What's the Latest with the Redding Sports Park?

The Redding Sports Park continues to evolve, and in this episode, Katie and Steve sit down with Director of Community Services Travis Menne to talk about what’s new, what’s working, and what’s ahead.

Since the City of Redding took over operations, the park has grown into more than just a sports facility—it’s becoming a true community destination. We dive into what that transition has looked like, the feedback coming in from families and visitors, and some of the biggest wins so far.

You’ll also hear updates on two of the most talked-about topics: the new on-site restaurant and the status of the turf fields. Plus, we explore new additions like volleyball, future amenities, and how the park is expanding opportunities for the entire community—not just athletes.

Whether you’re a regular at the park or haven’t visited yet, this episode gives you a great look at where things stand today—and where they’re headed next.

Learn more about the Redding Sports Park at www.cityofredding.gov/reddingsportspark

Contact the City of Redding Podcast Team

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Transcript

Katie: [00:00:00] I am Katie.

Steve: And I'm Steve and. This is the City of Redding podcast.

Katie: Today we're heading back out to the Reading Sports Park for an update on everything that's been happening since the city took over operations.

Steve: It's been a big transition and there's a lot to catch up on. We're joined by director of Community Services, Travis Menne, to talk about how things are going, what the community is saying and what's new out at the park.

Katie: And we'll get into a couple of the updates. People are especially curious about, like the new onsite restaurant and the status of the turf field.

Steve: Plus we'll talk about some of the newer additions, how the park is evolving beyond just youth sports and what the future could look like over the next few years.

Katie: So whether you've been out there recently or haven't checked it out yet, there's a lot going on and a lot to look forward to.

Travis: I'm Travis Menne. I'm the Director of Community Services and Airports with the City of Redding. I'm happy to talk to you today about running sports.

Katie: Great. Thanks Travis. As you mentioned, we're here to talk about the Reading Sports Park.

Last time we talked, the city of Reading had just taken over operations at the Sports Park. What's [00:01:00] changed since then and how are things going overall?

Travis: Yeah. We have graduated from the garage style of business to having an actual budget that is given to us by the Red City Council. That budget started in July, 2025, so we haven't made it through a full year, but things are looking pretty good.

We have an actual staffing plan, so before. Like I mentioned, we are doing it like the startup phase of business, so we're plugging holes and we're putting pieces in and we're seeing how it works and trying to keep this thing going along while generating enough revenue to stay open, which is really hard for a first year business, let alone government to be able to do these sorts of things.

We successfully proved our case in that first year. We actually made a small profit. We were able to take money that the reading City Council gave us initially to start running the Reading Sports Park. We're actually able to. Ride out our first, I think it was about nine month period, and come back with every dime that the city council had allotted for this project and then some.

And so we were actually able to take that small profit [00:02:00] that we made and put it back into the park. So every time we do that, we're able to make more improvements and hopefully generate more revenue. So now that we are. Three quarters ish through our first cycle in the budget, things are looking good. We are trending right on track with our expectations, and we've made key improvements and a lot of those I think, are being felt by the user groups in terms of quality, cleanliness, expectations are being met.

I wouldn't say anything's perfect, but learning lessons every day and uncovering all the mysteries of. Why is that put together that way, and who worked on this and why is that thing backwards, underground? And we saw these mysteries every day, but we have this really well run organization out there that is dedicated.

Every day things get tighter and tighter. We're seeing more and more business, more and more happy faces, more and more progress. We're getting more and more resources to put into the park, but I'm super excited for the progress we made. It's really good to hear that the park is now operating in the green.

Steve: I [00:03:00] know historically when Big League Dreams was operating it, things weren't going quite so well and they were operating in the red and it was quite a bit of unmet needs and upkeep that wasn't happening. But overall, what do you attribute the success of the Sports Park now in the past year to, it sounds like you're running a more efficient operation and that money that is being generated for profit is going back into the park.

But why the change and is this what you expected?

Travis: Well, first off, I think the City of Red and Reding Recreation specifically and parks, any building maintenance, we are a powerhouse, and I don't think that in the larger context of what people think of as the city of Reding, they might think police and fire and kind of the government aspects, but.

Parks and recreation building maintenance. Those are huge teams that touch a lot of different aspects of the community, more so than I think people realize, and that is a group of doers that just get stuff done. They have good solutions and we have systems in place that we could rely on already. So we have really great facility running experience.

