Northport breaks ground on 36-acre River Run Park sports complex
Dirt is moving at Northport's River Run Park, in more ways than one.
Monday afternoon, city officials, developers and others held a ceremonial groundbreaking, bordered on the south by the Black Warrior River, just up the road from Oliver Lock and Dam. The 36-acre sports complex's nine new baseball and softball fields are expected not only to serve youth sports, but act as a draw for tournaments.
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Golden shovels were wielded by, among others:
Northport City Council President Christy Bobo and other officeholders
Birch Dalton of Northport Sports Complex Development, LLC, which was created for this project
Don Staley, whose SNAP (Southeastern Network of Athletic Professionals) Sports Tourism Consulting will help develop the River Run Park sports complex.
Dalton is a managing partner of Westfield, Indiana's EdgeRock Development, which built 400-plus acre Grand Park Sports Campus. Begun in 2007, now drawing 2.5 million visitors a year, it's credited with attracting $1.5 billion in economic development, for a city that's grown from a population of 30,068 in 2010 to 58,410 in 2023.
Dalton pointed out former Westfield Mayor Andy Cook, also on hand for the sunny but wind-chilled pre-spring afternoon, who launched the Grand Park project.
"I tell you, I was one of those negative people who said 'No, it won't work.' And now I'm one of the largest investors in the park," Dalton said. "I can tell you these baseball fields will be a catalyst for this community."
Referring to his long tenure boosting Tuscaloosa-area sports and tourism, Staley smiled as he said "Third time's the charm."
Friends still call him "Coach" from his career in soccer, including founding the University of Alabama's team. In 23 years, Staley earned four “Coach of the Year” awards over two different leagues at the Division 1 level, and became just the fifth coach in NCAA soccer history to broach the 300-win mark in 2004.
He created the Tuscaloosa Sports Foundation, which lured the Super Six High School Football Championships to Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2009, then left the Druid City in 2014 to develop the $32 million Foley Sports Tourism Complex.
He returned in 2017 as president and CEO of the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission (now Visit Tuscaloosa), which developed a two-day Druid City Music Festival, and during the pandemic, the Tuscaloosa Virtual Music Experience.
With Staley in charge, the tourism group expanded the Druid City Arts Festival and Tuscaloosa Civil Rights History Trail, and played significant roles in the city's 2019 Bicentennial Celebration.
After leaving the top job at TTS in 2022, he moved to Leesburg, Florida, where he founded SNAP. He relocated the business to Northport last fall.
With River Run Park, Staley said, Northport shows commitment to economic impact, return on investment and quality of life for citizens, while entering the ultra-competitive realm of sports tourism, whose 2021 U.S. economic impact has been estimated at $900 billion.
"Welcome to the game, Northport," Staley said.
Bobo applauded the many contributing to launch this project, one initiated by Northport Mayor John Hinton, who was unable to attend Monday due to a health issue.
"It's a culmination of the collaborative efforts in partnership and hard work of so many individuals and teams," Bobo said, including former council President Jeff Hogg, who stepped down from office earlier this month, leaving president pro tem Bobo to step up into the role.
Addressing friction between some outspoken Northport citizens and the council, over worries including the expansion of a $350 million water park, a contretemps with the Kentuck Art Center, and the proposed sale of a 70-year-old city park to condo developers, Bobo spoke of an inconvenient truth: "... that change is so difficult because people are likely to overestimate the value of what they have, and underestimate what they may gain by going a step further."
"Thank you again to those willing to serve through any storm, and to dream and act. On going that extra step, we're building a better future for the children and for the community of Northport," Bobo said.
Though tree removal work has begun for River Run, rolling topography still blocks views of nearby Kentuck Park, and 140,000 cubic yards of stockpiled dirt purchased from Tuscaloosa's McWright's Ferry Road extension project. That mound will help build River Run Park, a key component of the wider Northport Shore development, which is planned to include a fishing complex, hiking trails, pickleball courts, and improvements to existing Kentuck Park and Warrior Park.
Northport purchased the dirt at a greatly reduced rate with the requirement that they take it sooner rather than later. It's been stored at the south of Kentuck Park since fall 2023. That became a subject of contention for the Kentuck Art Center, as the mound covered what had been artists' access and parking for its annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts.
Concerns about ongoing construction, and how that might affect the park site and access led Kentuck, housed on a campus of buildings at 503 Main Ave. in Northport, to move its 53rd Kentuck Festival of the Arts to Tuscaloosa's Snow Hinton Park, Oct. 19-20, 2024. No plans regarding future festivals have been announced.
Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Northport welcomes 36-acre River Run Park sports complex
