Council weighs tourist options
Amphitheatre, tennis stadium to be studied

By Andy Reid
Copyright 2001 The Tribune Co.
Article date: August 11, 2001
 

NEW PORT RICHEY- Tennis and tunes remain in the running for a county-financed tourist attraction.

Saddlebrook Resort owner Tom Dempsey wants Pasco County to spend $5.7 million in hotel tax revenue for a tennis stadium near the posh resort in Wesley Chapel.

But Pasco's Tourist Development Council decided Friday to also explore building an amphitheater that could create a regional concert venue.
The council recommended county commissioners have consultants gather more information to compare costs and anticipated revenues of a tennis stadium and amphitheater.

"The money belongs to all of us," said tourist council member and New Port Richey Mayor Wendy Brenner. "We need to see what the cost is."

A study of potential uses for the $5.7 million recommended Pasco build either an amphitheater or tennis stadium.

The study projected an amphitheater would seat about 8,000 people and put on about 20 concerts each year, drawing crowds of 200,000 to 350,000. The cost: $15 million to $20 million.

The tennis stadium would seat between 5,000 and 13,000 people, depending on how it is configured, have 18 to 20 courts and cost $5 million to $10 million, the study says.

Dempsey believes a new tennis stadium, coupled with the Women's Tennis Association moving its headquarters to Saddlebrook, will attract high-profile tournaments that help promote Pasco.

Dempsey has said Saddlebrook would manage the stadium and cover operating costs not paid by revenue from the facility. The group trying to bring the 2012 Olympics to Tampa proposes expanding the stadium to anchor tennis events.

Pasco's county commission already agreed to give $75,000 of the Tourist Development Tax revenue to the WTA each year for 10 years.

"Everything points to the tennis stadium," said tourist council member Dick Boehning, Saddlebrook's general manager who abstained from the stadium vote. "There is no way anything we do is going to satisfy everyone in the county."

Amphitheater advocates want a facility that can be used by more Pasco residents.

One proposal calls for putting an amphitheater on 200 acres along State Road 52 beside Safety Town near the Suncoast Parkway.

Concert promoters in the past discussed working with Pasco to put an amphitheater in Wesley Chapel, county budget director Michael Nurrenbrock said.

Though the amphitheater could cost more, Brenner said some of her west Pasco constituents would prefer spending the tax money on a project with more broad-based appeal.

"You have to also look at what the general public wants," she said. "Sometimes you have to spend a little money and lose a little money."
 

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