Deltona stadium land deal considered

DELTONA — Allen Johnson says he could combine the football fields at Deltona, Pine Ridge and University high schools “and you still wouldn’t have a complete stadium.”

As Deltona High’s head football coach, he doesn’t like admitting facilities are an impediment to success, but the Wolves’ record — no winning seasons since 2007 — would suggest otherwise.

That’s why he is enthused about new talk of the city building a stadium, possibly on land donated by the Volusia County school district. Deltona city commissioners have begun hashing out the idea, which has additional legs because of the support of Dr. John Hill, a School Board member.

“We have so many Pop Warner and AAU leagues in Deltona, it’s a great need,” Johnson said Friday. “Most of the parks in Deltona were designed for baseball and soccer.”

The concept is far from a done deal. Commissioners have clashed over how exactly to proceed, but the interim city manager, Dale Baker, wrote a letter to Volusia schools Superintendent Tom Russell formally asking the board to consider donating a 40-acre site near Howland Boulevard to Deltona.

Under a plan Hill emailed to Brian Soukup on May 19, the school district would give Deltona the land under the condition that the city build a municipal stadium available to Deltona and Pine Ridge high schools, although officials say that could also be made available to University High School in Orange City, where boosters are attempting to raise funds for their own stadium. The schools would pay the city no more than $500 to rent the stadium for a 10-year period, and would keep gate sales, parking fees and a percentage of the concessions.

Also, Hill said the schools would make their high school and middle school gymnasiums and other facilities available to the public for “city-approved events,” such as recreation leagues.

Hill said the five-member School Board has not yet discussed the concept.

“In my mind, if we have property over there that we’re not going to use to build a school on, it’s an asset,” Hill said in an interview Friday. “How can we work with the city of Deltona in a means that’s good for both Deltona and the schools themselves?”

To Soukup, the former athletics director at Trinity Christian High School in Deltona, sports can bring pride, which opens up other possibilities.

“I know the power of it and what it can mean to a community and a school system,” he said. “The whole goal ... is to use this facility, this complex as a driving force for economic development in our city.”

The School Board land abuts another 40-acre site that developer Dennis Casey has been marketing to the city for years.

Some commissioners have expressed interest in putting the two parcels together and having enough land to expand the complex to include a civic center and other park facilities.

Earlier, at a May 11 City Commission workshop, Soukup said he had met with Hill, state Rep. David Santiago and Volusia County Councilman Fred Lowry. All were favorable and vowed to look for additional funding sources, Soukup said.

Deltona Mayor John Masiarczyk and commissioners Chris Nabicht and Mitch Honaker have joined Soukup in voicing support for a stadium. They see it as a catalyst for other good things in Deltona, a bedroom community that collects fewer than 10 percent of its property taxes from commercial businesses.

“There’s great potential for an economic engine in that Howland corridor,” Nabicht said. “I’ve had many conversations with businesspeople who think (a stadium-recreation complex is) an excellent economic driver out there.”

Supporters envision a facility that can attract not just high school football, but youth football and soccer championships, as well as intercollegiate soccer. Bethune-Cookman University President Edison Jackson recently announced a plan to start men’s and women’s soccer teams and play in Deltona.

But there are many hurdles, particularly in Deltona, a city with many other needs.

Vice Mayor Nancy Schleicher signaled opposition, while Commissioners Diane Smith and Heidi Herzberg expressed concerns that the stadium talk was getting ahead of their desire to take a more comprehensive look at Deltona’s needs, including a new community center, road repairs, water and sewer improvements and other economic-development initiatives.

“I don’t want something that’s going to cost residents $25 million,” Herzberg said. “I want a clear financial framework of what a stadium and sports complex entails.”

Smith, who previously served on the School Board, said she thinks it’s premature to request the property when the City Commission has yet to meet with new City Manager Jane Shang and map out a strategy for all of its residents’ needs.

“We don’t know if our citizens want a municipal stadium,” Smith said. “It’s so early in the process to be out there asking for the donation.”

The mayor acknowledged Deltona has many needs, but said the stadium concept fits into a vision that can work.

Masiarczyk and Soukup have said acquiring both plots would give Deltona enough land to build not only a stadium, but an entire complex with a new Civic Center and possibly other ballfields.

“We can do something historic, really, in Deltona,” Masiarczyk said.