Pinellas Park breaks ground on youth-centered sports park

Baseball is here to stay in Tampa Bay – this time, at the youth level.

That was the announcement at a groundbreaking event shrouded in secrecy Wednesday morning. Media were invited to a “new sports and recreation venue in the Tampa Bay area” at 4000 66th Avenue N. in Pinellas Park, just off US-19, to be opened by Pinellas Park Mayor Sandra Bradbury, Senator Nick DiCeglie (R–Indian Rocks Beach), former State House Speaker Chris Sprowls, and others.

Former State House Speaker Chris Sprowls was a partner in the project. Photo: Peter Wahlberg.

The Sprowls Horizon Sports Park looks set to be all that and more, with a new youth-centered park constructed around four to six new baseball fields modeled after minor league parks in Florida’s Grapefruit League. So said Jason Clement, Founder and CEO of Sports Facilities Companies, the project’s primary contractor. 

The facilities will be capable of hosting local, regional and national youth baseball tournaments. Also included upon completion will be a full-sized multi-use field for soccer and lacrosse, an outdoor roller hockey rink and community plaza.

Stakeholders from across the community paid tribute to the project’s potential to bring the community together around cherished institutions such as Little League. “Most of us grew up out here – we played baseball out here, we played softball out here,” said Mayor Bradbury.

“It’s quality of life,” agreed Pinellas County Commissioner Charlie Justice (D–St. Petersburg). “We want recreational opportunities within reach of every child in Pinellas County … And this is going to be a huge addition for mid-Pinellas.”

Clement noted that while Clearwater’s Sports Facilities has worked on community-based sports venues across the United States, this would be its first local project. He envisioned Sprowls Horizon having an impact far beyond the community, noting that it would attract regional and even national youth baseball tournaments, which would bring tourists and their dollars to the community.

The effort was spearheaded by city officials in Pinellas Park and then-Rep. DiCeglie, who represented the area in the Florida House, noted Pinellas Park City Manager Bart Diebold. Initially, plans centered around a smaller facility that better utilized undeveloped City land. 

“We were looking to rejuvenate this park – it was a 40 acre park,” explained Diebold. “We started looking at money … and the state stepped up and said, ‘Hey, we can allocate $13.5 million dollars.’

“It was a complete game-changer for us.”

It was Sprowls, said DiCeglie, who encouraged the community to think bigger. 

“When you think about the vision, we’re not only talking about sports and baseball, we’re talking about families,” said DiCeglie. “This is one piece of the family-focused agenda we had in the Florida Legislature.”

DiCeglie filed the initial request for support from the state Legislature in 2021. His appropriation was initially a longshot, as it was added late in the budgeting cycle used by the State Legislature for appropriating funds to projects such as parks. Like many states, Florida’s Legislature is part-time, sitting only 60 days a year and leaving precious little window to secure the funds that are the lifeblood of local resources like parks. 

It was here that Sprowls’ intervention proved crucial, said Diebold. “While we were worried about what we were going to do here, he grabbed ahold of this thing and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to help these people out.”

To Sprowls, the initiative is much more than a price tag. “The irony behind politics a lot of the time is the things we argue most about are the things that matter least to families,” he reflected, speaking behind a banner bearing his namesake park’s new logo. 

“The things we do for kids, the memories we help them make, are the things that will last forever.”

With groundbreaking completed, Pinellas Park officials anticipate construction to last for approximately 18 months, to be tentatively completed in fall 2025 or spring 2026. 

“Pinellas Park doesn’t have a beach,” said Diebold, “but we now have a destination for folks coming to play ball, which is huge.

“We want parents to enjoy it, and we want kids to have fun.”

Photo: Peter Wahlberg.