This story is appearing simultaneously in StetNews.org and OnGardens.org.
A proposal to rebuild the Tiger Woods-led indoor golf arena at Palm Beach State College with prefabricated metal instead of an air-inflated dome met sharp resistance Tuesday from the college Board of Trustees.
Trustees leasing 10 acres off of PGA Boulevard to the star-infused TMRW Golf League refused to immediately endorse the proposal for a metal building in place of the dome destroyed in November in high winds.
A little background: The clock is ticking on TMRW Sports Group, which has committed to broadcasting on ESPN its first match at the one-of-a-kind facility in January 2025.
But if promoters expected a quick sign-off from their landlord, the state college didn’t provide it during an hour-long discussion. Instead, trustees scheduled another meeting for next month.
PBSC Trustee Wendy Link asked college building officials to help find ways to “put lipstick on the pig.”
“I understand they have a business perspective, and they have to make this work from a business standpoint. We have to make it work from a college standpoint,” Link said. “But we’re also talking about a building that you’re saying is going to be here for 50 years. So it can’t be just a Costco box. That won’t work.”
For the first time, trustees who signed the lease in November 2022 with NexGen Sports Group, TMRW’s parent, asked about sharing in the golf league’s proceeds. The lease gave the college student training opportunities, publicity, curriculum development and shared use of the facility.
TMRW Sports also made a $1 million donation to the Foundation for Palm Beach State College.
But the lease required no rental payments.
In exchange, TMRW got a site it could build on quickly. It broke ground in February 2023 during a star-studded event featuring Gov. Ron DeSantis, with plans to open less than a year later.
Of note: State college construction is faster because it does not have to go through the scrutiny of city zoning and permitting.
“Yesterday, we discussed a little bit about the part of the lease agreement about the revenue-sharing,” board Chairwoman Patrice Bishop said, referring to a private meeting with TMRW Sports partner Mike McCarley. “Have you given any more thought about how we might approach that or make some changes?”
“We’ve asked our team about what that could look like,” McCarley replied. “But you know that this building is considerably more expensive than the previous building. … So I think there’s the reality of cost and the reality of expenses.”
A college report last year put the cost of the original building at $11 million. With the new approach, that number rose to $50 million in a report submitted to the trustees this month.
Those figures don’t include $30 million worth of technology that will be added to create the indoor golf course, a TMRW spokesman said
