WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Winter Haven and Polk County’s tourism agency have teamed up to build a $27 million field house. Construction on the project should be complete in a couple of weeks.
- Main purpose is to attract tourism generating sports tournaments
- Events already being scheduled
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The field house is located at the corner of Highway 17 and Cypress Gardens Boulevard. It will have six full-size basketball courts and can be configured to have 12 volleyball courts.
There will also be a fitness center observation deck around the courts that can be used as a walking or running track.
A main purpose of the field house will be to attract tourism generating sports tournaments. Even though the project isn’t quite complete, that is already happening.
"Our first big event comes in December and from that point we have about 40 events scheduled in this building,” said assistant city manager T. Michael Stavres.
The field house will also be the practice facility for the Orlando Magic’s developmental league team, the Lakeland Magic. The team has been practicing at a number of Polk gyms for several years.
Lakeland Magic head coach Stan Heath is looking forward to having a dedicated practice facility.
“We’ve been all around Polk County. This is our fifth gym,” he said.
Lakeland Magic players will also have lots of time to work on their individual skills at the facility. “Our guys are here to get into the NBA. And the way to get into the NBA is to work,” said team president Shelley Wilkes. “So in order to have a place where they can come all hours of the night, whenever they want to come put shots up is going to be huge for their growth and progress.”
Members of the general public will also get to use the field house for pickup and league games as well as use the fitness center.