Parks & Environmental

The Bridge’s field house features multiple hardwood courts that can be partitioned for games and tournaments. (Photo provided)

The Bridge: Bringing year-round sports tourism to Bridgeport

By AMANDA DEMSTER | The Municipal

Recreation is the main focus of any parks system, but Bridgeport, W. Va., is taking things a step farther.

The Bridgeport Parks Department recently completed construction on a 156,000-square-foot facility known as The Bridge Sports Complex, which will be entirely city-run.

According to Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Joe Shuttleworth, The Bridge features a 42,500-square-foot field house; a 19,000-square-foot aquatic center; 40,000 square feet of indoor turf; plus a Clip ‘n Climb with 31 climbing stations, which he described as looking “like something from Nickelodeon.”

“The kids are going to flip over it,” he said.

A membership-based fitness center offers strength and cardio equipment, rack systems and free weights.

“Our members will also have access to many group fitness classes in our two-group fitness classrooms and aquatic center,” Shuttleworth said. “We are also planning many sports performance programs … we will offer everything from personal training to sport-specific training and combine-type training.”

Ceiling-mounted equipment in the field house features touchscreen technology that controls the ceiling-mounted basketball and volleyball equipment and allows each to be raised or lowered to accommodate different age groups.

Six hardwood courts accommodate basketball, volleyball, wrestling, pickleball, futsal, tumbling and any other sport requiring a large, flat surface. Circling the courts is a three-lane, elevated walking and jogging track.

The aquatic center features a 25-yard-by-25-meter competitive pool for competitive swimming, water polo, lap swimming and recreational swimming. A smaller, four-lane warm-up pool is designed, as its name suggests, for competitive swimmers to

An indoor turf area can host sports like indoor soccer, football, lacrosse and other field-type sports. (Photo provided) Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Joe Shuttleworth likens The Bridge’s indoor climbing wall to “something from Nickelodeon.” (Photo provided)

warm up. However, it is also intended for things like learn-to-swim classes, water aerobics and Aqua-Zumba.

“We have a state-of-the-art HVAC and filtration system, including the use of UV technology,” Shuttleworth said.

The indoor turf area features drop-down curtains that can divide the spaces into halves and quarters for multiple games at once, including football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, sports performance training and special events. There are also two ceiling-mounted, drop-down batting cages.

The building can accommodate up to 3,515 occupants; however, the city will continue to follow the latest state COVID guidelines. Rigorous cleaning procedures are also in place for the fitness and climbing rooms.

In all, the complex cost around $50 million. To help fund this project, the city placed a 1% sales tax on items purchased within the city, permitted through West Virginia’s Home Rule. The city generates around $4 million a year, earmarked specifically for The Bridge.

The city also sold $40 million in bonds and is securing sponsors for different sections of the complex and for programs. It is also exploring the possibility of a title sponsor for the overall facility.

“The bond payments are going to be $2.1 million per year, with the remainder utilized for operations, improvements and future development,” Shuttleworth said.

To save energy, the facility uses LED technology for lighting. Windows and translucent panels are designed and placed to allow as much natural light in as possible.

Economic impact

For years, Bridgeport has been a location for large sports events, particularly baseball. Several years ago, Bridgeport built a 40-acre, $9 million outdoor baseball field across the street from where The Bridge now stands.

The baseball complex hosts between 13 and 16 kids’ travel baseball and softball events and tournaments each year, with the larger ones bringing in close to 100 teams at a time. Teams come from Ohio, Kentucky, the Baltimore, Md., area and Virginia, to name a few. Bridgeport is roughly an hour and 40 minutes from Pittsburgh, Pa.

“Location-wise, we’re at the crossroads of two major interstates, and we’re within a six-hour drive of almost half the population of the United States,” Shuttleworth said.

All of this places Bridgeport in a strategic spot for what Shuttleworth calls “sports tourism,” which has served the city well economically, bringing added businesses to restaurants and hotels, sporting goods stores, the shopping mall and other shopping areas.

While baseball and softball are primarily summer sports, with an indoor complex like The Bridge, Bridgeport could begin reaping the benefits of sports tourism year-round, with the ability to host basketball and volleyball tournaments and any other sport the facility can accommodate.

“This is kind of the same philosophy we take with The Bridge,” Shuttleworth said. “Monday through Thursday, we have worldclass facilities for our citizens to use, for our little league and everybody else to use. Then on the weekends, we bring in travel baseball and events and travel softball events.”

