Work on the Hammond Sportsplex and Community Center is nearing completion. Staff photo by John J. Watkins
The Hammond Sportsplex and Community Center expansion will make it one of the largest volleyball facilities in the Midwest, pitting it in competition with convention centers for tournaments.
The sports complex at the site of the former Woodmar Mall, on Indianapolis Boulevard and 165th Street, has nearly completed a $10 million expansion, which started about a year ago and will wrap up in a few months. The project will nearly double the facility's capacity, Sportsplex Administrator Kym Roberts said.
"It should be open very shortly," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said. "We'll have volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments under one roof."
The Hammond Sportsplex will end up with 20 volleyball courts, vaulting it into the league of convention centers, Roberts said.
"Navy Pier has 32 courts, and it hosts nationals," she said. "The only facilities with this many courts are convention centers. To my knowledge, no facility in the Midwest will be bigger for volleyball."
The addition will add eight more volleyball courts, four more basketball courts and a soccer field. The 135,000-square-foot indoor sports center also converted the Union Bar into Swingers, a new concept with golf simulators that let people golf virtual courses around the world. Parents can drink there or golf on the Trackman machines during breaks in the action during their kids' tournaments.
The goal is to open by around Nov. 10, Roberts said. Workers still have to bore the holes for the new volleyball courts and install the turf on the new soccer field, which will be suitable for 5-on-5 and 3-on-3 matchups.
The Hammond Sportsplex will go from having six basketball courts to 10 and from having 12 volleyball courts to having 20.
"Essentially, we are doubling our size," Roberts said.
The expansion is being funded with the city's new food and beverage tax, as well as a federal grant.
Hammond is looking to capitalize on the popularity of youth sports. The Hammond Sportsplex draws youth athletes from around the Midwest to compete in tournaments, generating more than $1.3 million in rental revenue a year.
The Hammond Sportsplex also hosts adult volleyball leagues, the Purdue University Northwest team and the Velocity 219 volleyball program, which the Hammond Sportsplex started.
"One of our biggest contributors is the Velocity Home Club the city started when the Sportsplex opened in 2018," Roberts said. "That's our own city club. It hosts about 12 to 15 tournaments a year. The rest are travel tournaments."
Teams from across the Midwest compete in volleyball tournaments there. It routinely hosts volleyball teams from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, bringing in athletes from as far away as California and Nevada a few times a year.
The volleyball courts now have higher ceilings, so college players don't keep hitting it during matches. The city added an extra 10 feet of clearance overhead.
The Hammond Sportsplex hosts the Midwest Region Crossover volleyball tournament, the country's largest collegiate volleyball tournament. It brings in hundreds of visitors a year and generates an economic impact of $700,000 a year.
Hammond moved the outdoor sand volleyball courts to the back of the building to put the addition on the front of the building. The soccer fields mostly host local league play but also have hosted tournaments bringing in players from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.
The expansion already is paying off, Roberts said. The volleyball courts are booked from December through May. It also booked a Puma basketball tournament for high school players bound for Division 1 college teams like Gonzaga, she said.
The Hammond Sportsplex and neighboring Hammond Family YMCA replaced the Woodmar Mall, which was designed by the famed Austrian architect Victor Gruen and became a regional shopping destination as Northwest Indiana's first enclosed shopping mall before being demolished in 2006 after years of decline. The three-story Carson's department store outlived the mall it anchored, but was razed in 2018.
Hammond invested $18 million in the Sportsplex, which hosts youth sports, league sports, tournaments and high school and college games, as well as offering an elevated walking track to the public. The Hammond Family YMCA cost $75 million to build and includes an indoor pool with a lazy river and a zero-depth entry kids pool.
The Hammond Sportsplex typically draws between 2,500 and 3,000 people on busy days and should draw 3,500 to 5,000 a day with the expansion, Roberts said.
"The expansion gives us the opportunity to host three events at once. It will be able to host volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments at the same time under one roof," she said. "It's a testament to the vision of the mayor for youth sports."
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