By RICHARD ESSEX
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
According to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Back on Track plan to reopen the state, most outdoor recreational facilities can open Friday, with the exception of sports arenas.
Westfield officials would like to get Grand Park Sports Campus open sooner rather than later.
The fields are green and the grass has been mowed, but no one is playing anything on the Grand Park sports fields. Westfield Mayor Andy Cook wants these fields open … and soon.
Cook
“As you well know, this has been devastating to the hospitality industry. Right here in Westfield, our industry is hospitality,” Cook said.
The effects on the hospitality industry have totaled more than $80 million.
Cook, along with IUPUI’s Sports Innovation Institute, want to know people’s expectations are when the park reopens.
David Pierce, the institute’s director told News 8 on Wednesday that the Hamilton County city and IUPUI have put together a survey for parents, spectators, coaches and league officials to help set the top priorities for reopening and playing games safely.
“It will tell us what our people comfortable, with what things are they see as a ‘must see,’ like, ‘Yes, this is fundamental (and) we have to have it for us to participate.’ It will show where people are resistant to that adaptation and it will show where people just don’t care, it just doesn’t matter,” Pierce said.
Westfield Mayor Andy Cook wants the fields at Grand Park opened soon. Officials estimate the local hospitality and travel industry has lost more than $80 million due to COVID-19 restrictions. (Photo provided)
Some of the questions: Are you OK going through a screening process? Would you prefer that no spectators attend games? How would you feel about sitting in the stands next to someone who has not been screened? Should the fields be cleaned after use?
IUPUI and Westfield officials had expected 600 people to take the survey but, at last check, more than 10,000 people have participated.
The survey will wrap up this weekend, and the data could help drive how large recreational parks operate in a post pandemic world.
There are fewer than 50 questions. Once the survey is compiled, it could have a huge impact on how youth sports programs operate once the state opens up.
Opening outdoor recreational fields is more than taking the locks off neighborhood tennis courts. In Westfield, youth sports are an industry that generates income, jobs and tax revenue.
Pierce said, “Just to get events played, there is just a lot of money. It’s like in any of the professional sports, there is an incentive to get games played.”
News 8 talked a representative of the Mayor’s Office in Westfield on Wednesday afternoon. The hope is to open Grand Park on Friday, but officials are waiting for more specific information. The governor is expected to release an updated Back on Track plan on Thursday.