GULF SHORES, Ala. — Even though a new track at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex is still under construction, the city is already working on attracting new events to the facility.

Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs Grant Brown told the city council recently he is working with the Sports Commission of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism to bring NAIA national championship track meets to town.

In other news, Brown said bids for construction of the new concession stand in Sims Park will be opened today. He also reported on the progress of the city’s new website which should be up and running by mid-March.

By 2014 Brown hopes to see collegiate athletes running around the new track which has a completion date of April 1.

“We are working with the conventions and visitors bureau and the sports commission to put a bid in for the 2014 and 2015 NAIA national track championships,” he said. “That would be 1,400 athletes for those three days.”

If the city does win the bid, another feature will have to be added to the facility, but Brown doesn’t see that as a problem.

“We do need the hammer throw for that,” he said. “But as we looked at the cost of putting the hammer throw in it’s not nearly as expensive as putting in the steeple chase. It’s something we could do. It will be contingent upon us having a hammer throw and them also requiring us to have it if they elect to come to our location.”

Meanwhile, the first event for the new track is scheduled for April 19 and the state meet will come to town in early May.

In Sims Park, the 40-year-old building is gone with much of the materials recycled, Brown said.

“The Sims Park restrooms and concession stand the old building has now been completely leveled,” he said. “The site is cleaned and we’ve had a great response from bids on this project so we feel like we’ll get a good bid.”

Also in Sims Park, Brown said the city is studying resurfacing the tennis courts. A recent study of the area was encouraging.

“It’s much less severe than we anticipated,” Brown said.

On the website front, individual departments have been asked to prepare data to load on the internet.

“We’re back to working toward the city’s new website launch,” Brown said. “Today we started asking all departments individually to supply and put the content portion from each department on the website. We’re getting help from the different departments to build the content phase.

“Our goal is still to launch this mid-March and if we hit they content deadline the company will be onsite in February for some training. At this point we are still on schedule.”