We know how to maintain buildings, we know how to maintain parks, and anytime we can throw resources with the good [00:04:00] team members. Bringing them in, they're able to execute. So if we need a door fixed or a project done out there that's going to improve or repair whatever was out there, those guys already know what they're doing.

We're not recreating the wheel. So really excited to have that team and just essentially arm them with the right tools and resources to go out there and execute. There's really great groups that rally around us and the sports park in general to keep it going. We're looking at Shasta Roller Hockey League.

There's an adult softball league. All of those groups out there. Really dedicated to making us successful because it is. What they want for their families and their community and all of that. At the same time, it's not a for-profit business where at the end of the day they're like, Hey, great. We poured all our resources into your project, and then someone walks away with the money.

When the city does it, it stays there, or at least goes to city council for a decision on what to do with those funds. I wouldn't say that. Things will always be exactly the same. There's always room for other models, but for now we have a really [00:05:00] good track record to rely on and really good partnerships brewing.

One of which is also with our friends right down the road to the soccer park. The Shasta Regional Soccer Associations really stepped up for food and beverage services and a partnership agreement there. When we talk about partners, I should mention, a huge partner in this endeavor has been the Reading Parks and Trails Foundation, and they have consistently showed up for the sports park.

They have gone out there to raise funds. I know not everything needs to be a beer event, but man, when they go out there and do that, they're really generating some really good revenue that goes directly back into your parks and recreation system and into the sports park. So we're very excited to have them as a partner.

Bringing in these groups that are dedicated to the overall vitality of the community is key. So we're just happy to have all the help we can get.

Katie: Well said Travis. I know Parks and Recreation has put a lot of work into that facility as well as partnered with a lot of really enthusiastic local groups to make some big changes.

So you [00:06:00] touched on it a little bit. I do wanna go through a couple of the major upgrades and major changes that have either happened or are coming, starting with the new restaurant. Can you walk us through that partnership, what that looks like and what it's expected to be and when it's expected to be open?

Travis: So we're partnering with the Shasta Regional Soccer Association to do food and beverage at the Red Sports Park, bringing them in to run our snack bar and our restaurant. Things are still progressing through regulatory hurdles, but. It's never been closer. We fully remodeled the restaurant. They've got a chef, they've got a menu.

It is completely different than anything you've ever seen out there, and we're expecting early April to really be able to announce a full launch into what we think will be our standard operating model for the future. So watch out for that. We're gonna try out some stuff. We're gonna make some changes, but we think that this ultimately will be a place where people want to come just for the environment and just for the food.

Not, I'm already here. I might as well eat. It's going to be, Hey, let's go out there, because [00:07:00] they've got all this great traditional bar and restaurant. I'm not gonna leak the menu or anything, but if excellent food that will draw people out there and they're like, Hey, and also we can play some volleyball and also we can play some corn hole, or we could go play with the laser tag or whatever.

We wanna do things that. Are nice to do while you're out there, but you can bring the kids out for all of that stuff and still have a nice sit down meal. And it's not really something that only a baseball family or only a hockey family will be able to enjoy. We wanna bring everyone out there. We think that was a whole untapped market.

We think the more broad spectrum of the community we bring out there, the better it'll be for everyone because it's really the whole entire community sports park. It's not just for baseball, it's not just for hockey or roller derby or anything like that. It's for everyone. So we wanna find some reason for everyone to go there.

It could just be the bottom line is there's really good food and it brings you out there. It could be because you wanna be able to have a beer and watch your kid play on a playground, which find me another spot for that. You could be able to go out there [00:08:00] and do some volleyball with your friends and have some good tacos.

It's just gonna be anything for everyone, and we're working our way toward that. On the flip side of that is, okay, well what kind of hours are you gonna be open? How do you staff that? Do you charge people? How do you program it? How do you keep the volleyball courts clean? All these new mysteries that we get to solve daily, and that's why I'm just so excited for the team out there because they see all these things and they're committed and able to help us work through solving these problems.

Steve: Well, that's an interesting business model, Travis talking about the restaurant in the hope that it'll draw community members who aren't necessarily already there for a game or a tournament. Are there other sports facilities that you've seen or come across in the team's research that do this really well, that have this model where they have this restaurant establishment that is successful catering to the community at large, not just those folks who are already there?

Or the sporting activities?

