GO Indoor

Arenas Provide Inside Track for All-Year Athletes A year-round demand for places to play organized sports has fueled growth of "megaplexes." By Lini S. Kadaba Re-printed with permission of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Copyright 2002 est Bradford Township's got game. W It may be a chilly, dark school night, but this fast-growing Chester County community bursting with children is buzzing all the same, with kicks and dribbles, slap shots and jump shots. Indoors, that is. At the 127,000-square-foot Uni ted Spor t s Tr a ini ng Center , the action is everywhere. Roller hockey. Basketball. Field hockey. Soccer. Lacrosse. All across the suburban landscape, on weeknights and all day and into the late night Saturdays and Sundays, the same scene is playing at other centers, at the 100,000-square-foot Tr i- Sta te Spor t s in Aston, at the 50,000-squarefoot I nte rna t iona l Spor t s Ce nte rs in Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel, at the 100,000-square-foot S p o r t s p l e x in Feasterville. How big is that? Big enough for almost six professional-size hockey rinks. At the sports megaplex, that multimillion-dollar altar to all things physical, children come to compete in - and pay homage to - youth sports, for a fee, of course. And this month marks the start of the high season, when the indoors brings the promise of safety, warmth and, above all, organized play. "We start to reach a point where we won't be able to take all the soccer teams that want to play," said Ja y I n ga l l s, general manager for International Sports Center in Cherry Hill, which opened in 1999. "We won't be able to take all the hockey teams that want to play. We won't be able to take all the volleyball teams that want to play. On a weekend, in the dead of winter, teams start at 7 a.m." Megaplexes keep coming. A ct ion Spor t s Ce nte r in Lower Pottsgrove, Montgomery County, is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. Plans are on the drawing board for a third International Sports Center, in Deptford. In December, A CA C F i t n e s s & W el lnes s Center s plans to join the competition, chasing after families like a striker after a goal, with its new 22 • Dec.-Jan. 2002 • G O A L 80,000-square-foot, $14 million facility in West Chester, a hybrid health clubsports complex that will include indoor baseball. The Uni ted St a tes I ndoor Soccer A s s oci a t ion has seen its membership double in the last year to 150 facilities, which include multi-sport megaplexes. Soccer facilities alone generate $250 million to $375 million a year in revenue, according to association president Don Sha pero. "Nobody hangs up their sneaks anymore," said K i m Ba s ner , vice president ter, not just for the kids.) Then there are those who want to play a favorite sport year-round, often looking for that competitive edge. The A mer ic a n A ca demy of Pe di a t ri cs has recommended that children avoid specializing in a sport until adolescence because young, growing bodies aren't ready for intense training and competition. "It's hard in our competitive environment to convince parents of this," Basner said. "We don't dictate play year round. We offer it. I know cross-training is best." As the weather turns chilly, the megaplexes, which are predominantly suburban - where land is more plentiful - shift into high gear. At Tri-State Sports, lacrosse is the game on a recent night. The official season is spring, when the increasingly popular sport is played outside on grassy fields. This month's featured facility, RexPlex, in Elizabeth, NJ, boasts everything from indoor soccer to lacrosse, to bumper cars, to football, basketball, boxing, ice hockey, corporate events and concerts. Even a carousal! of the West Bradford center, which opened in 1999 as a soccer complex targeting upscale families and now offers everything from rock climbing to volleyball leagues. "It's organized pickup," she said. "That's why these places are popular. Kids need referees, kids need someone to pick teams, kids need uniforms." The shortage of space at recreation centers and the growth of the suburbs, with the attendant flood of children looking for something to do, are also driving the buildup. "People want to be entertained," said M i cha el Ja c k s on, a professor of sports administration at Te mpl e Uni v er s it y , "and these centers provide a form of entertainment." (And, judging by the sideline chat- In d o o r But indoors here, players from Garnett Valley and Penncrest High Schools are facing off on the artificial turf surface with a Plexiglas surround, two of the 120 indoor lacrosse teams that compete at just this one place. It costs $65 to $ 90 a player for an eightweek season, and athletes come from as far as Abington, Northeast Philadelphia and South Jersey. Yet another matchup will start at 10 p.m. "They love the sport," M i c he l l e L eone tt i of Glen Mills said from the bleachers as son Tony, 16, played. "They play Sundays. They play Wednesdays. And they practice." "We don't drag them, they drag us," said Bob W i t tma n, also from Glen Mills. "Lacrosse gets much more competi- tive as you get older," Jef f W it t ma n, 15, a lacrosse captain for Garnett Valley, said after a big win. "If you don't play, you fall behind." And that matters to these boys and their families, most of whom hope to snag lacrosse scholarships. So the facilities often specialize, claiming bragging rights to particular sports. Tri-State is considered to rule in lacrosse. The International Sports Center in Cherry Hill boasts the largest field hockey league in New Jersey. Rock et Spor ts in Wayne, a miniplex at 28,000 square feet, is the place for soccer, with more than 1,000 children playing in house leagues and game times as late as 11:45 p.m. Off-season, the facilities are big in birthday parties and summer camps. "These leagues are specifically made to attract the best athletes," said M a t t F ly nn, the Tri-State lacrosse director. "It's competition." M ik e Churc hv i ll e, executive director of the Sportsplex in Feasterville, jokes about the "13- month soccer season," where players go from the outdoor fall season to indoor winter play back to outdoor spring games and outdoor summer tournaments. "It never ends," he said, laughing. Churchville opened an indoor facility in Northeast Philadelphia back in 1984, featuring street hockey. That center, since closed, gave way to the Sportsplex, which opened in 1998 with three rinks, 20 tennis courts, Olympicsize pool and fields. "The amount of interest in indoor sports is incredible," he said. "There's not a two-week period where somebody doesn't come into my office and say, 'I'm thinking of building an indoorsports facility.'" Churchville marvels at talk of everbigger complexes, topping 200,000 square feet and including indoor golf training. Back in West Bradford, a bunch of young girls is practicing soccer. "My daughter hasn't played a lot of team sports before," said Sue Doucet te of Glenmoore, as Ali, 11, works on dribbles and passes in a soccer clinic, preparing for the spring season. "I think it's great," Doucette said, "especially for the winter, when you don't want to be outside." Lini S. Kadaba is a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She can be contacted at 610-701-7624 or lkadalkadaba@phillynews.com. ba@phillynews.com

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