by Stephen C. Picou
Can Opelousas Afford to Spend Millions on Sports?
Opelousas faces a daunting future as funds for food, health care, housing, infrastructure, and education are expected to dwindle. It’s time for the city to batten down the fiscal hatches and prepare for future challenges, starting with paring down plans to turn South City Park into a high-end sports complex.
The Opelousas Downtown Development District (ODDD) is to be commended for its efforts to upgrade sports facilities in South Park. The all-volunteer seven-member board invested substantial time and money and arrived at an ambitious Conceptual Master Plan that transforms the park into a modern team sports playground.
However, it’s unlikely that many people have seen the details because the plans aren’t posted online for public review and input. So don’t feel bad if you’re unfamiliar.
The proposed first phases include stadium upgrades that call for paving several acres of green space to install impermeable, toxic, heat—and injury-inducing artificial turf and constructing a new multipurpose gym large enough to accommodate two full-size basketball courts. The football stadium updates incorporate a new regulation running track and numerous facility improvements.
Construction bids for the stadium ranged from eight to twelve million dollars. The multipurpose gym is yet to be bid, but is estimated to cost another three to five million dollars. Thus, the two facilities’ total cost ranges from eleven to seventeen million dollars.
If completed, either project would be the largest non-infrastructure public investment in Opelousas’s history.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, a thirteen-member body legally responsible for overseeing all aspects of park management, has been unappointed since 2019. Thus, too few people contributed to the development of the plans.
The City of Opelousas and ODDD are eager to spend on these minimally researched plans, not only without the oversight of a Parks and Recreation Commission but without conducting thorough feasibility studies on operational, staffing, and long-term maintenance costs, park user surveys, or assessing potential demand and unintended pitfalls.
The ODDD website says its mission is “serving as a catalyst for economic growth and development in Downtown Opelousas” and that it will “plan and develop the designated commercial district to its potential, through economic development and historic preservation.” Dedicating more than a decade of ODDD’s anticipated sales tax revenue to high school sports-oriented park improvements during these uncertain times is a departure from that mission and from the city-adopted Downtown Master Plan. As it stands, this investment could lead to future financial stress for decades to come.
Thanks to the new tax codes set by the Louisiana Legislature, in 2025, the top sales tax rate in the special taxing districts of Opelousas will hit an astronomical 11.75%, one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation. The big question is why the ODDD focuses so much of its time and future revenue on South Park and not on the business corridors it’s taxing and designed to help.
We could save millions by working with the existing stadium, professionally restoring the natural turf field, and updating the scoreboard, lighting, lockers, and general facilities. Additionally, we should identify long-term funding strategies to establish a system for better field maintenance.
To put it plainly, for a poor community with crumbling infrastructure and struggling schools to invest future sales tax revenue in multimillion-dollar, limited-access amateur sports facilities that require the demolition of historic structures and the loss of green space is an unlikely path to community economic prosperity.
Parks should serve all people, no matter their age or infirmity. The parks and people of Opelousas deserve investment, but first, the Parks and Recreation Commission should be reinstated to ensure the development of transparent and equitable plans that benefit everyone.
The ODDD is focused on South Park at the city’s behest. Now that you’ve learned more about these plans, how would you direct the spending of millions of your sales tax dollars? Now is the time to let the mayor, council, and ODDD know.
Stephen C. Picou
Opelousas, LA
