CLIFTON PARK – A new indoor Sportsplex may rise from the ashes, nine months after COVID-19 crushed the business and the building was sold.
Paul Rogan, one of the owner-operators of the former Sportsplex of Halfmoon on Corporate Drive, has applied to build a smaller indoor turf facility in Clifton Park. It would replace the Players Park minigolf business that is currently at 1021 Ballston Lake Road.
“COVID hit, it destroyed business. To make a long story short, the landlord pursued sale of the building and we vacated in February,” Rogan said. “We immediately realized the void that not having a Sportsplex had in the Clifton Park community, as far as not having an indoor turf place goes, so we started pursuing other options.”
The new site has space for both an enclosed field and an outdoor turf field.
“I’ve been pursuing that for many years, how the Clifton Park community can have an outdoor turf field,” he said.
At a preliminary meeting with the town board last Monday, he emphasized that the proposed building would be much smaller than the Sportsplex of Halfmoon.
“It would not be a metal building. It would not be a bubble,” he said, describing the proposal as a frame with a fabric cover over two fields. The entire space would be about two-thirds the size of a regulation outdoor soccer field.
There would be no restaurant or concessions stand, no fitness rooms and no second story, he said, calling it a “very streamlined business.”
“The Sportsplex (of Halfmoon) was a much more expansive business,” he said. “I understand the Sportsplex was a very imposing building. This is a smaller building, not nearly as high and not nearly as big.”
The new facility would be roughly 60 percent of the size of the Corporate Drive location, at about 4,300 square feet, with walls 18 feet tall. The peak of the roof would be 40 feet high, he said.
He envisions youth and adults using the fields for indoor soccer, lacrosse, softball and baseball training, flag football and ultimate frisbee.
The existing Clifton Park site has lights and an ice cream stand, he noted. He would have a lighted outdoor field.
The site also has 50 parking spaces, to which he wants to add 135 more.
The planning board will consider the proposal on Dec. 14. at its 7 p.m. meeting. The town board referred the project to the planning board after hearing a brief outline of the proposal.
It’s what the town needs, said town board member Anthony Morelli, who brought his daughter to a turf field near the Albany International Airport so her team could practice playing on turf.
“As a parent there is definitely a need in our town for a space like this,” he said. “I’ll wait to see what the planning board says about the specific location. We need to be open to a project like this somewhere in our town.”
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
