In a unanimous vote, county commissioners take a $20 million step towards building an indoor sports venue at Benderson Park.
By Ozzy Konez
Original Air Date: July 9, 2025
Host: Sarasota County committed to helping build an indoor sports arena and boathouse at Nathan Benderson Park, the suburban park with a competitive rowing facility. But how to pay for the county’s share of $20 million, at a time of tightening budgets, dropping tourism tax revenues and rising costs of borrowing? The county commission on Tuesday and Wednesday voted to shuffle tourism tax dollars, as Ozzy Konez reports.
Ozzy Konez: Construction of a new indoor sports arena at Nathan Benderson Park is inching closer.
On Tuesday, the Sarasota County Commission voted to reallocate revenues from the Tourism Development Tax to fund a new indoor sports stadium.
The five commissioners unanimously approved an amendment to the ordinance that regulates the Tourism Development Plan and the allocation of tourism tax dollars.
This amendment reduces the money allocated to tourism promotion by 4%, which is a reduction of over $2 million dollars. This money would instead be spent on sports stadium construction and maintenance across the county. The county also owns two spring training baseball stadiums; the indoor arena is now officially tapping into tourism tax funding as well.
As a result of that shuffle, the share of tourism tax dollars spent on stadiums rises from 16 to 21%. That comes at the expense of tourism marketing and promotion for this area, which drops from 21 to 16%.
The total estimated construction cost of the project is between $60 and 70 million, $20 million of which comes from the Tourism Development Tax.
Rendering of the south side of the arena building, which faces the water.
Benderson Development funded the design and pledged to contribute 20% of construction costs, with the remaining money coming from fundraising by the entity that manages the park.
Commissioner Teresa Mast emphasized the importance of coming up with a financial plan, but there were no further discussions this Tuesday or Wednesday.
The proposed indoor arena is planned to cover 85,000 square feet of playing surface which can be used for basketball, volleyball, and pickleball courts as well as wrestling mats. That’s both for use by residents and competitive events. The plans also include a boathouse, performance center and rental shop.
In May, Nathan Benderson Park selected WJ Architects to carry the project through completion.
Terry Galvin, a long-time volunteer for the rowing operations, is concerned about the indoor arena. In an op-ed published by the Herald-Tribune, he said that the island is already overflowing with guests during watersports events like the 2024 US Rowing Youth National Championships.
This, accompanied by the opening of a new Mote Aquarium in 2026, would cause heavy congestion in the area. In the op-ed, he also wrote about the already broken promises made by the county.
In 2013, Galvin says they promised to build a boathouse and a grandstand with private fundraising, which never happened.
Located on an island in the regatta lake, the new venue aims to attract more sporting events.
Meanwhile, another public-private sports project has popped up. A skatepark was also proposed and strongly supported by the commissioners during the Tuesday meeting, currently proposed as a partnership between California Skateparks—a non-profit that builds skateparks—and Sarasota County.
Located east of Honore Avenue and west of I-75 near Scherer Thaxton Preserve, the park is planned to be a world-class attraction and significant tourist draw. They plan to recreate famous but no longer existing skate spots, catering to all levels of skateboarding.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger had this to say about the plan:
Ron Cutsinger
Ron Cutsinger: What a tremendous opportunity. Thank you for bringing this to us. I want to be very clear—I don’t think we’ve said this—we’ve fully funded Mr. [unintelligible] in addition to an endowment to continue to maintain and keep the park in top shape. That’s important to get out there on the record. I know we’re going to get some questions about that, but I could not be more supportive.
OK: Neither the total cost of the project, nor whether the county would cover construction or maintenance cost, is known at this point.
Reporting for WSLR News, this is Ozzy Konez.
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