On Monday, Duluth City Council passed a resolution authorizing $380,000 for Iowa-based group RDG Planning and Design to create an athletic venues plan for the city.

“They’re going to do a needs assessment to make sure that we’re building the right quantity of athletic facilities for the right people, and then come back to us with recommendations,” said Duluth Indoor Athletic Venues Task Force Chair Todd Fedora. “It’s nice to see. It shows a commitment on behalf of the city that we are going to move forward.”

Ten facilities made the top priority list for sports tourism value and an exceptional amount of deferred maintenance.  

“Take, for example, historic Wade Stadium.  Much of it was renewed about a decade ago, but the stadium building itself, the brickwork, the roof is remarkably porous to water and in a way that really diminishes the value of that facility for hosting our teams and hosting visitors,” said Jim Filby Williams, the Director of Property, Parks, and Libraries.

In addition to current facilities needing repair, there is also a need for more fields with a wide variety of sports being played in the Twin Ports, such as Ultimate Frisbee. 

“Oftentimes there just aren’t fields available,” said Duluth Ultimate Community Board President Ben Nicklay. “Duluth lacks spaces with multiple fields so that you can have multiple games going on at the same time, which really helps us when our leagues get going with many teams to have that same space to play on.” 

The final phase of the nearly $36 million investment will be in creating a new indoor multi-purpose facility. 

“With more indoor venues, we’d be able to offer programming year-round,” explained Nicklay. “Right now, we’re basically limited to spring through fall basically. We can play outdoors. So if we had winter spaces, we’d be able to do a winter league. We’d be able to potentially do winter tournaments that bring in players from all over the region.”

The following is the preliminary slate of projects for Phases I-III:

• Phase I (tentative year 2024)
  • Wade Stadium Building
  • Spirit Mountain Nordic Center
  • Gary New Duluth Skate Park
  • Enger Park Golf Course
  • Phase II-III planning/design
• Phase II (tentative years 2025-36)
  • Lake Park Athletic Complex
  • Portman Athletic Complex
  • Arlington Athletic Complex
  • Duluth Heights Athletic Complex
  • Wheeler Athletic Complex
  • Wade Stadium Athletic Complex
• Phase III (tentative years 2027-29)
  • New or renewed Indoor Athletic Venues