Chatham County-based sports and training club SUPA (Supreme Athletics) proposed its plan to build a more than 600,000-square-foot, multi-building youth sportsplex facility during the Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners meeting on April 14.
The proposed facility features four field houses, including North Carolina’s first and only fully hydraulic banked indoor track, nine regulation-sized basketball courts (that can also be transformed into 18 regulation-sized volleyball courts), two multi-purpose turf fields and a separate arena. With plans to be built in Chatham County, the goal is to provide local youth an opportunity to participate in multiple sports while also attracting large sporting events, such as national tournaments and track meets, to the area.
SUPA, owned by Chatham County resident Latonya Brown, plans to build the facility through ECO-Living LLC, an environmentally friendly construction company owned by Brown’s husband Quincy. Latonya Brown said SUPA’s non-profit organization, SUPA Cares, will help raise funds for the project.
According to the slide show presented to the BOC, the SUPA sportsplex aims to benefit the local economy through the potential for new businesses, increased spending from attracting large events, 50-60 new jobs and the use of local vendors for building materials. SUPA is also offering a “public-private” partnership through the facility to help local schools save money on sporting expenses and to help families save on energy costs through a “community solar” program.
As for the environment, the proposed facility hopes to be a LEED Gold or Platinum certified building with its use of sustainable building materials and clean energy generation with over 4,000 roof-mounted solar panels.
“As long as this building is up and running, it will generate revenue from clean energy,” Quincy Brown said. “Meaning, I’ve been able to reduce the cost of construction through partnerships that we’ve developed with vendors.”
There’s still plenty of crucial details to be finalized, though, such as the location and the exact cost.
During the meeting, SUPA sought a resolution from the town giving its support to the project so that it could fund the project “philanthropically.”
“You can’t get the funding until you get the location,” Quincy Brown said.
Per the discussion, Pittsboro Town Manager Jonathan Franklin proposed 18 acres of town property along Moncure Pittsboro Road “on the north side of the creek,” which is only enough to build phase one of the facility (indoor track, basketball courts and parking). The rest of the facility would have to be built in other locations.
Despite Quincy Brown eventually asking for a minimum of 14 acres to build phase one, the town did not pass a resolution of support in the meeting.
“It’s been unclear what you all want from the town, and certainly, I think the county probably shares in that sentiment,” Franklin said. “I think earlier, it was asked how much this is going to cost, and we didn’t hear an answer. So, we don’t know what it’s going to cost, we don’t truly know how much land that you need. A lot of these would be very helpful in terms of like a pro forma or something that we could look at and put numbers on paper.”
Latonya Brown said the idea for the facility came about when driving her daughter Amber to Durham multiple times a week for track practice.
“I spoke with a lot of other parents in the neighborhood or in the community that have children who are athletic,” Brown said. “They found that they were driving outside of Chatham County to provide athletic services for their children. So, we came up with the idea to provide a sportsplex facility in Chatham County that would be beneficial to Pittsboro.”
SUPA, which was founded in October, already has a track club that utilizes the athletic facilities at Seaforth High School. Outside of sports performance, SUPA recently helped two of its athletes, Amber Brown and Virginia basketball signee Gabby White, sign NIL deals with sports apparel line Greatness Wins.