Playing in a bigger league

GREELEY – When University of Northern Colorado students in 2004 voted to raise their fees to fund construction of new university sports centers, they were not likely aware that their ballots would stoke economic development beyond the campus boundaries.

But three years later, with most of the $16 million package of improvements to UNC’s sports facilities in place, a community consensus says the new construction – plus the university’s big jump to Division 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association – will spill at least as much into the Greeley economy over time.

“There is an economic engine that sits within these facilities,” UNC athletic director Jay Hinrichs said. “For people from the region, and the nation, to come and stay and eat and play is a big vision of ours.”

It’s a vision shared by Greeley’s Chamber of Commerce, by businesses that have already enjoyed the fruits of UNC’s sports-building boom, and by UNC’s faculty and administrators.

An example: One of the gems of the rebuilding program, a $3.4 million overhaul of Jackson Field to make it a world-class soccer facility, represents a town-and-gown connection that will uplift the east Greeley neighborhood where the former Colorado State College football stadium sits.

“I like Jackson Field in particular for the benefits it will have for that neighborhood,” UNC president Kay Norton said. “One of the features there is a community room that will allow for the cooperative use by all members of the community. It’s a big step toward revitalizing that neighborhood.”

Building venues

As dramatic as the Jackson Field makeover has been, projects on the main campus are just as evident. Two sports fields south of the Butler-Hancock athletic headquarters, each costing $380,000 and featuring state-of-the-art artificial turf, have boosted the university’s capacity to host sports competition at all levels.

Nearby, adjacent to Butler-Hancock, a new $2 million indoor volleyball and basketball practice center, unlike any other in the region, makes two 96-foot floors available for NCAA regulation basketball use.

Those showcase facilities form part of the reason UNC will play host to the Colorado high school athletic association’s All-State Games in early June, an event that will draw about 1,800 people to the campus, including boys and girls sports teams from throughout the state, coaches, trainers and parents.

UNC became the chosen venue for the event thanks to the Northern Colorado Sports Commission, a new Fort Collins-based group that promotes athletics as a regionwide economic-development tool.

“They’ve got so many things in place there now,´ said Keith Lipps, executive director of the commission. “If I understand right, they’ll have the only field hockey venue in Northern Colorado.”

Lipps said facilities like those that have been built at UNC strengthen his pitch to national college and university tournament organizers, such as the one he’ll make for the National Intercollegiate Lacrosse Championships, an annual event that dumps about $3 million into the local economy surrounding the host venue.

“It’s a sport that has a real grassroots following, and people come from everywhere for that,” Lipps said.

When UNC last year joined the Big Sky Conference, one of the NCAA’s bigger leagues, it was one of the final steps toward competing at the Division 1 level for the first time in the university’s history. Hinrichs and other university administrators were expecting a final decision on Division 1 status from NCAA officials this month.

Hotel-restaurant boon

The change, and the rising level of sports activity it brings, will send ripples throughout the Greeley economy, and businesses that could become direct beneficiaries are well aware of the not-so-subtle difference Division 1 will make.

“That’s a really significant move for them,´ said Robert Julich, general manager of the Hampton Inn and Suites. “The level of competition in all their sports programs will rise, and recruiting has to be intensified. We’re hoping we can help out with that.”

Julich and UNC two months ago inked a deal that makes the hotel an official host for UNC and the Big Sky Conference. The university gets complimentary and reduced-rate rooms, while the hotel gets sponsorship promotion for events and a few complimentary tickets for games.

The money that the Division 1 move will generate with increased sports traffic to the university will spread up and down Greeley’s hotel row, flanking the south side of the U.S. 34 Bypass, with the Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn getting their share of UNC and Big Sky business, Hinrichs said.

“We bring a lot of people in here, and we’ll be bringing a lot more,” he said. “We had Creighton Univeristy’s softball team in for the weekend, and all 30 athletes and trainers were at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. You think they weren’t happy about that?”

On the map

Since landing at UNC two years ago, Hinrichs has been almost as active in the Greeley business community as in his AD role, attending Greeley Chamber of Commerce meetings to keep members abreast of the work being done to raise the university’s stake in intercollegiate sports.

“I think that because of what they’re doing, Greeley’s going to be on the map for greater exposure,” Greeley Chamber of Commerce president Sarah MacQuiddy said. “We have the opportunity to be seen by so many others with the jump to Division 1. We’re really expanding our horizons.”

Norton said the action that students took at the ballot box two years ago, and the sports facility upgrades that followed, would drive the university to a higher level and connect UNC with its surrounding community in ways the students never could have imagined.

“It was time for the quality of our athletic programs to match the quality of our academic programs,” Norton said. “We’re not trying to be one of the big dogs. We’re not trying to be Ohio State. But it was time to move up.”

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