City of Ruston Banks on Million Dollar Sports Complex – MyArkLaMiss (press release) (blog)

RUSTON, La-- -

The RustonCity of Council has voted to approve a million-dollar expansion on a sports complex.

This is the existing sports complex, as a part of the city's Moving Forward Initiative, residents agreed to a sales tax increase to enlarge the facility.

Mayor Ronny Walker says the investment will pay off.

"It's going to be a first class facilityand I just want to thank the citizens of Ruston for seeing the need for it first and then supporting us in voting for the tax so that we can build a complex like this," Walker said.

The money will go towards purchasing the land on both sides of South Farmerville Street.

Walker believes that city should see a quick return on this major investment, especially with baseball season around the corner.

"As we did our research on this we found that in the south most travel team tournaments bring in over $180,000 gross to a city," Walker said.

Mayor Walker says with these new additions the Ruston Sports Complex could become the best in the state.

The city also have plans to build restaurants and hotels near the complex to draw people from everywhere.

"Even if you live outside the City of Ruston, so it's very important that we have good facilities we have not upgraded our facilities in a long time so this is a huge upgrade and a big economic driver for our city."

It's a good thing the complex is open to everyone, the invite came just in the nick of time for Tiffany Doss and the Gramblingsoftball team.

"The field at Grambling State right now is getting remodeled and we have no place but here," Doss said.

"It's like our second home and we would love to be comfortable practicing here more every day."

The wet weather is always a challenge, for baseball and softball teams, but luckily the Rustoncomplex will have more fields and more turf.

"Tournaments that come here and teams that come here are going to want to come back to Ruston, because we really do have a special place here and excellence is made here," Walker said.

"Being on turf fields and more fields then I won't have to worry about where I have to go to practice or I already know to go to the turf field," Matthews said.

Mayor Walker says now that the project has been approved, he hopes to get started on the construction as early as May.

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City of Ruston Banks on Million Dollar Sports Complex - MyArkLaMiss (press release) (blog)