Couple seek investors for multisport complex

A Fountain couple want to build a 2,000-seat indoor multisport complex for uses ranging from soccer to yoga.

Dubbed the Stadium of Stars, the 65,000-square-foot facility would be on 4.4 acres on Fountain’s north side, west of U.S. Highway 85/87.

Greg Stingerie and his wife, Lisa, started the project in the fall of 2005. In 2006, a feasibility study showed “the area would support a facility such as this,” Greg Stingerie said.

The Stingeries have pumped about $80,000 of their money into the project and are looking for investors. They own the land.

They decided to build the facility in Fountain because both are long-time Fountain residents and they say the area needs it. Some parents drive kids to Colorado Springs’ north side to play soccer indoors during the winter.

“There are countless connections we have down there that evolved out of us wanting to bring this facility to the area,” said Greg Stingerie, an automotive products distributor who taught and coached in the Fountain area.

Fountain Mayor Jeri Howells said residents welcome the project.

“I’m particularly excited about it because it’s private enterprise doing it without tax dollars,” she said. “I hope people will support it, and I think it’s going to be great for our part of the area.”

Lon Matejczyk, the Colorado Springs Business Journal’s publisher, is spearheading a community effort to build an open-air youth sports stadium in Colorado Springs.

“I’m thinking they could be complementary, having a stadium as well as a sports facility,” he said. “And through the (Colorado Springs) Sports Corp. we could have more sporting events going on in our community.”

The Springs project, being explored by a city ad hoc committee, would seat 5,000 for sports events and 13,000 for concerts, if modeled after a stadium in Glendale.

Funding would come from a publicprivate partnership not yet defined. The committee’s first meeting is this month.

The Stingeries’ for-profit project would rely on private funding.

The Stadium of Stars would offer soccer, flag football, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, dance, Pilates, yoga and birthday parties. It would have two synthetic turf fields, two regulation-size basketball courts, two regulation-size volleyball courts, snack bar, pro shop, arcade and meeting rooms.

The Stingeries hoped for a fall opening but financing and the city planning process could delay the project.

“Realistically, we’d be looking at January if everything starts moving ahead right now,” he said.