Construction of West Deer sports complex continues despite coronavirus pandemic

Construction of a roughly $30 million sports complex in West Deer is continuing despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Chase Development, the company in charge of the project, was granted a waiver from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to be able to continue construction, according to Charlie Vrabel, founder of No Offseason Sports. Work began in 2018 on what will be No Offseason’s fourth and largest sports complex.

The 40-acre facility on Little Deer Creek Valley Road will include four multipurpose, all-turf fields that can be used for soccer, football, field hockey, baseball and softball. It also will have four all-turf baseball fields for high school- and college-age players and a 14,000-square-foot building with five restaurants and sports bars.

It will be the second No Offseason complex in West Deer. Two more are in Adams Township.

The new complex will give No Offseason a total of 21 total baseball fields, allowing it to double the number of teams it can host on tournament weekends.

“We currently bring about 60 teams in each weekend from nine states and Canada,” Vrabel said. “When this new one opens up, we’ll be bringing around 120 teams in a weekend, which is maybe 14,000 to 15,000 people a weekend.”

Vrabel hopes he will be able to reopen by mid-May. He said the complexes will follow guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because they are spacious and outdoors, he doesn’t foresee social distancing being a problem.

Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine are expected to announce Friday which counties can begin to lift some restrictions and gradually reopen their economies beginning May 8. Under the state’s color-coded system, such counties will move from a “red” phase with the current restrictions in place to a “yellow” phase with some eased restrictions.

“If people have to wear face masks out in public then that’s what we’re going to have to do,” Vrabel said. “We’re just going to follow all the rules.”

No Offseason had to postpone baseball tournaments scheduled for the spring because of the pandemic. Those have been rescheduled through the summer, and could possibly go into the fall.

“Our tournament season is supposed to end July 27. We just moved four tournaments, and we’re going all through August now,” Vrabel said. “If we keep cancelling them, we’ll keep moving them to September. The kids are going to get their four months of baseball like they expect to every year.”

Work on the fields at the new complex should be completed by the end of fall and the new building should be completed by Aug. 1, Vrabel said.