Harrises Plan Memphis Arena

The owners of All Star Sports Arena in Springdale are adding to their lineup. Scott Harris, his wife Connie and his father Richard plan to open an arena in Memphis next year.

Scott Harris has been in talks with a couple more cities to expand his own “Field of Dreams.” He said it costs between $4 million and $5 million to build an arena.

Harris wouldn’t elaborate on which cities but said one would be located in central Arkansas and the others would be in Kansas or Missouri.

Plans are to have five All Star Sports Arenas located throughout middle America in five years, Scott Harris said.

The Memphis arena will be about 140,000 SF and have 11 basketball courts. That’s 14,000 SF and two basketball courts larger than Springdale’s location.

Plans have already been drawn up and the location picked out in Memphis. Harris said construction would likely start in August and should be completed in April.

Harris said he looked at economically struggling Fort Smith, but realized it would be too competitive with the Springdale location because it’s only an hour away.

Interestingly enough, Fort Smith is asking taxpayers to support a $22 million bond to build a sports complex that would support volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball and soccer.

Citizens will vote on that issue May 23.