NEBRASKA CITY-Earlier this week, Nebraska city administrators met for their monthly hot topic meeting. In this months meeting, increasing Nebraska city tourism was what most people had their eyes fixated on. Nebraska city parks and recreation manager, Patrick Wehling, is in the midst of a project that will not only immediately match neighboring cities like Syracuse and York, but will increase tourism dollars for many years to come. 
 
Wehling: “we just acquired the funding through our local foundations to purchase some- about 29.5 acres of land in Nebraska city for a future sports complex.”
 
This sports complex, according to Wehling, Has the potential to bring in more than 14 thousand participants from other communities coming through Nebraska city and directly impact local businesses. Wehling also adds that although softball will be one of the immediate focuses, there will be another sport that the complex will hold. 
 
Wehling: “currently the youth soccer program is currently being played on private property right now. So the main goal is to get those soccer fields on to city property is a huge step and that’s going to be our first phase one goal.”
 
Once the ball gets rolling on building the complex, Wehling says it will be smooth sailing, but there have been a few bumps in the field- literally
 
Wehling: “as anybody knows, Nebraska city is not very flat in terms of neighboring properties. So to find that good piece of land that isn’t going to cost a million dollars to move dirt, on top of a million dollars to purchase, is really hard to find.” 
 
Wehling says that now that the land is purchased and designs have started being made, it’s all dependent on fundraising now. Wehling adds the multi-million dollar complex could take anywhere from five years to 15 years.