A $55 million sports venue for Meridian? Here’s how the city hopes to make it happen

Meridian wants to build a $55 million, multipurpose venue that could host indoor sports tournaments, conventions, high school graduations — maybe even dog shows.

First, the city will ask voters to approve creation of the auditorium taxing district that would fund such a project.

The Meridian Chamber of Commerce said the Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau is often forced to turn away large sports tournaments that require indoor facilities.

“We’ve got great baseball fields. We’ve got lots of soccer fields, but when winter starts setting in, we need large, indoor sports facilities in order to accommodate these tournaments that want to come to our area,” Sean Evans, Meridian Chamber president, said.

Club basketball, volleyball and dance teams have also told the chamber that the Boise Centre is not accommodating their needs, Evans said. The chamber even received inquiries from the American Kennel Club for potential dog shows and competitions.

“This is where the demand is,” Evans said. “… Many of these organizations want to keep things local. They want to invite other players instead of them going to Washington, Utah or Nevada to play in tournaments.”

Meridian Mayor Robert Simison announced in his 2024 State of the City address on June 5 the Meridian Chamber’s aspirations for the creation of an auditorium district.

”Imagine having a place for your kids and grandkids to have sport tournaments in Meridian, so you don’t have to travel. Or imagine watching your son or daughter walking across the stage in Meridian as they received their diploma, rather than traveling to another city,” Simison said.

The chamber is gathering signatures to place the idea on the November election ballot. At least 1,300 signatures are necessary, as Idaho code requires that 10% of the electors residing within the boundaries of the proposed district sign the petition.

If the formation of the district is supported by the majority in November, a new multipurpose, indoor sports and event center would be built. The chamber conducted a study with stakeholders across the Treasure Valley that determined that the community needs a large indoor sports complex, which would also be used for other events such as high school graduations, Evans said. The project is too early in the process to say what the facility would exactly look like, he said.

An auditorium district is a public or governmental institution. Boise established a district in 1959 after the Idaho Legislature allowed their formation in Idaho in the same year. The Greater Boise Auditorium District completed the Boise Centre convention center in 1990 and recently provided financial support for Boise’s new aquatics center.

Tourism revenue would finance the Meridian district. Hotels within the suggested district’s boundaries would add a 5% nightly room tax on stays. This means that the funds primarily would come from visitors. Idaho law does not allow auditorium districts to use local property taxes to cover costs.

“The only way you will ever pay anything on this fee is if you decide to stay in a hotel in Meridian,” Evans said.

Multiple communities in Idaho have been successful at financing community facilities through auditorium districts. These include the Boise Centre, the Idaho Falls Mountain America Center and Pocatello’s Mountainview Events Center. Nampa is also trying to place the creation of an auditorium district on the November ballot, the Statesman previously reported.

Meridian’s multipurpose complex would bring in visitors from neighboring communities and states, who would be staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, shopping in stores and visiting attractions in the community, Evans said.

If the proposed sports venue is built and running at full capacity, it would bring a $25.4 million annual boost to the local economy, Evans said. It would also create an estimated 316 full- and part-time jobs.

“We see this as a huge economic development opportunity for our community,’’ Evans said.

The proposed Auditorium District of Meridian would extend between Chinden Boulevard and I-84, and between North Can Ada Road and Eagle Road. The venue would be built somewhere within those boundaries. District board members would decide the exact location.

“The challenge that we have in Meridian, compared to the Boise Centre when it was built or Pocatello or Idaho Falls, is that we’re running out of space,” Evans said. “If we have to wait 10 years, the best spots may already be taken.”

The construction of the proposed venue is estimated to cost $55 million, and the estimated yearly budget for the district would be $2.2 million, according to the Meridian Chamber of Commerce’s petition.

The Meridian Chamber is working to identify possible commissioners who would represent the district, and their names would be listed on the November ballot. Evans said the board members would be responsible for establishing what exactly would be built and how the funds would be used to draw more visitors to Meridian.

The idea to establish an auditorium district in Meridian has been explored for several years. Former Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd considered the idea in 2016, the Statesman previously reported.

As Simison was running for mayor in 2019, he said he was in favor of forming an auditorium district “to provide a large-scale meeting place for such events as high school graduations and business gatherings,” according to the Statesman’s editorial board. But Meridian didn’t have enough hotels then to accommodate all the visitors that a district would have brought, Evans said.

Evans said numerous hotels have been built over the past five to seven years. On top of hotels that are in development stages, six are on track to be built within the proposed district in the next three to five years, Evans said.

With sporting events, conventions and other events, the Meridian Chamber estimated that the district could generate an additional 30,000 hotel night stays annually.

This would also create opportunities for new restaurants and other businesses to open in Meridian to meet the needs of visitors.

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