Local programming pays the light bill; tournament tourism pays the debt. The two demand engines need separate analysis and honest weighting.
Large sports complexes run two demand engines with different economics. Local programming — leagues, practices, lessons, memberships — is recurring, rate-sensitive, and bounded by the drive-time population’s participation math. Tournament and event business is destination economics: team-nights from outside the market, court- and field-rental at event rates, and the hospitality spillover that makes municipalities co-investors. A credible study sizes each engine independently, because the failure mode is familiar: tournament calendars assumed full from year one while local programming was priced to subsidize them.
Facility configuration is strategy: court counts and convertibility, turf versus hardwood, spectator capacity, and the support amenities tournament directors actually select venues on. The competitive frame is regional — tournament-capable facilities compete across state lines — and the booking evidence (sanctioning relationships, letters of intent from event operators) is the demand exhibit that separates fundable projects from renderings.
The firm’s practice spans the category’s full scale — from club-format racquet facilities to complexes at $115,000,000 and a 40,000-word analytical engagement for a multi-sport dome — with economic-impact analysis prepared alongside feasibility where public participation requires both documents to agree.
Engagements are typically initiated by the borrower, with lender or CDC confirmation obtained before work begins — institutions apply differing rules, so sponsors should confirm the required path with their lending contact — and are delivered in 10 to 15 business days from complete project data, and built to the program framework that governs the credit — SBA SOP 50 10 8 coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global, the 37-factor structure of USDA RD Instruction 5001, or the 1.20x convention of conventional credit policy — with a ten-year pro forma, sensitivity at ±5/10/15 percent, rate stress to +3.0 percent, and Monte Carlo analysis as standard equipment.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. More than 4,000 feasibility studies completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $40.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $40.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.