Grand Park’s fieldhouse offers year-round athletics, and lures new businesses

WESTFIELD, Ind (WISH) – A new indoor basketball fieldhouse allows a sports complex to become year round, and entice more businesses to the area.

Crews raced to put finishing touches on Jonathan Byrd’s Fieldhouse Tuesday. After two years of construction, the facility is finally ready to let people hit the hardwood.

“I’m very tired, I’m very worn out, but if you look around this place you can see it’s all well worth it,” Jonathan Byrd’s Fieldhouse Operations President Rod Sinn said.

Sinn helped bring the $9 million dollar fieldhouse to Westfield. It features eight courts, for youth basketball and volleyball.

PHOTOS: Check out the new facility here.

“As far as 2016, we’re literally, we are booked full to capacity as far as all the dates that we have scheduled out,” Sinn said.

And it isn’t just full with tournaments featuring Hoosier teams.

“As far as California,” Sinn said. “East Coast, West Coast, north, south, they will be coming from all over the United States to play here.”

That’s music to the ears of local leaders who hope the fieldhouse generates a lot of money.

“Grand Park, it just keeps giving back what it’s supposed to,” Westfield Mayor Andy Cook said.

In 2015, Mayor Cook said more than 1.5 million people used the complex, generating $50 million.

With the fieldhouse, it’s expected to jump to $75 million. It’s not just about extra money, but new businesses.

“Our hotels, honestly, we don’t have enough. we don’t have enough hotels yet,” Mayor Cook said.

But Mayor Cook said five new hotels could be coming.

“Because now they know, hey we can sell these rooms 12 months out of the year,” Mayor Cook said.

The emergence of youth sports in Westfield isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. It’s not just about indoor basketball and volleyball, but this summer, the new indoor complex, also at Grand Park, will open, allowing people to play soccer and other sports.

Two indoor facilities that could put Westfield on the map when it comes to athletics. “To me, if you’re a sports fan, a youth’s sports fan, it doesn’t get any better than this,” Sinn said.

The fieldhouse isn’t just for tournaments, but ways to learn the sport as well. There are camps, and clinics scheduled to teach Hoosiers how to play.