RECREATIONAL USE: OSAGE, SHAWNEE COMPLEXES GETTING A WORKOUT FROM LOCALS

In 1992, the Cape Girardeau City Council signed off on recommendations to build two new recreational complexes to serve city residents and draw in tourist dollars.

In 1997, Shawnee Park Sports Complex and Osage Community Centre opened. And in 1998, city officials say usage of the facilities is meeting, and sometimes exceeding, their expectations.

Attendance at Shawnee Park softball complex has topped 19,000 for league play, including players and spectators, this fiscal year. Softball tournaments have brought in more than 2,200 players.

And softball has produced more than $41,000 in revenue, from league fees, concessions, field rentals and tournament fees.

"That's not even counting soccer," said Dan Muser, the city's parks and recreation director. "If you count the soccer, it's probably 10 times that."

He estimates that soccer tournaments and league play have probably brought in "100,000 or more" to the Shawnee Sports Complex.

The city doesn't track league attendance if it doesn't administer the leagues, Muser said.

"We've talked about trying to get some of those numbers as well. We just schedule the fields, so we don't really keep track of the numbers and things there."

At Osage Community Centre, attendance is estimated at more than 36,000 since the facility opened.

But, Muser said, the city doesn't keep an exact count of the people who use the center's gym and weight room facilities. He estimates 150 people work out at Osage every day, and the basketball courts are always busy.

In addition, the community center features rooms that can be rented for meetings, wedding receptions, conventions, banquets, parties and so on.

The Osage Community Centre was one of the sites used for the craft extravaganza in November. Shoppers packed the facility, and the others hosting crafters from throughout the region, during the two-day event.

"We've just had a variety of events out there," Muser said.

In April, the Osage Centre staff will team up with Cape Girardeau's Convention and Visitors Bureau, Southeast Missouri State University and Mineral Area College in Park Hills for a day-long conference on regional tourism, said Mary Miller, CVB director.

"We're planning on about 200 people for that," Miller said. "It's very good, because it brings people in to town from the region."

Mayor Al Spradling III said there was never any doubt the sports complex would prove popular.

"The softball complex, we knew that if we built it, the usage would occur," Spradling said. "We had seen the interest."

The complex "wasn't quite ready" last year when the season started, "so we were a little retarded in our number of teams. This year it will be ready to go at the start of the season," he said.

Spradling said he's only heard good things about the Shawnee complex, except for the fees policy, which requires softball teams to pay for using the facility.

"But we have to pay for the facility somehow. The council did make it pretty clear that they wanted it to be a user-paid facility except for the cost of construction," he said.

The fees structure "did ruffle some feathers early on, but most of the teams and the people understand now. Most of the softball places do have a fee. They've got to be able to pay for the maintenance somehow. It's just something that had not occurred around here in the past," Spradling said.

Soccer, of course, has "become huge," Spradling said, and the city's fields will stay busy.

Spradling said he's also "extremely pleased" with the usage at Osage Community Centre.

"When we had the joint meeting with Jackson, I was just amazed at the number of people using it," he said.

Use of the gym/weight room is $1 per visit, Spradling said.

"For a buck, how can you go wrong with that? If you want to walk, you can walk. If you want to lift weights, we've got all the equipment," he said. "The only thing I wish we did have that we don't have, and the money wasn't there, was a shower facility and locker room."

The shower facility isn't critical, he said, "but it certainly would make it nice. But maybe some day."

Three soccer fields still have to be developed at Shawnee Park, Muser said, and eventually, the city wants to develop additional fields for soccer and youth tackle football programs.

The softball complex is finished.

"Within the guidelines of the funding that we had, it's done," Muser said. Any additional development will have to be funded through other sources.

The construction costs of the two facilities are being paid off through the city's hotel/motel/restaurant tax and donations solicited by the city's parks foundation.