Celebration Pointe, Gainesville's literal one-stop shop for everything from places to live, shops, entertainment, and dining, is opening a new sports complex in January 2023.
Sports have the ability to bring people together to reach a common goal and having beautiful facilities only make that possibility more enticing. This 130,000-square-foot facility is planned as a multipurpose event center. Whether you're here for a cheerleading competition, a track meet, or just to play a rousing round of pickleball, the new Alachua County Sports & Events Center at Celebration Pointe has you covered.
Conveniently located just off of I-75, the Alachua Sports Complex is the latest community-building effort from Alachua County and Visit Gainesville Alachua County, the purpose of which is to provide anything you could ever need in one convenient location. The Alachua County Sports Complex is operated by RaddSports, which is a sports-development company hoping to bring amateur sports to local communities. It boasts 13 basketball courts, 18 volleyball courts, 21 pickleball courts, and an indoor banked track in its floor plan. According to WCJB, a local news affiliate covering North Central Florida, the building's unique and innovative building technique allows for maximum space to even fit an NCAA-regulated indoor track.
This building has nearly 100,000 square feet of open space and multipurpose flooring, making it the perfect complex for sports and other events around the area. Typically, events like these would have been housed solely at the O'Connell Center on the University of Florida campus, which had its own renovation a few years ago. Now, there is another multipurpose event center in town, creating an opportunity for new events as well as existing ones to thrive in Gainesville. Of course, the O'Connell Center will still be the main location for Gator Athletics and other University of Florida departments, but having this new complex nearby allows for more event space for others outside of the O'Connell Center's purview to come to Gainesville to showcase their events.
The first track and field event scheduled for January 13-15, 2023 is the Jimmy Carnes Indoor Track & Field Invitational. Currently, there are several indoor track events planned for February, including the Florida University Invitational on February 9-10. This event promises to host several collegiate teams as well as intercollegiate athletes. In addition to this event, the center will host the Celebration Pointe Indoor Classic on February 2-3, the Florida/Georgia Challenge on February 4-5, the Florida Indoor Championship on February 11-12, and the Florida Collegiate Last Chance Qualifier on February 16th. These events will be the first events held in the newly constructed center and will showcase the center's NCAA regulation indoor track, the only one of its kind in the lower Southeastern USA. It will be the first opportunity for athletes and fans alike to get a look at the new facility up close.
Moreover, the complex hopes to "change the culture of sports one athlete at a time," according to its website. The plan is for the complex to provide an equal opportunity for anyone who wants to participate in sports and to give them access to a beautiful and well-equipped facility to help them engage in sports they've always wanted to play. The complex will also have several event spaces for anyone looking to host an event in this central location, and according to their calendar, there are plenty of openings for the spring and summer. Take advantage of this unique opportunity by hosting your upcoming event in one of Gainesville's newest and centrally located event spaces.
Hotel ELEO at the University of Florida is about a ten-minute drive from the new sports complex.