Wiregrass Sports Complex of Pasco County RFP-SS-13-027 Prepared for: Pasco County Board of County Commissioners Purchasing Department 8919 Government Drive New Port Richey, Florida 34654 Prepared by: The Diamond Nation LLC, Turf Solutions Group LLC, Wiregrass Sports LLC Partnership February 11, 2013 Pasco County Board of County Commissioners Purchasing Department 8919 Government Drive New Port Richey, Florida 34654 Re: RFP-SS-13-027 To Whom it May Concern, We are excited to submit the attached response to RFP-SS-13-027 to Pasco County for consideration. Enclosed you will find our complete response as requested by the RFP document. Our team consists of a partnership between industry leaders in constructing, operating and maintaining sports facilities at the highest level. Diamond Nation owns and operates one of the nation’s most successful baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse tournament venues serving more than 2,200 teams and 60,000 patrons in 2012 alone. Turf Solutions Group (TSG) has provided facility design support, construction support and maintenance support to top sports facilities from coast to coast. Wiregrass Sports LLC is comprised of the Porter family that has been part of many successful endeavors within Pasco County for decades. We are a team comprised of the people, principles, commitment, and successful operational background to launch and operate the proposed Wiregrass Sports Complex of Pasco County. We have the resources already in place to make an impact from the day that we are selected as the operator of this new development within Pasco County. While we believe that our group would provide the greatest financial savings to the county by working from a design/build/operate agreement with a capped capitalization from the county for land improvements, we remain very interested in the scope described in the RFP request. Thank you for the opportunity to submit this proposal to Pasco County, and we hope to work with you on this great project. Respectfully submitted, WIREGRASS SPORTS LLC DIAMOND NATION LLC TURF SOLUTIONS GROUP LLC Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary ………….………………………………………. 1 2. Company Analysis ……….…………………………………………... 6 3. Industry Analysis …………………………………………………..… 12 4. Customer Analysis …………………………………………………… 15 5. Competitive Analysis ………………………………………………... 17 6. Marketing Plan ………………………………………………………... 21 7. Operations Plan ………………………………………………………. 24 8. Financial Plan ……………………………………………………….… 26 9. Contact and Communication Information ……………………….. 30 Executive Summary We have assembled top industry resources within our team to provide the support that this planned sports complex needs for the best possible short-term and long-term outcome. We have combined our industry strengths with the Porter family’s local knowledge and understanding of the present and future plans within the Wiregrass area. Our team also has members within it that have been part of the concept planning group that provided the early-stage design submittals to Pasco County. The genesis of the Porter family interest in this venture dates back some 60 years with the participation of Don Porter on a state championship Little League team. Tom and Bill Porter followed along the sports trail some years later with sports careers culminating at the junior college, college and professional levels. In short, sports have been an important part of our lives for over 60 years. Initially, sports were largely local in nature. The Little League baseball program did sponsor a national tournament. Travel teams were a yet undiscovered concept. Girls’ sports existed only in programs at some schools. By the mid-1990’s, when the Porter children began to participate in sports, youth sports had taken on an entirely new flavor. There were national programs in many sports catering to boys and girls. Travel teams were springing up everywhere, and our children were filling all available venues. As parents invested in our children, one or both were traveling to tournaments of one form or another for most weekends during the year. This routine made indelible impressions as to the quality of the tournament and venue experience. Diamond Nation is one of the most successful operators of a sports facility in the United States with over 2,200 teams served and 60,000 visitors in 2012 alone. They designed, built, and paid for their facility privately which shows the truest spirit of entrepreneurship. They reached over 100% of their capacity goal that was set in just 3 years of operating their facility, and their brand now reaches teams in over 30 states. They have a proven and predicable system in place to provide consistent, measurable, and realistic results to Pasco County. Diamond Nation has perfected their operating approach and has invested significant dollars on process improvements and technology to make their brand experience more valuable to their customer base year after year. 1 Turf Solutions Group (TSG), the third partner in our offering to Pasco County, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience at planning and construction sports facilities all across the country. TSG has the unique advantage of working with facilities of all sizes and has reviewed many elements and offerings within facilities that attract consistent, repeat use from traveling teams. TSG brings the planning and design assistance experience along with over 25 years of agronomic management and maintenance experience for all of the natural turf grass sports fields that are planned at the facility. We intend to keep this facility maintained at a level exceeding the large competing sports venues like ESPN Wide World of Sports (WWOS). Our team brings all of the important components to this project: design, planning, marketing, operations, scheduling, and concessions with predictable results. We would invite Pasco County to consider a visit to the Diamond Nation facility in Flemington, NJ to see more detail on a properly managed facility operates, and we bring that entire management experience and with help from TSG and the Porter family, desire to have the best facility in central Florida for local, regional and national sporting events. We have concluded the following key facts from our time researching the project and its proposed location within the Wiregrass Ranch area of Pasco County: 1. There are not enough sports fields to handle the growing local demand 2. It is in an area that is 45 minutes from either Disney Property or the Beach which is unique and a strong marketing and advertising benefit 3. It is 15 minutes to other local attractions including Busch Gardens and Adventure Island. 4. While there aren’t enough hotel rooms directly within Pasco County to support the high demand tournament days at the planned facility, the facility would benefit from out-of-county hotel use by way of a mandatory hotel rebate program that is already implemented at the Diamond Nation facility. 5. We have the ability to compete with ESPN (Disney) WWOS and create a unique “experience” for teams that is not just centered on Disney but can include Disney as an option if they wish. With this location we can provide the same or better experience than at WWOS with the added benefit of great attractions within 15 – 45 minutes that are not just Disney attractions. 2 A few years ago, the Porters were approached by a group seeking to site an ice hockey arena. The idea never germinated. However, it did cause the Porters to explore the concept of a sports complex located on Wiregrass. This exploration resulted in visiting with people representing all facets of the youth sports industry, including ESPN (Disney) Wide World of Sports, IMG, Lakewood Ranch, public sports councils and national sports organizations. Recognizing that it is not possible to cater to all sports, we sought and found a strong sense of where the greatest gaps exist in the facilities world. It is the intent of our group to enter into a minimum 10-year public/private partnership with Pasco County to operate and maintain the proposed Fields at Wiregrass. This RFP response on behalf of our group is to procure these services via a design/build/operate process to be directed by our group with the County as our partner. The RFP contemplates a more conventional public multi-step, design, bid and build project that the County would manage, however we feel that process is unnecessary and inefficient. Our proposed approach will allow us the necessary control of the project to save the County a significant amount of time and money in the process. We recognize that a detailed agreement will need to be negotiated to ensure that the needs of both parties are addressed to initiate a public/private partnership. However both parties are committed and invested in the success of the venue and can work together to develop a successful multi-purpose event complex. Consistent with the statements in the RFP and the Wiregrass Ranch development order, we propose to centrally locate the Wiregrass Sports Complex of Pasco County within the Wiregrass DRI. Amenities at The Fields at Wiregrass will include, but not be limited to concession stands, press boxes, restroom facilities, convenient parking, rental golf carts, paved walking paths, passive park and recreation areas, children’s playground area, picnic areas, arcade/game room, pre-wiring for lighting and broadcasting for TV, a designated maintenance building area, location for temporary vendors and onsite administration offices. The associated amenities and facilities at these sporting venues can often be the deciding factor in return customers and a successful event. 3 We anticipate having no less than eight (8) baseball/softball fields and twelve (12) multi-purpose fields as part of the facility as currently shown on the concept plan below, and we further anticipate the if we are involved in the capacities as described herein that construction costs will not exceed $ 12 million. Our vision for the Wiregrass Sports Complex of Pasco County is quite bold.