Local leaders tout improvements to Northwest Sports Hub, up to $17 million in economic benefit to the area

May 20-Local leaders say the Northwest Sports Hub brought in as much as $17 million in economic benefit to the area last year, with the positive impacts stretching from Castle Rock to Olympia.

They expect more facility improvements and local hotels will translate to more revenue for the City of Centralia and local businesses.

Leaders of the Twin Cities Sports Commission presented to the Centralia City Council on Tuesday, May 12, and met with the Centralia School Board just two days later. The report from the group credited recent improvements - including turf and lighting - for growing demand for the Northwest Sports Hub as a major host of weekend sports tournaments.

"The new turf and the improvements increase use," Centralia School District Superintendent Dr. Lisa Grant said. "That is vast improvement over the previous when very few weekends were used when they were dirt fields. Especially on the quad fields or on the city (fields)."

Representatives for each of the three major stakeholder groups represented in the Twin Cities Sports Commission - Centralia Deputy City Manager Amy Buckler, Lewis County Public Facilities District Chair Ron Averill and Grant - provided the report together.

According to the leaders, the 2025 season saw the Northwest Sports Hub and surrounding facilities managed by the commission host sports tournaments indoors for 40 weekends out of the year and 32 weekends outdoors.

Statistics tracked by the commission estimate that 45,000 athletes and their families were drawn to the Centralia area in 2025.

Grant added that a feasibility study completed roughly seven years ago estimated that families that come to the area for sports spend an average of $157 a day on expenditures ranging from hotel costs to food and retail shopping. The sports commission believes more hotels in Centralia are needed to increase how much the city benefits from a $2 a night hotel room tax and other economic benefits of the Northwest Sports Hub.

"We always work on getting Centralia and Chehalis hotels filled first, but we often find that they're having to come as far as Olympia or Castle Rock, just because these tournaments really have a lot of people," Averill said.

According to Grant, turf improvements made to fields in the area have also been a boon to the Centralia School District, which now has increased capacity for school sporting events.

"No district funds were needed and yet our students are benefiting from playing baseball at Wheeler, fastpitch on field two and use of the quad for JV and other sports," Grant said.

In 2025, the coalition completed turf improvements to the quad fields, which included the installation of full turf on field nine and infield turf on the other three fields numbered six through eight. Two city fields, field two and Wheeler Field, both got turf infields. Wheeler also benefited from new lighting, new stadium seating and "aesthetic improvements."

Those improvements were paid for by grants from a number of sources, including, according to Averill, $2 million in state funding. The Lewis County Public Facilities District contributed $400,000 for the projects.

More change is also on the horizon for the Twin Cities Sports Commission. In the coming years, the commission intends to continue adding turf and better lighting to more fields in the area. It will also seek to improve the often-strained parking situation.

Already approved state grant funding will support new lights at the Fort Borst softball complex this fall. Leftover funding from the improvements to the quad fields will support improvements to the Pioneer parking lot, expected in 2027. The commission is seeking funding through multiple avenues to continue updating lighting, add turf on field eight of the quad fields and improve restroom access.

The commission is also, according to Grant's statements, working on changes to the governance agreement that dictates how the commission operates and the relationships between the member entities.

"We need to work on that, and we want it to meet our needs now and then, needs in the future, as those continue to change," Grant said.

The commission was originally formed in 2017 with the stated mission of attracting more businesses to the Northwest Sports Hub with hopes that it would provide a measurable economic benefit to the area.

The three stakeholder groups - the city, the school district and the Lewis County Public Facilities District - each play their own part. The city and school district each own outdoor fields and courts that they maintain and operate while the Public Facilities District owns the indoor sports hub facility and works with Dale Pullin, operator of the indoor facility and private investor for the project.

Pullin founded the original Throrbeckes Athletic Club in downtown Centralia in 1982.

Pullin and his operating team schedule events for the indoor facilities while the City of Centralia handles scheduling for outdoor facilities. According to Grant, the outdoor facilities are already booked for events and tournaments for 32 weekends this year.

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 11:20 AM.