Kids rock 'Newsies' / P. 23
The year ahead / P. 3
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Sunday, January 2, 2022
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
A project with great promise opens in Mesa BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor
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ell Bank Park, the massive 320-acre amateur and youth sports complex in East Mesa, is opening this week – bringing to the city the promise of a new revenue stream and a new national claim to fame. Legacy Sports USA, the founder of the $280-million facility near Ellsworth and Pecos roads, is preparing to open its fields and courts for the first time as part of a soft opening for parents and athletes. It also hosted several high school soccer matches as part of the AZ Soccer Showcase last week on its sprawling set of artificial turf fields and held a friends and family event this weekend. Tomorrow, Jan. 3, it will welcome the public for the first time to walk the grounds and meet tournament and sports directors. “It’s so exciting,” said Chad Miller, the CEO of Legacy Sports USA and alumnus of Mesquite High School. “To bring something like this to where we grew up. This is our home
Legacy Sports USA CEO Chad Miller and President Brett Miller are pumped about opening the massive Bell Bank Park to the public for the first time on tomorrow, Jan. 3. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)
and it means so much to us.” For sports enthusiasts, Bell Bank Park means a 3,000-seat outdoor stadium, as eSports arena, an indoor arena, 31 soccer/ lacrosse/football fields, 57 indoor volleyball
courts, eight baseball and adult softball fields, 16 fastpitch softball and Little League baseball fields, 20 basketball courts, 48 pickleball
year last month, board members zeroed in on the district’s use of $158 million in the third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding that was part of the American Rescue Plan approved early last year. Like the two earlier rounds approved in 2020, the money is aimed at off-setting the pandemic’s impact on schools and covered
everything from cleaning and improving air quality to learning opportunities. The third round also required districts to spend at least 5% on addressing learning loss, 1% for afterschool activities, and 1% for summer learning programs. At the board’s meeting last month, Associ-
see LEGACY page 6
Mesa school board questions some pandemic relief spending BY DANA TRUMBULL Tribune Staff Writer
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esa Public Schools Governing Board members think the district administration needs to focus more of its millions in pandemic relief funds on learning loss. During their final meeting of the calendar
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