CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Both of the Kanawha County Commission candidates running in Tuesday’s upcoming General Election are voicing their support for the new Capital Sports Center that’s coming to Charleston as well as presenting some key concerns they have about the $80 million facility.
Republican Kanawha County Commission candidate Chris Walters, as well as Democratic candidate in the race Natalie Tennant simultaneously joined Dave Allen on WCHS’ 580 Live Monday morning ahead of the election to talk about various issues and opportunities happening within the county.
A major endeavor currently underway at the former Macy’s location at the Charleston Town Center is, of course, the future Capital Sports Center.
Chris Walters
With interchangeable floors that will include basketball and pickleball courts, volleyball and tennis courts, Walters said he stands with other local leaders in the sense that it will be a great contribution to the already growing sports tourism industry in the state. He said this coincides with the sporting events that already go on at the adjacent Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, and both will serve as a premiere sports tourism hub to the area.
“Regional tournaments can come in, play events at both facilities, whereas in other areas, they may play basketball at one place and drive 45 minutes and go to another place,” Walters said.
A part of the original floor plan for the new sports center included an Olympic-sized swimming pool, but the current commissioners had no choice but to scrap the concept of the pool due to being legally unable to acquire a portion of the Town Center’s parking garage for the endeavor.
Tennant said she’s completely in support of the Capital Sports Center itself, but scrapping the pool from the plans is her main issue with the overall concept.
“We need this, because we do have some other facilities with basketball courts and things like that, so we need to make sure those facilities are there as well,” said Tennant.
Natalie Tennant
Walters gave a rebuttal to this, however. He said the commission could go in with South Charleston’s current plans of building a new recreation center and compensate by adding the pool there.
“We could save tens and millions of dollars by tagging on to their project, working with the mayor of South Charleston and getting a facility built there that really serves the needs of our community, putting a diving pool in there as well,” he said.
Walters said the one major issue he sees with the facility is the $80 million dollar price tag.
He said the City of Charleston gets money from a 1% sales tax, which consists of visitors staying in hotels and attending events in the city, and that will help pay for their $40 million contribution of the sports center.
However, Walters said where the county commission is the owners of the property, they will find themselves having to dish out more in taxes for the facility.
He said he’s also concerned that there may not even be enough events to pay their $40 million dollar loan.
Walters said he wants to sit down with the commissioners if elected, and look over the actual fiscal logistics of the project.
“If the existing commissioners can show me how we can actually do it in a fiscally-responsible way, lets do it, but right now, I haven’t seen how we can make those monthly payments, and I have to see that, you know, before I can jump all in to do it,” said Walters. “There’s a lot of great ideas that cost $80 million dollars, but can we afford it?”
Tennant said, though that she believes the sports center will make up for the high cost in what it makes back in economic development.
She said what contributes to that economic development, however, is the inclusion of union workers into the construction process of the facility.
“There are examples of things that have been built that didn’t use union workers and then, they had to go back and build it again, and so having unions built it then helps to generate,” said Tennant.
The entire Capital Sports Center project is expected to take around two to three years to complete.
Walters, a former state senator, beat out fellow Republican candidate for the open position in the Kanawha County Commission race, Dewayne Duncan in the May Primary Election. Tennant, former Secretary of State, won over longtime but embattled Commissioner Kent Carper.