FOLEY, Ala. — The city of Foley is moving forward with plans to develop a new multi-use sports complex and events center.

During Monday’s regular meeting of the Foley City Council, municipal leaders announced that Don Staley has been named executive director for the sports complex.

"I'm very excited to have Don Staley join our team," said Mayor John Koniar. "He is highly respected in his profession and brings a wealth of experience to the job. Don will enable us to hit the ground running and help us maximize our potential for this project in a much quicker time frame. Great to have an individual of his caliber join us."

Staley will come to Foley from central Alabama, where he served as exective director of sports for the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission. While there he helped form the Tuscaloosa Sports Foundation, where he served as executive director. The organization later merged with the Tuscaloosa Convention and Visitors Bureau to create the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission. Staley’s accomplishments in the position include leading the initiative to bring the AHSAA Super Six football championships, along with hundreds of other events, to Bryant Denny Stadium.

“The decision to leave was not an easy one,” Staley said in a news release. “Tuscaloosa’s been our home the past 21 years, but I was presented with a once-in-a-career dream opportunity that no sports tourism executive could possibly decline. I guess you could say I enjoy the challenge of building something.”

Staley’s history in Tuscaloosa dates back to serving as head soccer coach at the University of Alabama from 1994-2008. But his hand in South Baldwin County actually started in 2005, when he helped bring the SEC Women’s Soccer Championship playoffs to Orange Beach, where it continues today. Before starting the program at UA in 1994, Staley was the head men’s and women’s coach at Radford University in Virginia.

But Staley’s appointment wasn’t the only portion of the project to move forward. Also Monday afternoon, the city’s public cultural and entertainment facilities cooperative district and public athletic and sports facilities cooperative district voted to give Koniar the authority to sign a 25-year lease for the facilities.

Koniar said that a formal ground breaking of the $27 million project will be tentatively held in the middle of March.

“This has been a long time coming,” he said after the vote.

The city’s sports complex will include 12 multi-use oudoor fields, as well as a 100,000-square-foot sports and events center Eight of the fields will include lighting to provide for extended play and larger tournaments. All fields will include electronic video boards to provide scores and information and a state-of-the-art cooling system to keep players cool. The complex will include a championship field that will include seating for 2,000, plus a press box and lighting to accommodate television broadcasts.

The 100,000-square-foot multi-purpose Foley Events Center will be situated adjacent to the outdoor fields and can be configured to provide enough room for 12 volleyball courts or 6 basketball courts. The center will include office space, a referee lounge and locker rooms. For the entertainment portion, an indoor/outdoor stage will be located on the east end of the events center that can accommodate indoor concerts for up to 7,000 or host outdoor events, playing to an audience in an outdoor plaza.

The complex will also include field houses, onsite food and beverage pavilions with full service capabilities, playgrounds and parking for up to 800 vehicles and 20 buses.

Koniar said that some work has actually started at the site, which will be situated along County Road 20, with entrances added on South McKenzie Street and the extension of Pride Drive.