Kearney Indoor Sports Complex making progress

KEARNEY – Kearney City Council heard an update Tuesday on the forthcoming Indoor Sports Complex.

The presentation was part of their consent agenda, and no action was taken on the project.

Park and Recreation Director Scott Hayden said details for the facility are being fine-tuned.

“It’s certainly a large building, and we want to get it right,” Hayden told council members.

The $34 million facility will be located off Interstate 80 and will be accessible from Yanney Avenue.

The functionality of the building is key to “provide the amenities that the public approved and voted on,” said Hayden. Its 209,000-square-foot imprint will include about 60,000 square feet of gymnasiums, roughly 66,000 square feet of turf fields, more than 9,000 square feet of pickleball courts and 24,000 square feet of track.

It will have eight basketball courts and 12 volleyball courts.

For volleyball, Hayden noted, a court is 30-by-60 feet, but the playing area is 43-by-73 feet.

Basketball courts will have “adequate space on baselines” for movement.

“We have 11-foot-7, and a lot of places only have 6 to 8,” he said.

Hayden detailed an expansive entry and lobby, with three sets of double doors and a vestibule area to accommodate crowds and movement.

“When you figure this place can sit almost 3,000 people, that’s basically like an arena. Most arenas have three or four entrances,” he said.

The facility is adaptable to the needs and interests of the community.

A large morning group for pickleball could easily fill up four gymnasium courts, said Hayden.

“Mornings are perfect because kids are going to be in school. It’s going to be wide open. We could have overflow nets and courts in there if we wanted to,” he said.

A conference room would potentially serve as tournament headquarters and rest space for referees and officials between games.

The second floor features a large landing area and track.

Five laps on the track equals one mile, said Hayden.

“You probably won’t see too many indoor walking/running tracks that have the standard turning radiuses,” he said. “Most of them in facilities like that are either odd-shaped or have very sharp turns to them.”

City Manager Michael Morgan commented Tuesday that the project is going over budget and will need to undergo changes in some details before materials are ordered.

“The south parking is an alternate,” said Morgan, “because we know it’s going to be over budget, and we’re putting in 400 and some on the north, which is quite a bit, but if you have 3,000 people there it’s not going to be enough, so we’d have to do some temporary parking.”