Travis: Well, I'll say something bold off the cuff to our audience. If you can find a sports park with a better restaurant, send me the food and I'll try it. I don't think there's gonna be one just like that. The bar and grill kind of thing does occur in a lot of sports parks, but, but I think that this one [00:09:00] being more or less independent of the sports aspect is going to be different.

It's not just responding to, okay, there's a baseball game, we should be open. It is the destination unto itself. They had that before. They would serve a lot. I think they had pretty regular hours. I don't need to worry about too much of what did happen, but I think the quality of the food is going to be night and day and I've already, I went in there for a plate of tacos and I've never been more full off two tacos in my life.

That was crazy. But they're super good. I think the food's gonna really bring people in that place. And then just the aspect, you could still get a nice beverage. You could still bring the kids in there. And it's going to be an environment where you can still play and have fun and do all those things, but there's also a gate that separates you from the street, and it's just another option for Redding.

Its to come and enjoy.

Steve: Got it. That sounds super exciting. I'm curious, Travis, I know we hear from folks from time to time with regard to the gate fees, and I know charging a gate fee, the source of revenue and the folks that have to pay those gate fees for coming in for those tournaments or practices or [00:10:00] whatnot.

How do the gate fees work with the restaurant? Are restaurant patrons. Yeah. Also expected to pay that gate fee upon entry per person or per family, or are those waived if you're, you get a voucher if you're eating at the restaurant only. What's the thought process behind that?

I

Travis: think we've got something pretty good figured out for where we want to go.

But for now, once the restaurant opens, we want to gauge the interest of the community in the restaurant and the viability of what I just said. And so I think where we'll start is we're gonna see a month or two of no gate fees for a certain amount of days. A certain amount of time, and we'll make that a really clear system so that people understand like, um, Hey, if it's Monday through Thursday or Monday through Friday, no gate fee.

Come on in. Here's the hours. We'll let you know. We need to evolve that data set before we can make huge decisions on that because it is a big chunk of our revenue. But right now, I can tell you that weekend tournament based revenue for gate fee is so important to that sports park. That is something that I will not be very likely to get rid of.

But we're looking at stuff [00:11:00] like weekdays and off times and evenings, and like I said, when people come out there for non-sports park related activities, I don't want them to have to have that burden. I wanna find a way to entice them to come out, because if they don't wanna come out for $5, guess what?

I'm not selling food either. So I want to figure out where's the happy medium in all of this, and hopefully the community's patient with us while we experiment. I can assure you that we're not gonna double down and go triple the fees or anything like that, but we have to be sustainable. And we've had a very clear and direct charge with our budget from City Council is that this needs to be sustainable.

So everything we do out there needs to have a direct return that makes our bottom line zero or greater. We cannot lose money on operations, so. We have to make sure that we're making smart decisions and we can't go too far one way or the other because there's not infinite time to course correct.

Throughout a one year budget cycle. We have to make smart decisions in the moment and then test them very quickly right after that.

Katie: Well, and like you said, Travis too, I think there's something. Unique and [00:12:00] enticing for families, at least for having a place to be able to go and get a good meal in an enclosed setting where there are actually other amenities for kids to do.

So if you go to a traditional restaurant, you might not have access to volleyball courts or laser tag or a playground or all the other myriad of things that, that you're building out there at the sports park that can keep families entertained while they're also having a good meal. So I do wanna touch on a couple of the other things that have come.

Recently to the sports park, volleyball is one of the things you mentioned. That's a relatively new addition. How did that come together and what kind of use are you seeing so far, or what kind of use are you planning for in the future?

Travis: It came together fantastically, and I'm super excited about that project.

First and foremost, we have a very huge thank you to say to choose Redding Lodging, who was able to provide a $200,000 grant for that project. You would not believe how incredibly expensive beach volleyball sand is. We got the project done. We used our in-house team to be able to do the proper maintenance on the courts [00:13:00] and then bring that sand in.

We were able to buy the equipment so that it actually looks like, and if you haven't seen this, hopefully you can get a picture out there somewhere. It doesn't look like a professional place to play. It is a professional place to play when you see something at a tournament, when you expect to see like Red Bull or the name of a college on it or something like that.

That's how our courts look now, and it is super impressive. Without those funds, we would not have been able to rehabilitate those courts. Just getting that material in there is expensive. Getting the proper standards and having the padding and the nets with all the appropriate logos and look and the tower for judging, all of that stuff is expensive.

