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Sportsplex USA celebrates 20-year partnership with Poway

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By Emily Sorensen

When Bill Berghoff came out to Poway to help out his dad with a new business venture, it was only supposed to be for a year.

“I’m still here, 20 years later,” he said this week. “It’s weird the way the world works, but I couldn’t be happier.”

This month, Berghoff and Sportsplex USA are celebrating their 20th anniversary of not only being in business, but being in a partnership with the City of Poway.

“They’ve been fantastic partners,” said Berghoff of working with the city. “The community of Poway have welcomed us with open arms.”

Sportsplex was also given an award in recognition of their 20 years of partnership with the city at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Sportsplex USA, located in the business park at 12349 McIvers Court, is a unique, jointly owned public-private partnership between Berghoff and the City of Poway. The sports park provides a safe and entertaining place to play softball and adult and youth indoor soccer, as well as viewing stands for proud parents and families, and a pub to grab a beer or a snack after the game. The sports park has three softball fields with full fences and electronic scoreboards, four slow- pitch batting cages and two indoor soccer fields, as well as a play area for children. According to Berghoff, over five million people have visited Sportsplex USA over the past 20 years.

The City of Poway owns the land Sportsplex operates on, and built the facility, which is maintained, operated and staffed by Sportsplex USA.

“This venture has been a win-win-win,” said Berghoff. “It’s a win for the city, by having complete cost avoidance and realizing a rent and several million dollars of economic impact annually; [Sportsplex] wins by having this beautiful facility to operate, and the players win by having a state-of-the-art, well-operated facility for recreation.”

The success of Sportsplex USA in Poway led to the opening in 2010 of a second facility in Santee.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Sportsplex will be having deals in its Post-Game Pub, selling draft beer for $2.50, hot dogs for $2 and burgers for $3 throughout the month of January.

The sports park won’t be resting on its laurels during its anniversary year. In February, a partnership Sportsplex has formed with seven Poway Unified School District schools will begin, which will serve as a fundraiser for the schools. Sportsplex will donate directly to the schools for each student ages 3 to 12 who signs up for Sportsplex’s Youth Soccer League. The teams will be co-ed, and Berghoff said they hope to move forward with a partnership with the entire district if the first session, which begins Feb. 1, goes well. Sportsplex runs a similar program in Santee.

“We’ll be continuing to do a bang-up job here in Poway [in 2014],” said Berghoff. “We’re looking forward to another 20 years of partnership with Poway.”

For more information on Sportsplex USA or the leagues it hosts, call 858-679-4000 or visit

www.sportsplexusa.com

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