The Caddo Administration is proposing to put a $40 million general obligation bond for a sports complex on the November ballot for approval by parish voters.
The article below that appeared in the Acadiana Advocate highlights the growth and impact of these facilities.
The Caddo Administration and the Caddo Commission will face many problems in getting the bond package approved.
Here is a partial list:
1. The non-transparency of the Caddo Administration staff in responding to simple requests for information
2. The hiring of a lobbyist without notification to the Commission which was compounded by incorrect testimony by the lobbyist before e House committee.
3. The excessive travel expenses by Commissioners to Washington Mardi Gras, the planned Hawaii trip and other scheduled conferences this year.
4. The presentation of the Bernie Sanders resolution
5. The $10 million pickleball complex approved without a citizen vote, the pathetic release of information on the project before the vote and the failure to adequately inform the public of the progress on the project.
6. The annual two percent pay raise given to Parish employees
7. The funding of many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) each year, some of which have a very limited impact and are controversial due to the people running the organizations
8. The failure of the Commission to share wealth with the rural areas of the parish.
9. The institution of entrance fees for the Walter B. Jacobs Nature Center despite the excessive spending of NGO funding, travel, and other Commission issues
10. The polarizing and long-winded comments by many Commissioners at meetings that are highlighted by excessive recognition resolutions and by personal agenda of some of the Commissioners.
How the Commission handles—or if they even address—the pending requests by rural towns for police cars and the proposed $2.8 million for SPD funding will also factor into voters' decisions on the bond package.
The Caddo Administration’s attitude of “we know best, we don’t have to explain/account for our actions, trust us and don’t ask questions” is becoming more known to Caddo residents who are becoming resentful of the Caddo Administration Kingdom.
Politics is often just as important or more so than logic when voters are asked to approve bond issues. This is a reality that should be recognized by the Administration as well as the Commission if they hope to pass the bong package for a sports complex.
Youth sports complexes are big economic drivers across Louisiana. 'We're not saturated yet.'
BY RICH COLLINS | Staff writer
Last weekend at the Youngsville Sports Complex near Lafayette, 70 teams competed in a youth baseball tournament, hundreds of people played soccer nearby and ESPN trucks were there to broadcast the Conference USA Beach Volleyball Championship games also happening onsite.
For Josh Smith, Youngsville's assistant director of parks and recreation, the level of activity was nothing special.
"It was a quiet weekend, actually," he said.
Welcome to the booming world of youth travel sports, which has transformed out-of-the-way areas across Louisiana — like a sugar cane field in Youngsville — into complexes with meticulously maintained playing surfaces, high-tech lighting and camera systems, busy concessions booths, concert venues and other creature comforts for young athletes and their families.
Over the last dozen years, communities statewide have invested hundreds of millions in facilities in Broussard, Ruston, West Monroe, Baton Rouge, Westwego and other locations as the youth sports industry in the United States has grown into a $40 billion annual colossus.
Parents with the means to do so spend hundreds or thousands a year on registration fees, equipment, lessons and travel in an effort to give their young baseball, soccer or volleyball players a competitive edge. That spending has many political and business leaders in Louisiana and nationwide seeing dollar signs.
Over the last 30 years, more than 100 large "destination"-style sports complexes have been built across the U.S., from Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida to the Rocky Top Sports World in Tennessee.
Though not on the same scale as the country's largest facilities, Louisiana's sports complexes serve locals throughout the week and tournaments on the weekends, bringing in revenue through rental fees, sponsorships and concessions while boosting local economies by hosting visitors needing meals, lodging and entertainment. Small businesses — from restaurants to T-shirt shops and entertainment centers — have cropped up around the complexes to provide related services.
Though popular, these sites — which are often built with public funds — can be controversial, as some studies question their economic benefits and others show the growth of travel teams is an unfair advantage for wealthy families.
In Youngsville, Mayor Ken Ritter said the investment in the town's complex has paid off by balancing community access with rentals to tournament organizations.
"It definitely put us on the map," Ritter said. "It's a huge driver of quality of life, which has fueled population growth here."
A tale of two sports complexes
Neighboring cities Youngsville and Broussard — both suburbs of Lafayette — show how sports tourism can spark growth.
