When Steve Burton was working at the Sleep Diagnostic Center Chicago more than 20 years ago, he never dreamed he would be at the helm of a multimillion-dollar Olympic training facility in Chesterfield County.
But after making millions selling analytical software in the health-care industry, Burton is breaking ground on a $175 million project to bring obscure sport facilities (and some normal ones) to Richmond.
The 54-year-old businessman, a graduate of Thomas Dale High School and the College of William and Mary, is chief executive and chairman of SportsQuest, the proposed 250-acre sports complex at the intersection of the Powhite Parkway and Route 288.
BizSense caught up with Burton to find out how the project came together and why he thinks it will work.
Below is an edited transcript.
Richmond BizSense: So how did you end up getting into the sports world?
Steve Burton: A friend of mine and I and a couple other guys in Richmond decided to purchase the ice rink in town, and that got me engaged in a sports program. Then we started a very high level of interest in short track speed skating. I saw that in the 2002 Olympics and thought it was a great sport. We started a training program that year from scratch. In 2008, we were national champions.
Just last week we placed two skaters on the 2010 winter Olympics [team].
RBS: Where did the idea for the SportsQuest campus come from?
SB: Basically it was in 2004 or 2005, we started getting on the radar of the national governing body for U.S. speed skating, and I was asked to be the chairman of sports development. I chaired that for a couple of years, and it exposed me to the Olympics at an intimate level.
I marveled at how they would spend tens of millions to develop athletic facilities and limit them to 50 or 60 athletes, and the rest of the time were tourist attractions. The most prominent is the one in Colorado Springs. A number of other ones are scattered across the country.
So I had an idea we could offer something very special like that, but not only offer Olympic training but add venues for competition and also expand programming. So its not just high performance athletes, but also recreation leagues and youth development teams and you can join it just like a fitness center.
RBS: How is the project being financed?
SB: It’s a wide range of financing, through a number of private ventures and partners and grants. Originally I thought we would have to build over many years with phased construction, but recently we’ve had so much support come in that we will be able to build all at once. If you think about it, today is when we really need it. This is when we have higher unemployment and people looking for work, so to put something together of this scope at this time will be great boon for Chesterfield County.
RBS: How many jobs is the campus expected to create?
SB: Five hundred people once the campus is fully built. That’s a pretty big opportunity. The immediate thing is building, over $200 million of development that’s a big shot in the arm for contractors and designers and vendors. When we can buy local, we’ve been picking local.
Now there is a need for subcontractors for everything from electrical to plumbing.
RBS: How has the current design and scope compare with what you had when you first planned the project?
SB: Originally we were looking primarily at indoor sports, and then as the community became more engaged and different people started expressing interest in the partnership, we put together resources that allowed us to add an outdoor component, add competition fields, and other elements.
RBS: You plan to offer programming in more than 25 sports. Do you think there is enough demand for that large of an offering?
SB: There is tremendous demand for lots of sports; a lot of sports are hard to find but are there. It may be a small dojo on the corner of an intersection. You don’t know it exists, but it’s there.
My inbox since this launched is full of people saying we want to do this and moved here where we used to do that. It is really one of these things where the more you learn the more you are impressed by the breadth of sports interest in our community.
It is really a shame Richmond always gets pegged as being a lousy sports town. It’s because the people like to play sports more than they want to watch them. SportsQuest is where people can spend their entertainment dollars and where people can take care of their health and wellness in one place.
RBS: Lots of sports have had a hard time gaining ground in Richmond — for example, the Renegades folding and the Braves leaving. What makes SportsQuest different?
SB: A big difference is the structure of the delivery. If you think about the typical minor league sport burdened with paying rent at a venue and bearing all the costs of an organization, that’s where our model of being the owner of the venue comes in. We have multiple teams across multiple sports. The second sport you add has only a nominal increase in expenditures.
RBS: What is the biggest challenge you have coming out of the gate?
SB: People say this is such a fantastic thing and think how could it possibly be real and be in Richmond. Helping people see it and hear the story will help to cure some of the misperceptions of what we are. Some people think because Olympics are an exciting thing, even non-sports fans get a little juiced, so the Olympic portion of our campus is getting the majority of the press. People think that’s cool and put it away and don’t realize it is a recreational space that offers family entertainment.
RBS: You recently opened a sales office. How are things going on that end?
SB: Sales are good; we have had a great experience. We have a lot of existing programs today — people can join hockey teams, figure skating, soccer, lacrosse, and indoor football. The idea is to speckle them throughout the city as a way to expose people to our programming then roll it all into the bigger campus.
RBS: And when is the campus expected to be completed?
SB: We will bring things online as they are ready. The entire thing will be done within 24 months.
Al Harris is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to Al@richmondbizsense.com.
