Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • July 23, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 17 like the one proposed could also draw more NCAA-sanctioned events, allow- ing college recruiters to get a look at promising high school athletes. Duarte, a longtime coach and youth sports official, last week was traveling to Greensboro, N.C., for a national AAU championship at the Greensboro Coliseum Com- plex, which he said was expecting more than 100 teams of seventh grade or under-13 boys, mostly from out of state. The tournament will spur plenty of spending on hotel rooms, restaurants and other items in Greensboro, he said. A major reason the event is in that city is because it offers 10 courts in one location, Duarte said. You won't find that anywhere in Connecticut, or much of New England. Borgia's "All Sports Village" aims to change that. He and his company JABS Sports Management this month unveiled renderings of a complex to be built on a 76-acre tobacco farm, with 6,000-seat indoor and outdoor arenas, room for 16 basketball courts or 32 volleyball courts, as well as eight synthetic turf fields for lacrosse, flag football, softball and field hockey, as well as 70,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, two ho- tels, athlete dormitories and retail space. Borgia said the town overreacted when it decided to suspend project talks. His lawyer called the lawsuit against him "frivolous." Borgia said he hopes to mend his re- lationship with the town. Wishes, needs and competition Whatever happens with the Windsor Locks project, the proposal gave Connecticut officials reason to opine about Connecticut's sports and convention market, what it offers, and what it might need to get bigger. Besides basketball, a development with multiple ice rinks, particularly if they had several thousand seats, could be a draw for bigger hockey or syn- chronized skating tournaments. "When it comes to sports facili- ties, you can ask any hockey parent and there will always be a demand for more ice time," said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, which over- sees the XL Center, the Connecticut Convention Center and other venues. "Whether it pays or not is the $250 million question," he added, referring to the projected price tag of a potential XL Center overhaul. Robert Murdock, CTCSB's director of sports marketing, said having mul- tiple turf fields in one location could also be a game-changer. While a number of schools and col- leges have fields, availability is often limited by student athletics. "All of the sudden, you have these fields that are open," Murdock said. "It's just a lot more access." "We have limited big facilities that are open for events," he added. J. Christopher Kervick, First Selectman, Windsor Locks (Left) A rendering of turf fields that have been proposed as a part of Andrew Borgia's Windsor Locks sports complex. (Right) A schematic showing David Rocha's $3 million Fastpitch Nation Park being planned for Day Hill Road in Windsor. RENDERINGS | CONTRIBUTED

• Cover