Construction continues on Cooper Sports Complex in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Construction is still underway on the Cooper Sports Complex in Springfield, but progress is being made.

Right now they’re in phase one of the $28 million project. It’s being paid for through ARPA funds as well as city and visitor’s bureau funding.

“Phase one is eight soccer fields in which we are installing artificial turf as well as other improvements. But that’s the big noticeable one is that we are turning formerly dirt fields into turf fields,” said Jenny Fillmer Edwards, Public Information Administrator for the Springfield-Greene County park board.

Turf has already been installed on field one. Now they’re working on the other fields.

The goal is to better what Springfield already has says Fillmer Edwards.

“These fields are decades old. They’ve been played on very hard and when it rains, as any soccer parent knows, the delay is significant. Not only can you not play on during the rain, but you can’t play while the field is wet. So converting these grass fields into turf fields. Will increase the playability. It’ll decrease the amount of time that we have to wait after a rain delay,” said Fillmer Edwards.

Fillmer Edwards says the benefit of installing these new fields is twofold.

“One is to serve our local athletes and their families. Our local soccer players are playing on these types of fields when they visit other communities. It’s good for them to be able to play on these types of fields at home,” said Fillmer Edwards. “The second reason that we are doing this is for those tournaments. Our players are going to other communities right now, to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, go shopping while they’re out of town. We want to bring more of that economic activity to Springfield.”

Fillmer Edwards says it’s exciting to see the progress being made.

“It’s super exciting to see turf on this field. For several months, this has just been a lot of dirt and mud and dust, and it’s sort of hard to visualize that this is soon going to be a soccer field, but seeing field one fixed up, it’s really heartening to sort of see the finished product in in view, and soon we’ll have these other two turfed,” said Fillmer Edwards.

Phase one is expected to be wrapped up in January. They’re taking bids for phase two which includes turfing the softball and baseball fields.

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