House of Sports, a 120,000-square-foot indoor athletics facility located just off the Saw Mill River Parkway in Ardsley, opened Sept. 12, capping weeks of intense preparations and finishing touches.
The massive complex, owned and operated by Elm Street Sports Group L.L.C., includes an 80-yard turf field, four basketball courts, a 40-yard running track, batting cages, fitness rooms, and spaces for a restaurant, day care center and party rooms, representing the culmination of an 18-month, $21 million project.
The opening also comes as House of Sports prepares to mount a legal challenge to a proposal by Game On 365 L.L.C. to construct a $6.9 million, 94,000-square-foot indoor sports facility less than three miles away in Hartsdale.
With a training staff comprising what CEO Donald Scherer described as “some of the leading coaches in the world,” House of Sports is already drawing interest from teams and individual families located across the Tri-State Area and from as far as Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.
“We are seeing kids come in and register for about a 30- or 40-mile radius,” Scherer said. “While a large portion of our business will certainly come from Westchester, we are absolutely a regional facility.”
Scherer added that teams from up and down the East Coast have inquired about the facility.
The opening was delayed from Sept. 10 after Con Edison experienced delays in linking the facility to power lines, due to the utility being tied up by storm-related repairs the weekend of Sept. 8.
Elm Street Sports Group initially purchased the property for $4 million in March 2011, with construction costs totaling another $17 million.
Within five days of opening registrations, more than 800 children had signed up for various sessions and classes, Scherer said.
The influx of athletes will be a boon to Ardsley businesses, Scherer predicted.
“People will come here and spend the day. If you”™re here for five hours for a tournament, you”™re going to need some place to go. People are going to frequent these businesses,” he said.
House of Sports is wasting no time in getting its programs underway: already, a 40-team basketball tournament was scheduled for Sept. 15 and 16, and Scherer said the facility would offer free clinics through Oct. 9 “so people can see what our space is like and experience our coaching staff.”
“It”™s a win-win for the business community, who gets an influx of potential customers,” Scherer said, adding that traffic shouldn”™t become an issue because the building is located away from the center of Ardsley.
He said House of Sports has already hired 75 full-time employees, with plans to increase the staff to 120 full-time and 80 part-time employees by the end of the year.
“And that”™s the kind of stuff that changes things,” Scherer said, referring to the local job market.
House of Sports has been a vocal opponent of the Game On 365 proposal, which was recently approved by the Greenburgh Town Board pending a town-wide voter referendum.
Scherer said the proposal, under which the town of Greenburgh would lease the 6.89-acre former Frank”™s Nursery site on Dobbs Ferry Road to Game On 365, violates a long-standing county law that would require the town to sell any land acquired via tax foreclosure to recoup any losses.
“We identified for the town of Greenburgh that there is a specific law on the books, a county law, that does not allow them to lease the property to a third party,” Scherer said. “It”™s a county law, it”™s been on the books forever, it”™s a valid law.”
Scherer said House of Sports and Elm Street Sports Group does not currently have any legal action pending against the Game On 365 proposal, but said the group wouldn”™t hesitate to act if the town does not reverse course.
“There will be multiple lawsuits and this decision will be overturned,” he said.
