LAWTON – The Lawton Youth Sports Authority is gearing up to conduct a study of the area’s sports market, which will include possible sites for the as-yet-unbuilt youth sports complex.
The Lawton City Council voted 6-0 Sept. 27 to grant the authority’s request for $40,000 to cover the cost of the study, which will consist of five elements. Those elements will include a market analysis as well as a conceptual design and a site selection report for the youth sports complex.
Eastern Sports Management, which will conduct the study, will examine several possible sites for the sports complex, said Youth Sports Authority Chairman Brian Henry.
“They will make a recommendation on the site, but they’ll also rank them,” he said. “So, they won’t say, ‘Choose Site A.’ They’ll rank them in order based on several criteria – acreage, geography, topography, available utilities, access, floodwater concerns.
“So, they’ll rank each site as selected, and they’ll do that with input from stakeholders in the process.”
ESM will also look at ways for the sports complex to generate additional revenue and conduct an economic impact study, which will examine the venue’s effect on Lawton’s economy.
Mayor Stan Booker said he wanted to make sure that the city wasn’t spending more money on a site-specific study of Elmer Thomas Park.
“Because I believe that there’s a possibility that the support for that location has evaporated,” he said.
Henry said the new study will not focus only on Elmer Thomas Park as a possible site for the sports complex. He noted that when city officials began looking at potential locations, they wanted to focus on sites that the city already owns as a cost-saving measure.
“ESM is aware of the concerns about that site now, so I would say broadening the site selection is going to be on the wish list,” Henry said.
The council voted in December 2021 to approve a conceptual design for the sports complex in Elmer Thomas Park. That design called for the city to build the complex southwest of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and east of the playground, overlooking Lake Helen.
But many Lawton residents objected to the idea of putting the complex in the city’s largest park. Faced with the backlash, some council members recently signaled that they wanted to reconsider their December decision and ask officials to start looking at other possible locations.