QUINCY (WGEM) – With recent discussion of the City of Quincy bringing an indoor sports complex, it also brings in the topic of the local economy and sports families.

Tri-state parents who have their kids involved in youth sports keep busy during the sports seasons, and keeping up with the traveling is always on their minds.

Holy and Casey Hlubek said having kids in youth sports causes frequent driving every week.

“With four kids, we’re always splitting up, he’s one way, I’m one way, he’s in a hotel in one town, I’m in another hotel, another kid might be with grandma, another kid might be with a friend. –Like I just looked at our schedule, we have something thirteen weekends in a row,” said Holy Hlubek.

Additionally, some families who travel for their kids’ games because of travel teams have to plan more.

One traveling sports program, Quincy Rush Soccer Club, travels every weekend.

“For us, being in St. Louis or somewhere else every weekend is a lot of travel, and if you have pets figuring out what you’re going to do with your pets besides what are you packing for your kids because where are they going to eat and how much time do you have and is the facility in the middle of no where or is it near restaurants, ” said Quincy Rush Soccer Club Board Member Jenny Sousa. “How much is it going to cost to stay? Can we find a hotel? Is it a stay to play? How much are we going to have to pay to even go?”

With a potential of teams visiting a smaller facility, these teams and families may even plan to stay for a longer visit.

“We have potentially 24 softball teams here during our softball tournaments. And odds are at least 20 of those from outside the area, so that’s 20 teams with parents,” said Sports Facilities Director for Greater Burlington Area Andrew Ryerson.

“They set up the schedule where you’re done early enough in the day, where you’re now in the community, spending money. Consistently going out to eat, going shopping,” said Casey Hlubek, a youth sports parent. “You’re too far from home to come back, so you may be done at 2 o’clock. You’re not going to sit in the hotel room, so the whole team goes out to eat. And that’s fun to do every once in a while, but I mean it really does add up.”

Multiple out-of-town families traveling for their youth sports every week is exactly why facilities like Fun City are built. And if there’s more to add in common with these families, it is a credit card.

“Teams coming to your tournament, they’re still going to spend money in the area, they’re still spending gas money, they’re still presumably eating, maybe they’re not staying in hotel rooms, but you know you’re still going to see the ‘oops I forgot my socks’, ‘I forgot my belt’, ‘I forgot my glove’. ‘I gotta run to Walmart’, or dicks sporting goods, or target to go buy something, you’re still going to get that whether they’re staying the night or not,” said Ryerson.

The Hlubeks added that during their travels, they can spend close to $1,000 with all the expenses that could add up in a weekend trip.

“Two nights at the hotel, you’re probably talking $400 bucks. Meals out, you know, a few hundred bucks. Gas a hundred bucks, there and back. Parking at the hotel is 40 a day, so that’s three days of parking, so 120 just in parking.”

Multiplying a large number of kids in a team by the weekly expenses can have to economic impact that a sports facility can have on a city.

“All that money would be coming back into our community to help with our roadways and our businesses and kinda be supporting our economy here, where right now we’re all taking it elsewhere,” said Sousa.

Bringing in a sports facility could not only benefit the economy but also the family’s convenience.

“Then we don’t have to worry about packing everything, who’s gonna go, who’s gonna stay. Or, like in our case sometimes, which parent is going to which city with which kid?” said Sousa. “It would mean a lot less gas money.”

With the recent proposal of an eight-court basketball facility. Quincy, in theory, could host upwards to 50 teams at a time.

Andrew Ryerson from FunCity courts said hotel space would be needed and over saturation in the market could cause issues.

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