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A section of the 100-acre Epic Sports Park in Provo is seen Friday, June 28, 2024

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

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This undated photo shows Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi on a sod-installing machine.

Courtesy Provo City

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This photo taken Friday, June 28, 2024, shows a portion of a constructed playground is shown on the land where the new Epic Sports Park is located in Provo.

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

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Crews continue to make headway on the soon-to-be opened multiuse sports complex in west Provo.

Sodding recently has been completed on more than half of the planned 21 turf grass fields at the new Epic Sports Park, while construction of the playground, parking lot and other features of the 100-acre park is currently underway.

Provo Parks & Recreation officials say plans are on track for the park to open sometime in September; an exact date could be announced before the end of July. “We should have the restrooms completed as well as the rest of the fencing, curb and sidewalk all established, and then we’ll finish up by paving the side of the roadway leading into the park,” Doug Robins, Provo’s director of parks and recreation, told the Daily Herald.

When the park ultimately opens, 15 full-size fields will be available for a variety of sports including soccer, lacrosse, rugby and flag football ,to name a few. The remaining six fields and 45 pickleball courts are slated to open sometime in 2026.

Touted as the second-largest planned sports complex in the nation, the Epic Sports Park, is located adjacent to the airport with close proximity to Interstate 15 and downtown Provo. It’s expected to draw local athletes and spectators as well as visitors from across the country.

In fact, there’s a handful of sporting events already booked for the new complex.

“We have two major tournaments this fall and then we start up again in April with another two,” Rylin Patterson, Epic Sports Park manager at Provo Parks & Recreation, told a group of city leaders, stakeholders and downtown business operators at a lunch meeting June 20.

The sporting events may bring as many as 125 teams to Provo and Utah County, including athletes, coaches and parents who will need overnight accommodations.

Provo city leaders project the sports park could add a $40 million local economic boost annually.

“We expect that this will spark a lot of capital investment in lodging and hospitality,” Robins said. “And these are the very businesses — you know, transportation, hotel, hospitality, restaurants, retail, entertainment — (that) were hit really hard by COVID.”

However, some community members have raised concerns about lodging, claiming that Provo, Orem and other Utah County cities do not have enough hotel rooms to house all of the visitors.

There also are worries about how much water will be used for irrigation at the park.

City officials say 65,000 square feet of low-water-use landscaping will be used and claim no water will be wasted. “Water use at The Epic Sports Park will be managed by industry qualified turf managers with state-of-the-art control technology called WeatherTRAK that monitors and replaces only the actual water that is used by the turf through evapotranspiration,” Provo’s Parks & Recreation website states.

While the $20 million sports facility is anticipated to transform Provo into a regional sports hub and spike local tourism, it also will serve the 330 local teams who currently are limited to under a dozen sports fields and often have to travel to participate in tournaments. “We thought we’d flip the script and welcome families throughout the western United States to Provo, and then our local kids can host their own regional tournaments,” Robins said.