$120 million youth sports complex could be a game-changer for Boise area
When David McMenomey traveled to Austin, Texas, for a three-day Christian business convention, he had no idea he’d be walking away with a “divine calling.”
The Meridian resident and internet marketing executive said he was asked at the convention to envision how God saw him in 20 years. McMenomey closed his eyes. “Then without warning,” he later wrote in a blog post, “I heard the two words that would change everything, ‘Youth sports.’”
Images of fond childhood memories playing sports flooded his mind, and McMenomey decided to embark on a venture: to create a massive youth sports complex in the Treasure Valley, and to do it without generating a profit.
Now, 18 months later, with the encouragement of officials in Kuna, McMenomey is moving forward on this 114-acre, $120 million vision.
According to application materials filed with the city of Kuna, McMenomey and his nonprofit, True Gritt Youth Sports, have scoped out a site on the southeast corner of Meadow View and Meridian roads.
Preliminary plans include a roughly 200,000-square foot indoor complex with eight basketball courts, a strength and agility training center, and a family-focused entertainment area with bowling and food courts.
The complex’s outdoor component is expected to include eight full-sized baseball fields with artificial turf infields, which can convert to 14 youth baseball or softball fields, or to multipurpose fields for lacrosse, soccer or flag football. Plans also include a 5,000-seat championship baseball stadium.
Also slated for the $9 million plot of land: two hotels, two restaurants and a gas station, McMenomey said.
To bring this goal to fruition, McMenomey is teaming up with “a group of dads and coaches” in the Treasure Valley, according to True Gritt’s website. The nonprofit’s management team includes Brandon Barnes, a former Major League Baseball player who coaches Little League with McMenomey.
Tournaments could draw one million visitors
The proposed complex would be designed to “handle large regional tournaments as well as draw national tournaments to the area,” McMenomey told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview.
The Meridian father said he contracted Sports Facilities Cos., a Florida planning and feasibility company, to study the demand for youth sports in the Treasure Valley. He wanted to know if a project as big as his vision would be supportable.
“To my surprise, they said we could probably handle two with how much demand is here,” he said.
The study led to his decision to emphasize basketball and baseball over other sports. It also said the complex would draw an estimated one million visitors per year.
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Tournaments would be the complex’s “bread and butter,” McMenomey said. Families now must travel often far distances for their children’s youth sports competitions, which can be costly. “It will make sports more accessible ... to have something like that here locally,” he said.
By Sports Facilities’ measure, tournament-goers would pump $26 million into the local economy in the complex’s first year by paying for lodging, food and retail. That would grow to over $52 million during the fifth year of operations.
McMenomey imagines something more: He wants the complex to be “a hub for families to want to bring their kids there and just play ... to just make sports fun again, take the pressure of high-level competition out of the picture, and let kids be themselves on the field.”
He envisions carving out two hours each weekday for open play time, pickup games and “no-pressure sports.”
He also hopes that the faith that initiated this project would find a way into the complex itself, such as through worship nights.
“This isn’t the primary use of the facility, but ... I do plan on having a faith-based component that’s accessible for the community, that’s, you know, not associated with any specific type of church or denomination,” he said.
Pitching a public-private partnership
When McMenomey met with city staff in Kuna, he said, the response was overwhelmingly positive that “our people need this.”
McMenomey said the city agreed to lease 20 acres to True Gritt for 100 years for $1. That land sits adjacent to the property along East Meadow View Road that McMenomey said True Gritt has under contract for the complex, bringing the total to 114 acres. The land is owned by the Wanner-Buckner Partnership in Eagle.
McMenomey filed the application Tuesday. It requests that the land be rezoned from agricultural to commercial uses. The applicant on file is listed as “City of Kuna/True Gritt Sports,” demonstrating McMenomey’s hope for a “public-private partnership.”
“With a large and growing youth population, the City of Kuna has long supported local sports through city-maintained parks and ball fields,” said Associate Planner Jessica Reid in an email shared with the Statesman by a city spokesperson. “Supporting a future complex just makes sense for our community and the Treasure Valley as a whole.”
Reid clarified that the agreement to lease 20 acres to True Gritt had not yet been formalized, because the plans for the complex await city approvals.
McMenomey is also interested in a possible partnership with the Kuna School District, though a spokesperson for the district said no agreements “are in the works.” The school district owns roughly 100 acres in the area, spokesperson Allison Westfall told the Statesman in an email.
The challenging road ahead
For the complex to come to fruition, McMenomey would need to raise roughly $120 million, according to preliminary plans. He said he has raised a few thousand so far.
He hopes corporate sponsorships will play a role — that companies will want to put their name on fields or buildings. Naming rights for the entire complex are up for grabs for a cool $40 million for 100 years, plans show. Partnerships ratchet down from there to personalized bricks for donations of $250 to $1,000. By comparison, ExtraMile cut an $8.4 million deal with Boise State for 15 years of naming rights over its basketball arena in 2019.
In addition to the fundraising piece, McMenomey is still working to figure out who would build the complex or the commercial component with the hotels and restaurants. “I’m open,” he said.
But first he needs approvals from the city, starting with the rezoning. Plans would be reviewed by Kuna’s Planning and Zoning Department and then City Council, where residents could weigh in during public hearings.
McMenomey is optimistic.
“I’ve never undertaken anything like this,” he told the Statesman with a laugh. “This is really big, and it’s fun ... I know it’s going to happen.”
True Gritt plans a meeting for the public to learn about the planned complex and ask questions. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, at Swan Falls High School in Kuna.
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 12:13 PM.