And without the support of groups like Choose Reading, lodging, and other groups in the community that support those park projects. We couldn't do it. Our budget's not adequate for that. We do now know, though, after having our first tournament, that there is a good return on that investment and it will continue to pay off year after year because those courts brought in not only our local teams, but three other [00:14:00] colleges from out of the area to be able to come and play here.

That will continue to go. And the feedback based off that tournament was overwhelmingly positive on our courts. And so as we grow out that program, it's going to be good for tourism. It's good for revenue. And then as a result of that, good for the residents because guess what? Now you get to play a professional level.

Volleyball courts, they're inside of this facility and you can have dinner there and your kids can run around and we have lights. So we're playing in the evening. When it's cool, it starts to compound and give us this whole avenue for business and community that we can continue to grow.

Steve: That sounds great.

With regard to those folks maybe who aren't as interested in going to the sports park for sport related activities, I know Katie alluded to it earlier, it sounds like Laser Tag is also launching or has just launched, and can you talk to us a little bit about the thought process behind that, what it entails, and is that something that the city's advertising to the community at large?

Travis: The idea behind that was what are some untapped markets and what do we have at the end of the day in that facility? We have a big open area with a building that. You can do some activity in with a bunch of fields that are [00:15:00] mostly used but not always used, and a grass area and a lot of open environment.

And so what are some alternate ways that we can use this facility that we don't now stumbled across? The idea of doing some laser tag. There's some other groups in town doing it. We don't want to take away from them, but we have a different setup than they do, so we wanna try different things. We actually have a mobile setup so we could.

Realistically take this mobile setup and we can play laser tag at Caldwell Park or Enterprise Park or wherever. Anywhere we can get access to power, we can actually do this activity. And so the idea was we can take this setup and actually make a league. So we can do laser tag league where you might play five games, maybe we set a low dollar amount and you're paying per game and it's essentially like a basketball league or a baseball league or whatever.

And at the end of this, there's a champion. You can, we can run this league several times throughout the year and then ended up like within the first year or two, the whole system's paid for all the staff time's been covered and [00:16:00] the shelf life of the equipment is far beyond that. So we're talking like a 10 year investment into this equipment, but also that opens up birthday party packages.

So we have two lines of revenue generation between birthday parties and leagues. Then we have. The ability to do one-off events. And guess what? When your kid's in the park playing baseball and your other kid's got nothing to do, now they can go play laser tag and they actually have an activity to do. So it's fun for everyone.

And I recall when we did one of the very first public meetings at City Council about the sports park and the potential that it was closing at that time. And there was a kid that got up there and it was super cute. He was like, I hate baseball and all that stuff, but you know, big League dreams at that time.

He's like, big League Dreams is awesome. There's a playground, and he was just so excited for all the other stuff that the park did that really stuck with me. You don't have to love baseball or hockey or anything like that to be welcome in that facility, and so let's find things for people to do so they can enjoy it too.

Katie: And Travis, there's been some other [00:17:00] important partnerships to. There's new lighting in the Fieldhouse and there's also a new scoreboard in the Fieldhouse that feels like since the city has taken over this facility, there's been a lot of the community rallying together, and the city is a unique entity that's able to facilitate that kind of.

Community-wide partnership in this facility. Uh, maybe you could talk a little bit about that, how the city is rallying other community members who find this a super important space for them to help them invest in the space alongside the city.

Travis: Big thank you to Shasta Roller Hockey League for the scoreboards and CJS lighting for the lighting, those types of on the ground.

Sponsorships and contributions are huge for us. When I look at things that are overall priority of us spending money, it would be things like, we've gotta make sure we have garbage bags for the garbage cans and we've gotta fix that leak or whatever. But if someone can come to the table with something like a new lighting package.[00:18:00] 

The estimate on cost savings for the year for that lighting package is $10,000 in electricity. So if I can save 10 grand on utilities at no cost to start with, someone contributed that a hundred percent, then that allows me to have $10,000 later down the road in savings that can go back into the park in other upgrades.

So those kind of things are huge, those scoreboards, old, outdated. But what they also did was give us the ability to have other sports in there. So we're able to unlock different aspects of that building. So again, thank you to those groups specifically for doing those. But those are huge. We have another big energy retrofit project that we're working on right now for one of the baseball fields.

