The Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau board on Monday approved as much as $2 million in capital expenses to upgrade Goebel Soccer Complex, with the goal of recruiting more youth soccer tournaments, as well as lacrosse and other sports.
The recommendations include replacing the complex’s worn synthetic field, adding a second synthetic field, erecting shade structures for guests, lighting controls and a host of other upgrades.
“There’s a significant amount of money spent in cities with soccer travel,” said John Chaszar, vice president of the board.
Now 15 years old, the soccer complex has seen usage wane in recent years. The City of Evansville retains ownership of Goebel but earlier this year agreed to shift management responsibilities to the visitors bureau, whose budget comes from lodging tax revenues.
Bureau officials want to make Goebel more competitive with soccer facilities in communities such as Westfield, Indiana, and Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Recruiting more travel tournaments locally also will allow local soccer clubs to stay home more often, officials said.
“Our goal is to bring field conditions back up to where we can go out and aggressively recruit tournaments,” said Tim Fulton, manager of Goebel and Deaconess Sports Park, a baseball/softball complex. Deaconess Sports Park and Goebel are neighbors on North Green River Road.
Also Monday, the bureau’s board hired a firm to find candidates to be the bureau’s next executive director.
SearchWide will begin its work Aug. 1, and the targeted date for a new leader to be in place is April 2018. The same firm assisted six years with the hire of current CEO Bob Warren, who plans to retire.
The Southwest Indiana Chamber also used SearchWide when hiring CEO Christy Gillenwater.
SearchWide “has a great reputation,” said Donna Leader, the bureau’s board president.
Leader and Chaszar will be members of a steering committee that will review candidates and recommend a hire. Leader said she has some people in mind for that steering committee and is approaching them about serving. Warren also will assist in the process.
SearchWide likely will present the steering committee with 3-5 finalists to consider, according to visitors bureau officials.
Hiring an outside firm to search for candidates helps remove local politics from the process, said Mike Schopmeyer, attorney for the visitors bureau.