Plans are also in the works to rebrand the entire complex.

“It’s been called the Bridgeport Recreation Complex, and now we build The Bridge indoor sports complex right across the street, but it’s all city run, a little bit different on the operations, but it’s very confusing to our visitors,” Shuttleworth said.

Looking ahead

The parks department has big dreams for The Bridge’s future. The project’s second phase is getting ready to begin, which will include a large outdoor area, adaptable for football, soccer and any other sport that can be played on an outdoor field.

“The funds for this project have been earmarked, and we have anticipated completion of this project by late summer, early fall,” Shuttleworth said.

Revenue from The Bridge will be reinvested back into the facility for future upgrades and improvements as needed.

Another future dream for the recreation complex is an inclusive playground, with features that allow children with different abilities to play together. This will go hand-in-hand with Bridgeport’s challenger baseball league, a little league that brings in students from nine surrounding counties, all with differing abilities.

“We hope to expand that program as well, but then we’re also going to have this really cool playground that they can use when they come,” Shuttleworth said.

All of this will take time.

“I hope to continue to grow our facility to the full potential it has, to the master plan that we have, and continue to make an impact on lives, whether our visitors or our region or our local people here,” Shuttleworth said.

The Bridge facts and stats

Concrete

• 10,505 cubic yards of concrete placed through May 3 • Approximate weight of concrete placed: 42,545,250 pounds, or more than 21,272 tons (heavier than 150 Statues of Liberty, 150 blue whales, 250 empty space shuttles, 3,000 T. rexes or 10,000 cars) • 253,000 square feet of asphalt placed (the equivalent of 2 miles of two-lane roadway) *Concrete weighs an average of 4,050 pounds per cubic yard *These totals do not include the amount of concrete used for pre-cast panels

Wood Flooring

• Gym floor is 312 feet by 135 feet, or 42,120 square feet, or.9669 acres • 1,317 sheets of plywood, each sheet containing six anchor points • 7,902 total anchor points • Each strip of tongue and groove is 2-¼ inches wide • 720 rows of tongue and groove • 224,640 linear feet of wood, equaling 42.5 miles of wood • Each tongue and groove piece is 7 feet with eight nails per board • 256,731 nails total

Electrical Conduit

• Approximately 36,960 linear feet of conduit or 7 miles laid end to end

Indoor Plumbing

• 18,000 linear feet of piping or 3.4 miles

Pre-Engineered Metal Building • 157 feet, 4 inches by 247 feet, 4 inches, equaling 38,981 square feet • 6.02 pounds of sand mix per square feet • 241,019 pounds of sand or 120.45 tons • 2.60 pounds 14/30 rubber per square foot • .04 pounds 10/14 larger rubber per square foot • Total weight of 9.20 pounds per square foot • Total pounds of 14/30 rubber 101,072 pounds, or 50.5 tons • Total weight of 357,641 pounds or 178.8 tons (heavier than one blue whale, 90 cars, 200 cows or a locomotive engine)

Competition Pool

• 75 feet by 82 feet • 322,543 gallons of water (laying gallon milk jugs end to end would extend 387,051.6 feet or 73.3 miles) • At 8.3 pounds per gallon, the water in the pool weighs 2,677,106.9 or more than 1,338 tons (heavier than 382

SUVs, 191 T. rexes or 13 loaded space shuttles) • At 112 gallons per minute, it takes 48 hours to fill • At 1,000 gallons per minute, water can be turned over in 5.3 hours • 246 occupants • 6 feet, 7 inches to 8 feet deep

Warm-up pool

• 75 feet by 35 feet • 64,485 gallons • At 8.3 pounds per gallon, the water in this pool weighs 535,225.5 pounds, or 267 tons (heavier than 44 African elephants, 19 school buses or six fire trucks) • At 90 gallons per minute, it takes 12 hours to fill • At 500 gallons per minute, water is turned over in 2.25 hours • 145 occupants • 4 feet deep

Pre-cast panels

• 178 precast concrete panels • Heaviest panel: 52,000 pounds • Lightest Panel: 25,000 pounds

Plumbing

• Five water fountains • 15 showers • 53 toilet fixtures • 260 public lockers • 12 employee lockers

General

• First-floor occupant load: 1,238 • Second-floor occupant load: 1,342 • Pool area occupant load: 935 • Total building occupant load: 3,515 • Disturbed area of approximately 65 acres