We can't do all five, but we are at a grant. We can do one field that is $11,000 a year in savings, just in electricity costs. Not that electricity's high cost in reading. It's really affordable. It's that the infrastructure is so old. It's original to the building and it is so power hungry that it was built right before all this energy efficiency stuff really [00:19:00] took off.

Those bulbs just draw so much power and new modern stuff is a fraction of the cost. So over time, as we change out all these fields, we're saving more and more on utilities, and then we're able to do more and more on the ground. So we're really excited for those opportunities and I think, again, that's what this team provides, is that we go and seek out those partnerships and those resources because we're not a for-profit.

Everything we do is for the community. We can tap into grants. We have a team for that. We have the ability to go get sponsorships for things like lighting and just win. We can win for the community. Low to no cost. That's a couple phone calls setting things up. And it's by the generosity of these groups that we can get things for our participants that they would not otherwise have access to.

And then we continue that momentum with cost savings and things like that. So yeah, we're really excited for partnerships. That's the way forward. That's how community Services works, and that's how this community is built. And anyone that hears this that wants to get involved in that way, just please let us know because [00:20:00] there's endless opportunity out there.

Steve: Okay, so Travis on that topic then, talking about maintenance and investment needs, to my understanding, the largest need out there is the turf for the baseball and softball players, and I know it is slated to be quite costly from what I understand. What are your thoughts on that? It's fantastic that, again, we are seeing the budget being in the green for this facility, but I'm guessing that it hasn't yet generated the revenue needed to replace those turf fields that are in such rough shape.

How do you weigh the importance of working towards that update, assuming that with that update would come more tournaments and more leagues and folks more likely to play out there with the way it is today, and obviously seeing success even with the turf ins a bit rougher shape.

Travis: Yeah. I could see more games being played, maybe us being able to entice more tournament operators to come out there.

Ideally we're getting new turf getting there. That's the challenge. I live with that every day for now. I. We just need to focus on what we can control, and that's business practices, generating revenue, all the sort of stuff we've been talking about. That is a [00:21:00] problem we work on constantly. I don't think there's gonna be a magic bullet grant out there, although I've used every chance I get talking to state grant agencies to say, Hey, maintenance grants are something that California communities really want to see.

And it's not just. In a selfish way because we need this turf done. It's because things are expensive and it's really hard to maintain this infrastructure, and we need to be able to invest in these facilities. We know there's a huge tourism draw based on what we do out there. We know that the community loves having that asset, and that's something, like I said, we're working toward.

I have no magic solution for it. It is a $5 million project and growing every day. So that's not an easy problem to solve, but we're committed to. Getting it done. So we've got sponsorships, grants, and then hopefully one day a very healthy city budget that can contribute to this sort of thing. But for now, we've gotta [00:22:00] stick with what we've got and we're still getting business out there and things are still working, and we've been able to do some minor improvements along the way.

Like changing out our batter box areas. Those were horrendous when we started. They had been so hardened and the dirt spills out everywhere, and it just wasn't a good setup. We actually went in and dug all that out and put the appropriate ball field mix in. People are much happier, but we know that ultimately what they want is a full turf infield, and those areas specifically would need to be turfed.

We, I think, have the only park that has turf in field with a dirt batterers box area, but we'll address that. It just takes time and commitment and that's kinda where we're at with that.

Steve: Maybe that's the selling point. It's a unique feature of the park. We can't find anywhere else. You can still rub your feet in the dirt there.

Travis: Yep. Very unique. Like I said, this is something we live with, something we work on all the time. I wish I had a great solution for it. I find it very unlikely someone's gonna come in with the five or $6 million in invest in our facility for us, but we'd love [00:23:00] to hear it. So we're still working toward that and hopefully everyone's patient and understanding.

Steve: Okay. Fair enough. Travis, the other thing too that I think you did a fantastic job touching on a year ago when we had these conversations, but that the community still questions about is up in Medford that have Lithia fields that are considered this world class facility on, and why can't the Red sports Park be like the Lithia Fields?

And I know there's many reasons why that's the case, but maybe you can touch on that again, just because I know community members continue to use the lithium fields in Medford as that shining North star. And I know we would love to be where they're, maybe talk to us a little bit about. Why that's not quite realistic?

Travis: Yeah, it all depends on how you want to fund a facility like this. Medford employs different tools than we do, so in Medford, their facility's heavily subsidized. They do have a title sponsor that does provide them some revenue. The title sponsor isn't the difference between ours and Theirs. The difference between ours and theirs is that in terms of funding sources directed toward that specific park.

