WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Changes are coming to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus.
Pasco County announced it will be taking over the day-to-day operation of the 98,000 square-foot facility. It’s a move that will see the county market and manage the sports tourism venue.
What You Need To Know
- Pasco County will be taking over day-to-day operation of the 98,000 square-foot facility
- Existing programs will continue as they are
- Facility has seen more than 1.4 million visitors in last year and is already out-pacing that number this year
The Board of County Commissioners and Radd Sports opened the facility in 2020 with the aim to attract tournaments and talent from not only around the country, but the world.
Multiple sports take place at the facility such as basketball and volleyball, as well as cheer and gymnastics. Those existing programs will continue as the county takes over.
The move will help the facility build the “Florida’s Sports Coast” campaign.
“What you see here is just phase one,” said Adam Thomas, Executive Director of Florida’s Sports Coast. “There are still things to add on phase one, such as five multipurpose fields on the northwest quadrant of this facility, and we still have room to grow and still build capital infrastructure here in terms of sports facilities.”
Thomas says the facility hosted 82 sporting events, with more than 1.4 million visitors last year and is already out-pacing that number this year.
The attraction of outdoors and sports has lured many new residents to call Pasco County home.
Jennifer Catalanotto is not only a parent, but a coach at the facility. Originally from Ohio, she says her family moved to Pasco County for an opportunity for her children to participate in sports.
“I really think the special sauce here is all the people that are here,” said Catalanotto. “I mean, they really have brought in the best of the best, right?”
It’s people like Matt McDonough, the cheer director at Wiregrass.
“I came in here and we did the very first thing that happened in the building,” said McDonough. “I believe it was a cheerleading camp that we did for the local high schools once we got opened in. It’s been exciting.”
The sports campus opened in 2020. Since then, numerous cheer teams have come to the facility. Some have even gone on to win championships. It’s a caliber of all different talent levels.
“As competitive as you want to be or as casual as you want to be,” said McDonough. “But the best thing to me is that it’s about role models, it’s about friendship and building a strong community.”
It’s a strong community in the sense that, when you look around, there’s athletes of all ages all learning from one another, McDonough said.
“A lot of times we’re all here training at the same time so it’s created almost this family,” said Catalanotto. “We all do live here in Wesley Chapel, we are all in the same county.”
It’s something Catalanotto said she’d like to see continue to grow.
“Change is always scary so whenever you hear of everything, everyone goes into panic mode,” she said. “But I think there’s something special going on here and if the county gets behind it and they start supporting what’s going on, I think they can do incredible things.”
