Loveland Sports Park
950 N. Boyd Lake Avenue - Loveland, Colorado

Park History and Facts:
In 1998, planning began to address a shortage of youth athletic fields and facilities in Loveland.  The City’s self-directed youth athletic organizations had experienced exponential growth during the 1990’s and the fields for practices and games were not meeting the need for youth soccer, football, and baseball.  In addition, new activities including free form and in-line skating, and lacrosse were also looking for places to play.

First option to build facilities for all sports at one site was investigated and a site within close proximity to the City conducive to all sports was not available.

City staff returned to the planning process and revised plans into three phases in an effort to meet all recognized needs.
1st phase was the completion of the Centennial Baseball Park renovation in 2005.
The 2nd phase of the project is the completion of the Loveland Sports Park.
The 3rd phase will be the addition of four softball fields at the Barnes Park/Loveland Fairgrounds site.

• City purchased the 76 acre LSP site in 2003.

• Hired Design Concepts and started planning phase in September of 2003.

• Hired Loveland firm ECI Site Construction Management as CMGC in Spring of 2004.

• Completed design, bid 1st phase of the project, and started construction in August 2004.

• First phase of the project includes 55 developed acres – Phase II of the project will include development of the remaining east 21acres to include Multi-purpose/football fields and additional site amenities.

The 76 acre Loveland Sports Park is the largest park in the City of Loveland Park System
which includes 28 parks with 287 developed acres.

Design Considerations:
Located on part of the old Stroh Farms addition, the Loveland Sports Park takes it’s inspiration from Loveland’s farming culture with elements including a working windmill, stacks of hay bale like stones cut from the Arkins quarry west of town, a cherry orchard, landscaping with a farm field theme, and barn-like red tin roofs with cupolas on all site buildings.  While symbolism abounds throughout the park including landscaping, architecture, and spray park/playground design; conservation is also a major theme with the use of raw water for irrigation, bio-swales for pre-treating storm drainage, and re-cycling of water from the site from the spray park to use as irrigation for the turf. The installation of the first municipal park synthetic turf field in Northern Colorado also stands out as a response to our present drought conditions and our desire to use state-of-the-art products to make our parks useable year around.
Technology and art are incorporated into the park design as well. All irrigation systems are centrally managed by a computerized system that monitors weather conditions and turf needs, and controls the amount of water used for irrigation. The “OZmill” sculpture is moved kinetically with the wind as well as hydraulically by using a computerized controller to activate the water that spins the tornado in the middle of the sculpture. Other spray park features are controlled on a computerized timer that allows for interactive child play and maximum fun with as little water use as possible. The water from the spray park is collected and drained into the drainage system and re-used to water the turf in the park.
The park design also allows for multiple activities ongoing at the same time by separating out the major venues to different areas. The skate park is located adjacent to the maintenance facility and includes its own small parking area. All soccer fields are separated by pods with adjacent parking and support facilities located to allow for short pedestrian access rather than long hikes across the expansive park site. The pod concept also allows for scheduling of fields to maximize available space while allowing for concurrent maintenance on other pods. The Championship Field is set-up in a multi-use design that allows for soccer, lacrosse, or football and the field lights will greatly expand the seasons and times available for practice and play.

Grants and Individual Donations:
Private donations and organization grants have played a major role in making the Loveland Sports Park a reality. Just under $1 million dollars in cash, in-kind donations, services, and water rights have been donated from individuals, private foundations, and youth organizations. Local entrepreneur Gary Long donated the authentic windmill that greets visitors at the entry to the park; the Colorado Youth Soccer Association and the Thompson Soccer Association donated $16,000 to fund soccer goals for the park; the Daniels Fund donated $30,000 to help construct the undersurface of the Championship field; The Loveland Parks and Recreation Foundation donated $30,000 to fund site equipment and amenities; and the McWhinney Family and Foundation awarded a multi-year financial grant of $500,000 and water rights to the park.

Spray Park:
Based upon themes from the L. Frank Baum book “The Wonderful Land of Oz” published in 1900, the spray park incorporates multi-colored play areas and surfaces with the whimsical “OZmill” sculpture by Northern Colorado artist Tim Upham as the center piece to this interactive and entertaining playground. The playground includes the latest in water spray and computerized control systems coupled with up-to-date play structures for all ages and abilities. Designed with the “WOW” factor in mind, this fantastic new play area will soon be the most popular playground in Loveland. 
Please Note: The Spray Park utilizes treated water from all nozzles for health/safety reasons. The water then flows down to a retention pond, where it is used to irrigate the athletic fields as necessary.

SPRAY PARK SCHEDULE:
The Spray Park runs Memorial Day - Labor Day (as weather permits), 8:00am-7:00pm daily.
Periodically, it may be turned off for maintenance purposes.