That's [00:24:00] the key difference is that they are willing to massively subsidize theirs to a million dollar plus per year. And because they treat it differently in terms of what they expect back out of it, they expect. Tourism out of that facility. So they expect people from Northern California and Oregon and Nevada to come to their facility and stay in the hotels, spend money at restaurants.

So they're getting economic stimulus, they're getting transient occupancy tax. They actually even have a car rental tax that goes toward them. They also have a park. Utility fee that goes toward the sports park and, and that's not even something you can do in California. So they've got different mechanisms that we just don't have access to.

And so what we were able to, and I'm very thankful city council saw it to give us the budget to be able to do this, is that we were able to capitalize on getting a startup budget to run the facility and maintain that budget at a net zero cost to the city. That is not how Medford is run. So that is how we're even able to be open.[00:25:00] 

We weren't. In the economic place, and we still aren't to be able to heavily subsidize this facility. And so that was our directive, is if it's gonna be open, it's gonna be cost neutral and communities can choose to do it whatever way they want. And like I said, the difference between us and them is they choose to do it a different way.

Maybe someday we'll choose to do it that way, but what I'd rather know is how to be sustainable first. Than to have always relied on this budget. And now don't worry about it. We've got this cash infusion and we're gonna be okay. I'd rather be scrappy and then get to a place where we do have more resources than the other way around.

So right now we're in that learning phase, so we'll start off mean and mean versus when they have to get there if it ever got cut. When we talk about how we're doing that, we're looking at things like. These different revenue streams, bringing in the black sheep restaurant, all of those different facets that bring us in revenue so that we can get there.

What I'd rather do, if I have to look at my city organization as a whole global team player lens, what's best for the [00:26:00] community is that I'd rather be so successful out there that we don't need to go to the general fund to ask. What we'd rather do when it comes to between like us versus Medford, is that we don't need a subsidy because we do really good business out there that's not gonna get the turf done.

But I'd rather subsidized turf. I love that. But I'd rather have a really solid business practice and this kind of forces us to do that right away. So that's my main point. And then Travis, when you think about the future of the writing sports park, what does success look like in the next three to five years?

Obviously being able to invest in the park in the way we were just talking about would be key. If we could get new turf, get good sponsorships, I'd love to see more sponsor signs out there. I think that's really how you move the needle quite a bit, is bringing on board groups that want to invest in that facility and get their name out there.

Groups that have an interest in, that's huge for us, I think. Us being able to go in and do some of the long ask for projects like new hockey floor that just takes time and resources. [00:27:00] We've got a lot of other deferred maintenance, like some HVAC issues that we'd love to address. And I think getting on top of that to where the park can do that level of thing without needing a subsidy would really make me think that we've made it when we could say, Hey, we've gotta do this couple hundred thousand dollars thing this year.

If that's like, okay, yeah, we can swing that this year. We're not gonna do a bunch of that kind of thing. But if we had the ability to do a thing like that every year where it's a big expense of a few hundred grand, I'd really feel confident that we had made it. Again, I don't think that there's enough business out there to be able to, at least not with our model.

If you wanted to charge a lot more fees and. Maybe if you had five of these other facilities and you could do group buys and share resources and have your own contractors come in and maybe not paper bailing wage when you bring contractor out 'cause you're a private business, whatever. There's some efficiency to be had there.

That was the old model. But with what we have, if we could do things like that, I'd be pretty impressed.

Steve: It feels like the sports park's trending upwards and trending in the right direction, honestly. Yeah, I think you're right. I do [00:28:00] think there's something for everyone. Again, whether you're into those team sports or.

I just want to get out. I love the idea of having a, a safe, fun environment for families to go eat and play and run around. I think that's a unique spot and something that, we have a few things like that in Reding, but not really. And I know other communities have done things like that really successfully and I think that's a real potential here.

Travis: Yeah, I think people are gonna be proud of it because I think before I'd ever gone out there, I just had a, a different conception of it and I went out there under even the old operator and I was like, oh yeah, I can't believe we, you know, at we, when I'm doing quotes, we as the city, as a resident, we own this.

I wanted to see it shine and be invested in, and I think that the community can rally around us improving our own facilities. That's a really good thing for the city to do. It's not someone else's. The money's not going anywhere. It's good for our kids, it's good for adults. It's healthy activity. It's good for the economy, and I think we can all rally around [00:29:00] that.