Photo Four years ago, Ridgefield became home to a new multi-purpose sports facility — the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex. With its completion, folks from across the Northwest find themselves coming to this town that was once primarily farmland and is now a bustling community. The RORC, which is owned by the city of Ridgefield, cost around $20 million to build. The question remains: Has this huge investment been an economic boon for the growing town? “RORC was not built to make money,” said Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart. “It was built as a partnership between the city and the school district to provide field access for local kids and schools.” Today, the vast majority of its usage is for local kids, local sports and local clubs.

Even so, the complex has become a place for sports tourism with the hometown Ridgefield Raptors and the occasional youth sports tournaments that take place there. According to Stuart, 50 percent of tickets sold to Raptors games go to people from Vancouver, 33 percent are sold to people from Ridgefield and the rest are sold to people coming from outside the area. “You’re bringing people into Ridgefield who wouldn’t have come in otherwise,” said Stuart. The team is also sponsored by local businesses, which are then promoted at the ballpark. The park is owned by the city of Ridgefield, though the Ridgefield School District helps other organizations book it.

While outside organizations do pay fees to rent the facilities at the complex, Joe Vajgrt, spokesperson for the Ridgefield School District, said it is not a huge source of revenue. Still, he maintains that it is “nothing but a positive thing in our community.” For the school district, one of the primary advantages of the facility is its turf fields. “Looking at neighboring districts that don’t have turf fields — they have to constantly reschedule games because of weather,” said Vajgrt. “Having turf is a fantastic benefit.” It’s not just helpful for the school district. The turf means that games and trainings can be held at the complex even in the winter months. Because of the rainy weather in the region, grass fields are often not playable for months on end.

“For me, it’s gratifying that it’s being used all year round,” said Rob Neyer, commissioner for the West Coast League. “If you’re to spend the money, it’s nice that it’s getting used.” The Raptors are part of Neyer’s West Coast League, which also includes regional teams like the Portland Pickles and the Walla Walla Sweets. The players in the collegiate wood-bat baseball league stay with host families in their teams’ locales. Some of the teams play in public parks, while others play in college stadiums. Being in the western part of the Cascade Mountains, Neyer said he’s “very pro-turf.” The artificial grass means that players can keep playing in the rain and can play even if it had been pouring leading up to the game.

“It makes everything easier for fans,” Neyer said. Fans can expect to show up at the stadium to see a game, rather than see it pushed to the next day or well into the evening hours. That’s helpful for players, too. The Ridgefield sports complex is the only new ballpark that Neyer has seen built in the region during his five years with the league. He attended some of the early city council meetings about the construction of the complex. “It seemed to come together in a mutually beneficial way,” Neyer said. The complex was not built as an economic development project, said Stuart. The economic boost came after the idea for the field was developed to support local youth sports. But it has made an impact on the local economy.

Ashley Gurrad owns BevRidge Public at 4315 S. Settler Drive in Ridgefield. Her restaurant hosts occasional Raptor-related specials on game day. Gurrad said the complex has had a positive impact on the area. Her restaurant, which lies along one of the main routes people take to get to the complex, sees more business before and after Raptors games. “We see lots of new faces coming in from Vancouver and Battle Ground, in addition to the families that live here in town,” Gurrad said. She even sees people coming in to support the visiting teams that play. When ticketholders grab their tickets on game day, they’ll see ads and coupons from local businesses, like free chalupas from Taco Bell and buy-one-get-one wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Raptors games drive business at these places, Stuart said. And more local businesses are aiming to take advantage of the sports events at the complex. Ridgefield Main Street, an organization that encourages economic growth in the city’s historic downtown area, sponsors Main Street Moolah, which is handed out between innings at Raptors games. More than half of that ends up being spent downtown. The organization also hosts a downtown tailgating event before the Raptors games, inviting folks to come downtown for food and beverages and then take a C-Tran-sponsored shuttle up to the game. Efforts to better take advantage of the events at the sports complex are on Main Street Executive Director MaryKay Lamoureaux’s to-do list. Maps and signage are both ideas for the future.

But overall, she thinks the sports complex has been good for the community. “It’s bringing people to Ridgefield that wouldn’t otherwise come,” Lamoureaux said. She mentioned being visited by a friend whose daughter was playing soccer at the sports complex. They were coming into town from Lake Oswego. More than that, the complex gives the community a sense of pride, said Lamoureaux. “We are really proud of the Raptors,” she said, adding that the feeling extends even to the complex itself. “It’s beautiful. It’s state of the art, and we love showing it off,” Lamoureaux said. The complex has been able to host two large sports tournaments in the past 12 months, according to Stuart. He said those brought a noticeable bump in traffic at local businesses.

“What we have found is that with all of the need of our local sports clubs in our schools, there’s not a lot of additional time available for regional tournaments,” Stuart said. “And because that was our priority, that becomes the focus,” he added. So for the time being, the complex isn’t destined to be a mecca for regional sports tournaments. However, the city is working on getting lighting for two more fields, which might help extend the complex’s usage, especially in the darker months. “I think that there will be some of those opportunities that we will see more of, but I do think that there are limitations on the number of fields, the number of spaces and the number of hours in a day,” Stuart said. In the end, he says the RORC was worth the investment. It’s close to breaking even operationally, he said. And there are more opportunities for revenue in the future. “I think it’d be fair to say that it has been very well received by our community,” Stuart said.