On the same day in 2011, residents in both towns voted to implement new sales taxes that would support their parks and recreation departments and raise money to build complexes that would be used by the community and also serve travel tournaments.
The now-121-acre Youngsville facility opened in 2014 on donated sugar cane fields. The 122-acre Broussard Sports Complex debuted three years later, and leaders in both towns say the complexes have fueled dramatic growth.
In Youngsville, the city's population grew from 11,000 in 2014 to over 20,000 this year, and many of the newcomers are regular users of the complex their tax dollars support. On weekends, they share the space with visitors coming from as far away as Japan, China and Venezuela. Combined, the locals and visitors led to 1.5 million visits to the site last year, according to parks and rec data.
Broussard's sports complex, about 16 minutes northeast, had about 1 million visits in 2025, generating $21 million in related spending in a town that historically has been a hub for oil industry-related businesses. The population has climbed to about 17,000, a roughly 30% jump since the complex opened.
Lafayette's convention and visitor's bureau and its economic development agency support both facilities, and their operators say there's enough demand to justify both.
"We partner with Youngsville because some tournaments are too big for any one facility to host," said Broussard Mayor Ray Bourque. "We understand our economy is bigger than our borders."
Region's biggest indoor sports complex?
Youngsville and Broussard are some of Louisiana's first big travel sports facilities. Several others have followed suit.
The 185-acre Ruston Sports Complex, completed in 2022, notched a half-million visits last year and is contributing to the growth of a once-sleepy town of about 22,000 people that will soon be home to the $370 million Radiance Technologies microchip packaging facility and the state's first Buc-ee's.
A few weeks ago, the facility hosted 92 travel baseball teams, which used every available field, according to Matt Cotton, the town's parks and rec director. For families of players who can't attend every game in person, fancy cameras use artificial intelligence to track the ball to stream the action online.
About 30 miles east of Ruston's playing fields, the West Monroe Sports & Event Center opened in 2024 with indoor space for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and more.
In January, the New Orleans area welcomed the $45 million John Alario Jr. Youth Sports Complex. Leaders of the Westwego facility, which hosted its first travel tournament in February, are already hoping for an expansion that would bring dormitory-style rooms for teams.
One of the facility's draws is its proximity to New Orleans.
"When you come here, you get to go on a swamp tour or take a side trip to the French Quarter," said Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng. "When my kids played travel sports, we were often stuck in a gym in the middle of nowhere with a crappy motel and bad coffee."
In Baton Rouge, Elite Training Academy opened its indoor sports facility in 2024, and the owners are already planning a massive expansion.
Last week, the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council paved the way for a tax incentive to support the academy's plan to build what could be the biggest indoor sports complex in the region. The business's investors include billionaire Todd Graves, founder of Raising Cane's restaurants, and Joe Burrow, quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals and former LSU star.
Lake Charles is also getting in on the act, planning an indoor sports complex on the site of the demolished Capital One Tower using $23 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds.
Expenses add up
Despite the optimism and investment in youth sports, some say complex operators need to set realistic expectations.
Ritter, the Youngsville mayor, said his town's facility finished last year in the red, with $1.6 million in revenue and $3.8 million in expenses.
"Insurance, utilities, repairs and maintenance all add up, so the complex is supported by a dedicated sales tax," he said. "Our community made that investment early."
Critics say the growth of travel sports — prompting families to spend thousands a year — excludes low-income kids. There also have been high-profile failures. In Arizona, one of the country's biggest sports complexes — the 320-acre Bell Bank Park — filed for bankruptcy in 2023. The site was sold later that year and rebranded Arizona Athletic Grounds.
But in communities like Broussard and Youngsville, where the complexes have become part of everyday life, those concerns are far removed.
Kristi Comeaux, owner of the custom screen-printing and embroidery business LDD Concepts in Youngsville, has seen business and personal benefits from the town's investment because her company makes shirts and souvenirs for leagues and teams, and her family members are regulars on game nights.
“Our sixth grader plays track, softball and soccer and we’re basically at the complex several times a week," she said. "They keep it clean and safe, so she walks around the place like she owns it."