LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The big question when the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center was announced in Louisville's west end's Russell Neighborhood was this: "Who is going to come compete there?"
Turns out, just about everybody. The center announced Tuesday morning that it will play host to a record number of events in the coming indoor track season, including some major return engagements like the 2025 ACC indoor championships.
It's one of four major collegiate events coming to the facility, along with the KHSAA indoor championships and more than 40 other youth, high school and college meets.
The season will conclude with seven consecutive championship meets of various levels. In all, it's a 25% increase in bookings, which speaks not only to the quality of the track facility itself but to the leadership and management that has earned a quick reputation for putting on these large and sometimes complicated athletic events to positive reviews from the track and field community.
"This venue is one of the best in the world," said University of Louisville track coach Joe Franklin, whose team will open the season in the facility in a meet against Texas and Kentucky. "I've been lucky enough to have been associated with USA championships and NCAA championships over the last decade, and this venue, truly, is one of the best in the world."
For Sadiqa Reynolds and those who fought hard to establish, raise money and eventually shepherd the facility into being nearly four years ago, it's validation of their vision and of the work that has been put into promoting and marketing the venue.
"We have had unbelievable responses to the facility," Reynolds said. "When the ACC was here before — I don't think this is a secret, and I hope not, because I'm about to tell it — they they really wanted to almost immediately rebook the facility because there was a conflict with another location, but we could not do it because we were already booked. Over and over again, we see people not only coming but coming back. And that's whether it's track, gymnastics, cheerleading, galas. People not only want to be here, but they want to come back."
The facility will play host to the ASUN indoor championships as well as those of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the NAIA Midsouth Conference indoor championships.
The high school state championships, which are run in three classes over three days and is another event making a repeat appearance at the complex, is a major outreach with athletes and families from around the state coming to downtown Louisville, often surprised at what they find.
"I'll never forget a family from Pikeville who said 'We want to come here every year,'" Reynolds said.
Greg Fante of the Louisville Sports Commission said, "I would be lying if I did not tell you that I stand here a little emotional, a little humbled to have the level of indoor track that's going to take place in this facility. It's the culmination of a longtime vision and belief of a core group of people who would not take the word no as an answer."
Jim Vargo, director of track and cross country at Bellarmine, said the reputation of the facility made it an easy sell to the ASUN Conference, which has signed a deal with the venue to run for at least the next three years.
"This wonderful venue is much more than an indoor and outdoor track and field complex," Vargo said. "It is a beacon of what can be accomplished with a vision, determination and perseverance, the same characteristics that we as coaches and administrators try to live by and try to instill in our student athletes. One of the core principles of the ASUN Conference is service to others in communities in which we live. It's only fitting that this facility would be the home for the ASUN championships."
For Reynolds and the facilities board of directors and employees, as well as many in the west end and its neighborhoods, the venue is about much more than sports.
It has earned national attention from the track and field community, most recently in a long piece by Runner's World magazine, which titled its story, "The Track That Louisville Built."
More than once, Louisville had to be brought kicking and screaming to the idea. But Reynolds can handle a little kicking and screaming.
"Sports are wonderful, but at the end of the day, a lot of people aren't going pro," Reynolds said. "But I'm telling you what they're not doing. They're maybe not having babies too early, maybe they're staying in school a little bit longer, maybe they're getting less disciplinary actions in school. I've always said, track is the greatest equalizer. You can do all these other sports. Track is a foundational sport. Track helps women graduate. Look at the statistics of who runs and who graduates. What I love about track teams is the size of the teams. They can be unlimited. ...I know it's just sports. I know how some people feel, but I know what I'm doing. I'm in here changing the world just a little bit at a time."
One disappointment is that there isn't more development surrounding the facility. The hoped-for economic boost to the west end has been slower in coming than anyone would like. In that, this facility isn't alone. Lynn Family Stadium was built for soccer right in Louisville's downtown, and only this week announced a major round of planned development around it. That announcement came four years after the building of the stadium, and its location gives it a great many advantages over the track and field complex in the west end, politically, financially and otherwise.
