Davis County breaks ground on $64M Western Sports Park
Project revamps, expands Legacy Events Center
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- Officials turn over dirt to signify the groundbreaking of Davis County’s Western Sports Park, an expansion of the Legacy Events Center in Farmington, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. From left: Teri Cowan of the Davis Arts Council, Legacy Events Center Director Dave Hansen, Davis County Tourism Director Jessica Merrill, Davis County Commissioner Randy Elliott, Utah Lt. Gov. Governor Deidre Henderson and Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson.
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- An artist’s rendering of the inside of the proposed new Legacy Events Center in Farmington, to be rebranded as the Western Sports Park. A $55 million project will also rebuild the old center and add various outdoor sports fields. The project aims to serve a booming youth sports market.
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- This image shows plans for the expanded Western Sports Park in Farmington, set to open in late 2024. North is left, where Clark Lane sits, with 1100 West at the bottom of the image.
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- A rendering of the entrance of the Western Sports Park’s indoor facility in Farmington, set to open in late 2024.
FARMINGTON — Work is now underway to build a multipurpose sports park that Davis County officials say will add tourism dollars to its communities and boost the county’s self-touted claim as Utah’s “amusement capital.”
Government officials turned over dirt with golden shovels Tuesday near 151 S. 1100 West in Farmington to mark the groundbreaking of the Western Sports Park — an expansion, renovation and rebranding of the county’s Legacy Events Center.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson joined Davis County commissioners, tourism and entertainment heads, and more to mark the start of a project that officials say will wrap up by December 2024.
“I want to thank Davis County for their vision,” Henderson said Tuesday. “Team spirit is so important for our society, it’s important for our young people and it’s something I am very proud of Davis County for facilitating in such a monumental way here.”
The undertaking includes the building of a new, 124,000-square-foot building that will connect to the existing 62,000-square-foot venue people have known as the Legacy Events Center for the last 25 years, which itself will be renovated.
The indoor portion of the sports park will include nine basketball courts and 18 volleyball courts, with fixed seating inside the two arenas, allowing the county to host events for various youth sports and more — and hopefully, says Kent Anderson, the county’s economic development director, a specific set of annual community events it’s been outsourcing to Ogden.
“This is an exciting opportunity to host our own school district’s high school graduations,” Anderson said.
The outdoor space expands to up to eight grass fields (there’s currently one and some additional grass space) for soccer, lacrosse, rugby and ultimate frisbee — including one of which, dubbed the “championship field,” that will have 2,000-seat bleachers.
The price tag is $64 million, according to Anderson. It will be paid with tax revenue collected from consumers on transactions at restaurants, hotels and car rental businesses within Davis County. Those funds are earmarked for this type of development in the entertainment and recreation sectors.
If full plans come to fruition, the new sports park will add tourism dollars back into the fund and boost local businesses, Anderson says. Multi-day youth sports tournaments dot locations around the West, and that will be one main way to schedule the venue and bring people to the area.
County officials think the draw speaks for itself. Shopping and restaurants at Station Park (which abuts the Western Sports Park to the north) and Lagoon Amusement Park share the vicinity, and Interstate 15 and FrontRunner train access provide easy travel in the surrounding area and a quick trip to the Salt Lake International Airport.
“In the youth sports world, sometimes the locations they go to aren’t easily accessible,” Anderson said in a previous Standard-Examiner interview. “But Legacy is centrally located on the Wasatch Front and in the western United States … sometimes people are there for three days and you have an extensive lifestyle center right across the street.”
The expanded sports park is expected to increase winter hotel occupancy in Farmington and the surrounding area, something Lagoon and Hill Air Force Base do a good job accomplishing in warmer months, Anderson said.
Layton Construction, based in Sandy, is the project’s contractor and design work was done by Method Studio in Salt Lake City.
Equestrian and similar events will now shift to Kaysville where Davis County is building the $5 million Agriculture Heritage Center as part of the USU Botanical Center. That new facility will also be prominent in hosting the county fair and should be complete later this summer, Anderson said.
