City Keeping Eye On USACA's Finances

The World Sports Park is under construction on the city’s southeast side.

The $6 million project received some push back from those wanting the RebuildIndy fund money to go elsewhere, such as public safety.

But, Parks Director John Williams believes the investment is worthwhile.

"What we have here, being a global sports venue, we can really facilitate uses of a variety of field sports, so the fields can be configured in several different ways to accomodate that," he said.  "So, we try to build to the largest footprint that we can."

The Department of Public Works approved the final phase of the park late last month.  Williams says this is “lion’s share” of the project and it’s expected to be completed in July.

In August, the park is hosting the United States of America Cricket Association tournament.  USACA CEO Darren Beazley says the four day event is expected to draw thousands.

"We do think in the first year it will have a lot of local people that will come along," said Beazley.  "What we hope though is to build the awareness of this and we hope that people from overseas will come across and choose to have their holidays or vacations in Indianapolis and time it at the same time as the National Championships."

However, the organization is about $3 million in debt.

Beazley doesn’t believe the organization’s debt will cause problems with the tournament and says the four day Championship is part of the company’s plans to become more fiscally stable.

"The reality is, USACA hasn't really had any high level, high profile activities for a little while," he said.  "So therefore, in terms of being able to go commercialize the sport, it's difficult to get big corporations such as Nike, or Coca Cola, or Pepsi, or whoever it might be interested unless you are doing stuff that is really out there.  I think the National Championships is a first step toward USACA having an inventory that is valuable and exciting."

Indianapolis plans to host the tournament for the next three years and Williams says the city is monitoring USACA's financial situation.

"There is no change in our thought process at this time," he said.  "We are evaluating to make sure that this is something that we should continue to pursue or not."

The tournament is August 21- 24.  

Photo courtesy USACA via Facebook