MERIDIAN, Idaho — This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
A new sports center could be coming to Meridian, if voters want it.
The fate of the sports center lies on an auditorium district making it to the November 2025 ballot and passing with a simple majority, according to Sean Evans, the CEO of the Meridian Chamber of Commerce.
Auditorium districts are not new to the Treasure Valley. Most recently, Nampa voters approved an auditorium district with a 61.1% majority, giving the city funds to supplement running Nampa-owned venues, like the Civic Center and Ford Idaho Center, reducing the use of property taxes/taxes from community members.
“Auditorium districts are tools that local areas can implement in order to get some tax dollars,” Evans said. “I use the word tax very, very lightly because when you say the word tax, everyone thinks, ‘oh, it’s going to impact me locally.’”
But an auditorium district is paid for by visitors, Evans said, through a 5% tax on hotel stays within the district boundaries.
According to Evans, a study the chamber had done showed that, based on the revenue from hotels within the district boundaries in 2023, the tax would generate $2.2 million annually. According to Evans, addressing the cost of the center and timeline for its build is something the chamber will address in the future, but not now.
According to the Chair of the Auditorium District effort, Ashley Squyres, who has been involved with this project since 2013, the cost of the center is unknown but will be predicted once the district is established and the city’s board of commissioners has a chance to do a deeper dive into the facility specifics.
“We understand through Visit Boise that indoor recreation is the No. 1 loss leader in their tourism efforts,” Squyres said. “This will bring additional meeting room options for the community along with the ability for Meridian high schools to actually hold their graduations in Meridian rather than traveling to either Boise or Nampa. Per our study, it is anticipated to bring $25 million in economic impact to the Meridian community.”
Meridian’s auditorium district would be much different from Nampa’s, because the district in Meridian would be funding a new venue build instead of an already existing venue.
“Our end goal is to build a facility big enough to where we become a destination for indoor sports activities, basketball tournaments, volleyball tournaments, cheer competitions, dance competitions, you name it,” Evans said. “If it’s a large tournament, they need a large indoor space, and that’s flexible enough to where it can be changed based on what sport is coming in.”
Meridian Mayor Robert Simison has discussed the efforts to put an auditorium district on ballots in order to secure funding for a sport event center, most recently during his State of the City address in June.
“Imagine having a place for your kids and grandkids to have sports tournaments in Meridian so you don’t have to travel,” Simison said during his speech. “Or imagine watching your son or daughter walking across a stage in Meridian as they receive their diploma, rather than traveling to another city like I did this past weekend. Efforts are underway to create the Auditorium District of Meridian that would provide funding for a multi-sport event center.”
Once the auditorium district is on the ballot, it will need a simple majority of voters living within the district boundaries to pass — the district is bound by Fairview Avenue and train tracks that sit between Black Cat Road and Meridian Avenue, Eagle Road, McDermott Road and Victory Road.
If the auditorium district is passed, a sports facility unlike any others that exist in the Treasure Valley will be built in Meridian. The location of the auditorium will be determined by the Auditorium District of Meridian board members.
“The committee and the chamber would like to see it somewhere located along the interstate corridor, just for ease of access and infrastructure availability for all these people that are going to possibly be coming in for events, activities, tournaments and things at the facility,” Evans said.
While there are concept plans for the build, there is no set blueprint right now, Evans said. However, the sports center will need to hold eight basketball courts, Evans said.
“There’s no facility in the valley or in the state that can hold that size of a sports event,” Evans said.
Right now though, the focus has been on gathering enough signatures to get the auditorium district on the ballot, Evans said. So far, they’ve gathered around 500 signatures — about a third of the needed 1,500 signatures. Typically, volunteers for the chamber go door to door within the district boundaries to collect signatures, but they’ve taken a break for the holidays, Evans said. Efforts to collect signatures will continue in January, but people can also request the chamber to come by their homes by filling out an online form at meridianauditoriumdistrict.org.
