Community members and leaders react to plans for new sports complex in Marion

MARION, Ill. (KFVS) – City leaders in Marion expect construction to begin on a $30-million sports complex any day now.

The Marion City Council and Williamson County Board of Commissioners finalized plans for the multi-million dollar project on Wednesday, April 24.

“The sports tourism industry is huge,” said Marion Chief of Staff Cody Moake.

Moake said that’s why the city worked to bring a new Sports Complex to town.

“The county and the city kind of had a joint meeting to talk about interest in going together and funding the model.”

Equipped with soccer, baseball and softball fields the complex is set to bring sports fans to Marion.

“What we’re counting on is that the visitors coming in to use the complex from our vacation rentals to our hotels to our restaurants, to our retail businesses both and on the west side of town and downtown. I think we’ll see a huge boom in business,” said Moake

Kathy Mcree lives in Marion and is excited to see big projects like this come to her city.

“I’ve lived here for 64 years. It was smaller and I watched amazing growth in Marion. So it’s it’s exciting. Time and I like to see progress like this,” said Mcree.

And Moake is looking forward to seeing the benefits he thinks the complex will bring to Marion.

“I guess we’ll see the real win a year from now and then hopefully those new visitors start coming in and everyone benefits from that,” said Moake.

Construction on the new sports complex is expected to be finished by the spring of 2025.

Copyright 2024 KFVS. All rights reserved.