O’Fallon sports park is third-most visited nature site in Illinois, according to AI study

Sports tournaments have become a reliable source of revenue for O’Fallon, and last year’s estimated economic impact is over $9.6 million in gross revenue from baseball, softball and soccer teams visiting the Family Sports Park.

By the number of visitors, the sports park to be the third most visited nature and landmark site in Illinois.

That’s the word from Parks and Recreation Director Andrew Dallner, who recently presented the 2024 study to the city council’s parks and environment committee.

“This spending drives the local economy and generates income for the city. It is the total economic impact on the O’Fallon economy and not direct revenue to the city,” he said. “It is from hotel stays, restaurants, shops, and other places the visitors frequent.”

The city is using a company called Placer.ai, location intelligence software, to find out where visitors are from, where they stay, and what they visit while in town, providing insights into consumer behavior through mobile device data.

Staff have had access to the platform for about a month. Dallner said it tracks adult users’ cell phones to gather “anonymized” information and ensures the data is privacy compliant, not tracking individuals personally.

They hope it will be an analytics tool for planning future growth and development.

“This will help us drive decision making on where and how to advertise as well as help us determine other operation decision. Budget-wise, it will help us be more strategic in our decision making,” Dallner said.

The software documented 1.575 million visitors to Sports Park in 2024, 390,000 of which were deemed “unique visitors” that stayed longer than 150 minutes. This is based on 32 tournaments being played over 36 weekends, from March 3 to Nov. 2.

Dallner said the major drivers to the facility are Greater Midwest Baseball and USSSA Softball, plus soccer teams from Metro Alliance, Gateway Rush, and St. Louis Scott Gallagher.

“However, we do fill in other weekends with additional tournament operators,” he said.

The number of visits is the same from 2023, up 9.4% from 2022, and up 25.2% from 2021.

Family Sports Park is the second most visited Nature & Landmark site, only behind the Gateway Arch National Park (1.84 million visits) within 15 minutes. It is the third most visited “Nature and Landmark Site” in Illinois behind Millenium Park (16.33 million visits), and Grant Park (14.74 million visits), both in Chicago.

People who stay overnight for tournaments and eat at local restaurants typically spend about $60 per day compared to only $10 per day if they just visit O’Fallon for the day, a study shows.

The installation of all-weather turf fields has boosted the financial gain, Dallner said, becaues it allows for fewer rainouts and gives teams the peace of mind to schedule events here.

The primary traffic drivers during the eight-month period were:

▪ St Louis Scott Gallagher, which brought $1.3 million in economic impact spread over three tournaments, with 191 local teams and 281 overnight teams participating

▪ Metro Alliance, with its $880,000 in economic impact spread over three tournaments, with 223 local teams and 123 overnight teams participating

▪ Gateway Rush, $960,000 economic impact, with two tournaments, and 144 local teams and 150 overnight teams participating.

‘These clubs are our main soccer field renters and tournament operators. The economic impact data does not include field rental fees for their tournaments or practice rental times,” he said.

Dallner said the economic impact will continue to grow because the Family Sports Park was created as a regional site for tournaments that would attract players from other states as well as nearby metro-east and St. Louis teams.

Placer.ai doesn’t track satisfaction, but he said the city has our own internal survey at the park.

“We are expanding our concession offerings, improving staff training for our workers to improve customer service, and continuing to improve our restrooms facilities through upgrades and more frequent cleanings,” he said.

The Family Sports Park at 301 Obernuefemann Road is a 200-acres sports and recreation complex that features eight lighted all-weather synthetic turf soccer fields – one a championship soccer arena — and two premium grass soccer fields, 10 turf infield/grass outfield baseball/softball fields.

It has a Splash Pad, pavilions, concessions and a 2.1-mile walking trail. A playground was added in 2022. A new parking lot on the northeast corner was finished in the fall and open for use.

Construction and expansion of the park was funded with large contributions of a 9% hotel/motel tax increase that is paid by out-of-town visitors instead of local taxpayers, city have explained since the first phases of construction in 2007.

Soccer tournaments typically take place in September, October, November, February, March, and April, with baseball and softball tournaments May - August. A lacrosse tournament was added in recent years.

Youth and adult leagues use the park for regular season play, too, but this report concentrates on the tournaments.

Dallner said the city anticipates the numbers to continue to grow.

“Our soccer and ball field renters are constantly asking for more fields,” he said. “Our staff is currently in talks about adding more tournaments to fill the soccer fields over the slower summer months, as those summer weekends typically go mostly unused since soccer is more a spring and fall sport.”

Looking ahead this year, he said there is only one open weekend remaining from the beginning of March to the beginning of November. Compared to 2024, the city has only had four open weekends in that same time frame.