One week after the Newberry City Commission suggested a county partnership for short- and long-term Champions Park maintenance, Alachua County responded with a Facebook post on July 1 to clarify its obligations and set the facility’s economic impact record straight. 

The conversation between the entities comes as the original Newberry and Alachua County contract for facilitating Champions Park sports tourism is set to expire in September.  

According to the post, compiled by various county staff members, the county signed an interlocal agreement with Newberry in 2009 where the city agreed to take full responsibility for Champions Park operations and maintenance if the county funded the construction. Newberry agreed it would not seek additional county funding for the project.  

The county dedicated $7 million in tourism development tax funding to build Champions Park, plus an additional $1 million from a 2015 debt restructuring and $346,929.69 in tournament support through the Gainesville Sports Commission’s bid pool. 

Since the park opened in 2013, Newberry has contracted with three different management companies to oversee Champions Park operations and keep teams coming to play. RADDSports is the current park operator.  

During a regular commission meeting on June 24, Newberry reallocated $2 million of Wild Spaces and Public Places and American Rescue Plan Act funds from the Easton Newberry Sports Complex projects towards critical infrastructure needs at Champions Park.  

The needs include fixing cracked sidewalks, replacing worn baseball netting, updating bathrooms and repairing rotting wood on park infrastructure. 

Newberry City Manager Jordan Marlowe suggested seeking a partnership with the county for Champions Park maintenance, claiming the facility has put over $100 million back into the county as its second-largest driver of heads and beds for hotels. 

In its July 1 Facebook post, Alachua County refuted Newberry’s statement that Champions Park is the second largest driver of hotel stays. They said that from April 2024 to March 2025, Champions Park accounted for around $3 million—only 1.7%—of Alachua County’s $180 million total hotel revenue. 

Alachua County spokesperson Mark Sexton told Mainstreet the percentage comes from data reported by RADDSports to the Newberry City Commission. The county also uses the numbers to keep track of sports tourism information.  

According to the RADDSports’ data, over 57,000 Champions Park visitors between April 2024 and March 2025 brought in $8,758,260 of spending, $188,928 in sales tax, $157,440 in bed tax and 26,240 total hotel room nights.  

The hotel revenue totaled $3,148,800 for the 11-month period, not long after it took Champions Park three years to generate $4.5 million in hotel revenue and brought $21 million of indirect financial impact on the county between 2019 and 2021. 

Sexton said that while the county estimates Champions Park’s economic impact does not surpass that of other facilities, such as the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the Stephen C. O’Connell Center or Condron Ballpark, UF is not required to send the county its data for hotel reports like RADDSports does for Champions Park.  

He said the county is expecting to collect $9.5 million in bed tax this year and that it hadn’t been able to verify with Newberry staff or RADDSports that Champions Park has put over $100 million back into the county. 

In the comments on the county’s post, Marlowe said UF shouldn’t be considered in the equation of bed tax beneficiaries because they have their own advertising. He said facilities like Champions Park that bring in business when there aren’t school events filling hotels accomplishes the original purpose of the tax as the city and county intended it to, and it warrants county support. 

Alachua County Commissioner Anna Prizzia affirmed the county’s post and said she’s happy that Champions Park has been generating the tax revenue the county intended it to when it made its original $8 million investment.  

But she said since the county upheld their commitment to fund the facility’s construction, it was up to Newberry to maintain it.  

“I can understand that a city would want to look for all the sources they possibly could for funding,” she said. “But I think the county was really clear that we lived up to our commitment for that facility. We really need them to live up to theirs.” 

Newberry Mayor Tim Marden defended the statements regarding Champions Park’s financial impact made during the June 24 meeting and said the city quoted numbers reported by the Gainesville Sports Commission, a county entity.  

He said the county’s post came across as an attempt to deflect the impact of Champions Park’s impact in order to justify other county attractions. 

“It seemed like it was sort of picking a fight where there was none,” he said. “It sounds like lack of desire to verify [the numbers] because it would only be a phone call to get that information.” 

Sexton said the Facebook post wasn’t meant to point fingers and that the county was encouraged by Newberry’s positive projections of economic impact from Champions Park. 

But he said the historical context of the original Champions Park agreement between the county and Newberry is critical for understanding each of the entity’s responsibilities for the park and its economic impact. 

“There was a conversation suggesting that the county really should be doing something [for Champions Park] as though we’re somehow not doing something that we should be obligated to do,” Sexton said. “In fact, the obligations in this agreement are crystal clear and were not mentioned in that meeting.” 

Marden said the city has been aware that all three companies who have operated Champions Park stated it doesn’t generate enough money to maintain itself.  

In 2021, the city applied for American Rescue Plan grants to use toward Champions Park upgrades and requested $500,000 for repairs during an Alachua County Legislative Delegation meeting this January. 

Former Newberry Director of Recreation Brad Carmen suggested in a memorandum from 2016 that $115,000 should be annually set aside to account for infrastructure maintenance. Marden said there isn’t enough money available to do that, and the city has struggled to put the expense on its citizens. 

“We can’t have Newberry bearing all the expense while Alachua County reaps all the rewards,” Marden said. “That post almost had the flavor of ‘Newberry, don’t even bother to come ask us because the answer is no.’ It just seems very unprofessional, unprovoked and unnecessary.” 

Marden said if the city takes over the operation of the park when the contract expires, they could be certain of Champions Park’s success by getting data firsthand. He said they could evaluate different economies of scale for the project or determine if it needs to be abandoned altogether.  

Marlowe said he hopes Newberry and the county can work out an ongoing partnership for Champions Park, similar to how he said most large sports tourism facilities collaborate with their counties.  

“This fall, that relationship is over, and it will precipitate the Newberry [City] Commission having to make that decision,” Marlowe said. “Is there enough value there that we can find partners to help us keep it going? Or is there not enough value there? And if that’s the case and there’s not enough value, well then, we may have to make a different decision.”