The prospective sale of Franklin’s A-Game Sportsplex – or at least its continued use as a sports facility – gained some momentum on Wednesday.
One of the buildings’ sports tenants, Alliance Volleyball Club, reached an agreement with current owners Sports Land Group LLC that will allow the club to return to the sportsplex on a short-term basis starting on Thursday, according to a joint statement.
Any ultimate sale of the property at 215 Gothic Court in Cool Springs needs to resolve a legal dispute between SLG and its tenants, Alliance and MDG Management. The two organizations were left without facilities to operate in when the Sportsplex closed its doors in February of this year in anticipation of a sale that ultimately fell through.
After two weeks of shutdown in February, A-Game allowed the groups to return until the end of March.
The new “short-term, interim” agreement allows Alliance, barred from using the facility since March 31, to resume activities at the sportsplex. It is a separate agreement between SLG LLC and Alliance, with no official involvement by prospective buyer Brookside Properties or MDG Management.
“Alliance is excited for the opportunity to re-enter the building,” Jeff Wismer, Alliance executive director, said. “We are thankful that SLG, the ownership group at A-game, was able to reach an agreement with us. Both parties feel like this is mutually beneficial for our community, and we are excited to get in and start our programming with our Sunday Skills Clinics.”
The agreement does not resolve the ongoing lawsuit against SLG by Alliance and MDG.
MDG Management, which runs a youth hockey club, has not reached an agreement, but Brad Buzda, one of its leaders, is moving forward without expectations.
“We are skating at Centennial Sportsplex now and moved our physical location to Boost Fit Club on Vaughns Gap Road,” he said.
MDG Management, according to Guzda, maintains that its lease is valid and its lawsuit will continue.
“To me, my lease is getting longer, even since you can’t count the time since the spring,” he said. “It has to get worked out at some point. It’s too valuable a piece of property to sit there like that.”
SLG tore up the facility’s two ice rinks in the spring before Al. Neyer, an Ohio-based developer, backed out of a $16-million deal to buy the property and convert it to an office complex.
The maintenance of the ice, especially, was cited by SLG in the lawsuit brought by MDG and Alliance as one of the reasons for deciding to shut down and sell, despite more than a year remaining on both tenants’ leases. SLG claimed to be losing $72,000 per month on the facility, according to court files.
Alliance’s lease runs through September 2017 and MDG’s through December 2019. Both were signed in the summer of 2015, a short time before news broke that SLG had entered into discussions with Al. Neyer.
A messy legal battle followed. In March, a tentative agreement was reached with a payout – reported as $1 million by SLG – to the clubs coming from the prospective sale in return for dropping the suit and their leases. However, when Al. Neyer backed out in May, citing the property as toxic due to community backlash, the situation returned to square one.
Brookside, working quietly behind the scenes with the clubs and SLG, entered into negotiations in late June, as reported at the time.
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