New Tiger Woods golf arena at PBSC campus in Palm Beach Gardens could be metal

Will Tiger Woods' new tech golf league get a metal arena on Palm Beach State College land in Palm Beach Gardens?

The PBSC Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet soon to discuss further a proposal to rebuild the indoor golf arena on the school's campus off PGA Boulevard with prefabricated metal instead of an air-inflated dome.

Proposing is TMRW Sports, which will launch TGL, an interactive golf league led by pro golfers Woods and Rory McIlroy. The original arena was an air-inflated dome structure that broke ground in February 2023 and was nearing completion when a power outage followed by a freak windstorm destroyed it in November.

Now TMRW is proposing a metal arena, one that will likely be there for 50 years.

That plan met sharp resistance last month from the PBSC's Board of Trustees.

Here are important things to know about TGL and the new indoor golf dome

What is TGL, the indoor golf league developed by Tiger Woods?

It is a golf league that will infuse technology with in-person golf. It is expected to consist of 24 players and six teams, each with four PGA Tour players competing head-to-head in 18-hole match play. The original plan was for 15 regular-season Monday night matches, followed by semifinals and finals.

The league was developed by Woods, a Jupiter Island resident who is regarded as one of the best golfers of all time; and McIlroy, a Jupiter resident, winner of four major golf tournaments and the second-ranked golfer on the PGA Tour; and golf executive Mike McCarley, a former NBC Sports executive.

Other players who have committed to playing in the league include: Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Adam Scott, Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Kevin Kisner and Lucas Glover.

What will the TMRW Sports stadium look like in Palm Beach Gardens?

It will be called the SoFi Center, named after SoFi Technologies. The SoFi name is expected to be emblazoned on the nearly 250,000-square-foot venue that will hold almost 2,000 people.

The original air-supported dome was to reach a height of 79 feet, covering TGL’s near-football-field-sized playing surface of 97 by 50 yards and including a 46-by-64-foot screen. The metal arena would be about 75 feet high.

The SoFi Center was expected to include a 40-yard-wide short-game complex, featuring three dynamic putting surfaces within the 3,800 square-foot green and three sand bunkers where the star golfers would compete.

The arena, built as a TV studio, would have seating for 1,500 fans. With the new metal approach, the backstage area can accommodate 1,000 people, up from 500. But much larger audiences are expected on ESPN, which signed on to broadcast the weekly Monday night matches live.

A college report last year put the cost of the original building at $11 million. With the new approach, that number rose to $50 million in a report submitted to the trustees.

Those figures don’t include $30 million worth of technology that will be added to create the indoor golf course, a TMRW spokesman said.

When will Tiger Woods' indoor golf league start?

Originally, it was expected to start in January 2024, mainly because of the window provided by ESPN to televise the events.

Less than a week after the dome's collapse, TGL decided to push back the start one year after discussions with players, the six-team ownership groups, PGA Tour leadership and TGL's commercial partners.

What was the deal that PBSC made with TMRW Sports?

In November 2022, a lease agreement was signed by Palm Beach State College with NexGen Sports Group, TMRW Sports’s parent. It gave TMRW Sports the use of nearly 11 acres of PBSC-owned land off PGA Boulevard (and seen clearly from RCA Boulevard) for up to 15 years, as well as campus parking lots during events.

TMRW Sports did not have to pay any rent for the land, and were given free use of the parking lots.

In turn, the company was expected to provide a range of contributions to PBSC during the lease term, such as college-student training opportunities, publicity, curriculum development and shared use of the facility. The lease described these contributions as "in-kind rent."

TMRW Sports also made a $1 million donation to the Foundation for Palm Beach State College.

What's the concern now on golf dome?

The air-inflated structure had been viewed in the 15-year lease as removable, meaning TMRW could return the site to PBSC in its former state. That’s less likely with a metal building expected to last 50 years and withstand Category 5 hurricanes.

Trustees, meeting Feb. 27, refused to endorse the metal structure proposal immediately. They cited that the structure would be there for a long time and should be attractive. They also brought up possible profit-sharing.

During the meeting, PBSC trustee Wendy Link, who is also Palm Beach County's Supervisor of Elections, said: "... they have to make this work from a business standpoint. We have to make it work from a college standpoint. But we're also talking about a building that you're saying is going to be here for 50 years. So it can't be just a Costco box. That won’t work.”

During the meeting, trustees also asked about sharing in the golf league’s proceeds, which was not in the original lease. The lease would need to be amended to let TMRW Sports move forward.

“I just want to recognize that the deal has changed and that the terms need to change along with it. And that may include some funding that goes with that,” Link said.

What's happening at the TGL SoFi Center site now?

The collapsed dome has since been removed.

Large metal support beams were the only remaining part of that structure, but those were taken down the week of March 11. Construction is still happening at the site, including the placement of box-like offices.

If the sides agree to the metal structure, the pre-engineered building shell would be fabricated by Allied Steel Buildings and transported to the site in panels. It would cover the same footprint as the dome, allowing for a 135,000-square-foot building.

The goal would be to get the site enclosed by August, a quick but attainable goal because state college construction is faster because it does not have to go through the scrutiny of city zoning and permitting.

What's Palm Beach Gardens' role in this?

Not much, since it's a private enterprise working with a state college; the land just happens to be in Palm Beach Gardens.

But Gardens officials likely will have to address issues related to the arena, such as traffic and security.

 Joel Engelhardt of StetNews.com and Palm Beach Post reporter Alexandra Clough contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tiger Woods TGL golf dome in Palm Beach Gardens proposed to be metal