility at our ... |