But Reynolds is undaunted. She touts the 10,000 hotel nights for the city just from December to March that the facility will generate. She notes that just the major events will generate $5.5 million for the local economy, not to mention the social impacts of smaller events. Fante estimates that the overall local economic impact from the facility since its opening has been $40 million.
"Four years ago, you would have been standing on contaminated land in the west end," Reynolds said. "Nobody had a plan. There was nothing happening. We had zero dollars and we announced that we wanted to build a $53 million sports complex. We did it. We did it in record time, and now we're setting more records, and not just in Louisville and not just in Kentucky, but across this country. We are known as one of the best and the fastest tracks in the world."
Still, they all are hoping – and more importantly, working, for more. Reynolds wants investment for a hotel near the property. And all hear the complaints of local residents that they want more opportunities to integrate with events there, even as a great many already are benefitting from those.
"We wanted to create a world class sports facility, but more than anything, we wanted to create a catalyst for economic growth and change in this community, and we have more than delivered on that," said Lyndon Pryor, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League. "At the same time, I recognize that people will ask, particularly folks in the west end that has been disinvested and ignored for so long, will still ask the question about, well, what does it mean for us here in the community? And I want to make sure that people are aware that things are happening far beyond just the sports here."
Pryor listed of community events from Small Business Saturdays, to the decision of Norton's to build a hospital in the west end, to the YMCA on West Broadway.
"There is nobody who is more impatient about development and progress for the west end than Sadiqa Reynolds, and I am right behind her," Pryor said. "And so we are doing everything that we can to ensure that this community gets exactly what it needs and what it deserves moving forward. We are going to continue to host community events here. On Friday, we'll be hosting our annual luncheon, as we do every year. We'll host our Derby gala in the spring, and there will be tons of other events. We've had healing days. We've had suicide prevention retreats here. We hold classes for our construction program right here in this building. We've done youth development programs, all sorts of things for this community, and we will continue to do those, and we will continue to grow those. And so we are thankful for what this venue has done thus far, and we are excited for the future."
A list of scheduled events for the facility is below:
- Commonwealth Classic: Dec. 7, 2024
- Louisville Opener (University of Louisville): Dec. 11, 2024
- TFC USA Pre-Indoor Nationals: Jan. 4, 2025
- Rod McCravy Memorial Invitational (University of Kentucky): Jan. 10-11, 2025
- Bellarmine Open: Jan. 17, 2025
- MLK Weekend Invite: Jan. 18-19, 2025
- JCPS High School Indoor All Comers Meet #1: Jan. 22, 2025
- PNC Bank Bellarmine Classic: Jan. 24, 2025
- Louisville Indoor Games: Jan. 25, 2025
- Southeast Showdown: Jan. 26, 2025
- JCPS Middle School Indoor Indoor Meet #1: Jan. 27, 2025
- JCPS High School Indoor All Comers Meet #2: Jan. 29, 2025
- PNC Lenny Lyles Invitational (University of Kentucky): Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, 2025
- JCPS Middle School Indoor Indoor Meet #2: Feb. 3, 2025
- JCPS High School Indoor All Comers Meet #3: Feb. 5, 2025
- Eastern Indoors: Feb. 7-8, 2025
- JCPS Middle School Indoor Indoor Meet #3: Feb. 10, 2025
- JCPS High School Indoor All Comers Meet #4: Feb. 12, 2025
- Mid-South Conference Indoor Track Championships: Feb. 13, 2025
- KTCCCA Weekend President's Day Invite: Feb. 15-16, 2025
- JCPS Middle School Indoor Indoor Meet #4: Feb. 17, 2025
- SIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships: Feb. 20-21, 2025
- KTCCCA Middle and Elementary Indoor State Championships: Feb. 22, 2025
- High School Classic: Feb. 23, 2025
- JCPS Middle School Indoor Indoor Track & Field City Championships: Feb. 24, 2025
- ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championship: Feb. 27-28, 2025
- ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship: March 1-3, 2025
- KHSAA Indoor Track & Field State Meets: March 4-6, 2025
- HBCU Championship: March 7-8, 2025
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