VOL. 126 | NO. 220 | Thursday, November 10, 2011
By DON WADE
Updated 3:53PMThe name is in place and so is the site, but the timetable and all the partners are not. Penny Hardaway?s FastBreak Courts, it was formally announced Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Gameday Sports Park in Cordova, will be built on Fischer Steel Road just across from the popular baseball complex.
HARDAWAY
Sprite/Coca-Cola and Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics are partnering with Anfernee ?Penny? Hardaway in the project. Representatives of the businesses and Hardaway were joined at the press conference at Gameday by Miami Heat star LeBron James, who was in town to play in Rudy Gay?s charity basketball game that evening (see related story). Several city and county officials also were in attendance.
Hardaway, who grew up in Memphis and went on to star at the University of Memphis and in the NBA, said he didn?t know when construction of the 100,000-square-foot, seven-court basketball complex might begin.
?Right now, it?s not realistic,? Hardaway said, adding that they need more partners and no timeline has been set for beginning, or completing, the estimated $20 million project.
Leigh Fox, president of Gameday, said she expects they will know more about investors? costs and the timeline in the next 90 days.
?We?re not there yet,? she said. ?Still working through those numbers.?
Sprite/Coca-Cola?s involvement comes as part of Sprite?s national ?Spark the Park? initiative. And Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics has plans for a state-of-the-art sports medicine facility on the site.
Gameday has 10 baseball fields and has become a destination for youth baseball teams competing on a regional and national basis. Hardaway said he has the same aspirations for the basketball complex and that only Orlando and Indiana would represent serious competition for hosting major tournaments.
A study by Younger Associates found that Penny Hardaway?s FastBreak Courts could generate more than $14.5 million in annual visitor spending and directly support more than 230 jobs.
?The youth sports market is a huge part of the tourism industry,? said J. John Oros, executive vice president with the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau. ?This is an economic driver for our city ? and it keeps families together.?
Hardaway often has spoken about the important role basketball and a neighborhood Boys & Girls Club played in his development. James said a project such as this is a great way to get kids ?out of the street, away from the drugs and gangs.?
Getting kids who live in those tough neighborhoods to the Cordova basketball complex is part of the plan, Hardaway said, adding, ?It?s really only about 20 minutes from anywhere, but I know what you?re saying about Frayser and South Memphis. We?ll just have to find a way to bring them out here.?
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/nov/10/penny-takes-basketball-dream-to-cordova/
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