Plainfield group plans indoor sports complex

PLAINFIELD – Eric Withaar said he was surprised by the overcrowding of sports fields in Plainfield when picking up his daughters from soccer practice two years ago.

Now, he leads a group that wants to build a 346,847-square-foot indoor sports facility in town by 2016.

Withaar said he noticed 10 teams taking turns practicing on two soccer fields that day when he picked up his daughters.

“I thought, ‘You know what, I think we’re better than this,’ ” Withaar said. “I personally got tired of people driving around and out of Plainfield for sports events.”

Last year Withaar and a group of private residents formed the Plainfield Sports Facility Group, which has already poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into determining how Plainfield and surrounding communities could benefit from a new sports facility.

Using research from Florida-based Sports Facilities Advisory as well as other indoor sports facility owners, PSFG says the facility could become an economic engine for Plainfield with the village population expected to increase 57 percent in the next 20 years.

“We’re still working through it,” said Withaar, the managing member of PSFG. “There’s a lot of support for something like this not just in Plainfield, but in Naperville, Joliet, Bolingbrook and Oswego.”

Romeoville recently opened its 77,000-square-foot Athletic and Events Center. But the proposed Plainfield facility would be more than four times that size.

The project as it stands today would be a multi-million-­dollar project and would hold three full-size soccer fields, accommodating local youth, amateur and professional sports teams and tournaments.

It would be finished sometime in 2015 or 2016.

While PSFG would run the facility, Withaar said the group hopes to form a ­public-private partnership between the group, the village of Plainfield, Plainfield Township Park District and several private entities.

The village would help secure the land and would be positioned as the primary owner of the complex. Withaar said he has been discussing the project with Mayor Michael Collins and Village Administrator Brian Murphy.

The park district could help win grants to fund the facility, secure naming rights, and provide day programming to utilize the facility when private organizations aren’t using it.

The facility would be located northwest of downtown in the empty land between the railroad tracks and Van Dyke and Wood Farm roads. It would be funded through private investments and grants at no cost to taxpayers, according to the plan.

Withaar said PSFG has already recruited several sports teams and groups that have signed nonbinding letters of intent to use the facility if it is built.

PSFG members presented the project plan to park board commissioners Wednesday.

“It sounds like a great idea,” park board President Mary Kay Ludemann said.

Interim Executive Director Richard Grodsky said he is looking forward to working with PSFG on how the park district can get involved.

“For us as a park district, we can occupy [the facility] with programs during the day when private groups don’t usually plan events,” said parks Director of Recreation Cheryl Crisman. “We’re excited about the opportunity to do amazing things there.”