Efforts to build a sports complex continue in Worcester County as members of a task force will reconvene next week to discuss funding, operations and more.
On Monday, Dec. 2, Ocean City’s Sports Complex Task Force will meet once more to receive updates from officials and those representing Sports Facilities Companies, the operator for the proposed complex. As the planning phase continues, members will work through the city’s next steps.
In July, the Maryland Stadium Authority, a partner in the sports complex project, issued a request for proposals (RFP) from architecture and engineering firms interested in providing preliminary design services for the project. The firm selected will evaluate the costs and infrastructure needs of a facility at three proposed locations – a 95-acre parcel adjacent to Stephen Decatur High School, a 150-acre parcel roughly two-and-a-half miles west of the Decatur site off Route 50, and a 147-acre parcel near the intersection of Routes 113 and 589. The sites were made public through the RFP process.
“Once a site is selected then they will more fully develop a design to the point where we can have accurate cost estimates so that we can take that information to the state for construction funding,” City Manager Terry McGean said this summer.
While it remains to be seen what impact the state’s fiscal challenges will have on the project, McGean confirmed last week that funding for the sports complex had been appropriated.
“There is no impact right now from any state actions,” he said.