Page 6 - BusinessWest February 19, 2024

The outdoor component of the complex promises to feature several fields and courts.
“Couple this need for such a facility with the fact that Holyoke is the birthplace of volleyball
and home to the Volleyball Hall of Fame, and we thought that this has to happen here — it has
to happen in Holyoke.”
be built in phases, with the first of them hopefully to be completed by the end of 2026. “The feasibility study indicates that we can draw from multiple areas and bring people to Holyoke. We’re not approaching this as a regular sports facility, but a venue that can draw regionally and from several different states.”
Garcia agreed, adding that that talk of a sports complex has been ongoing in Holyoke for many years, and it became a priority
of his administration to turn the talk into action. Doing that will require leadership and partnerships on several levels, he told Busi- nessWest, noting that Ruiz and his administration are providing the former, while the latter will involve several stakeholders, many of them still to be determined.
“I’m excited about what this sports complex could mean for the trajectory of our city,” the mayor said. “This would be a huge part of the resurgence of Holyoke.”
Court of Opinion
In that interview with BusinessWest, Garcia said Holyoke likes to “punch above its weight class.”
That’s a boxing term, obviously, now used in many different con- texts, to describe underdogs taking on heavy favorites, for example, or, in this case, a smaller community trying to take on initiatives perhaps more suited to larger municipalities.
Renovation of the historic Victory Theatre, an ongoing, 30-year initiative in this city, might fall into that category. And this sports complex certainly would as well, said Garcia, adding that it’s an ambitious undertaking, but a poignant next step for a community that has, indeed, been surging in recent years, and on many levels.
These include entrepreneurship — especially within the minor- ity population, with dozens of new businesses opening in recent years, many of them in a rebounding downtown — but also hous-
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6 FEBRUARY 19, 2024
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