City of Bryan approves new tennis and multiuse facility for Midtown Park

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The City of Bryan will be building a tennis and multiuse facility in Midtown Park with an interlocal agreement with Texas A&M University.

These tennis courts will be used as an indoor facility for the Texas A&M Tennis teams and for public or event use when they are not being used. This project was approved by Bryan’s City Council Monday night in a vote 6-1.

The total cost for the project is around $17.5 million and will be constructed, maintained, owned, and operated by the City of Bryan. Texas A&M will pay a yearly licensing fee and support any debt payments for the facility.

The facility plans show enough space for six indoor tennis courts or 12 pickleball courts plus a flex space for concessions, offices, a treatment area, locker rooms, and more. The space for the facility is located between BigShots Golf and the Legends Event Center.

During the meeting Tuesday night, city leaders emphasized that this can also hold overflow from tournaments happening at the Legends Event Center and complements the other attractions nearby.

“It gives us capacity with the shared cost for Texas A&M which is a which is a great thing. It’s a great win for the city. I think that it’s so important for heads in beds for economic development and for leisure travel, you know, just more things to do in the city of Bryan,” Mayor Bobby Gutierrez said. “If you look at what we’re already doing just with Legends, what we have with big shots right there, we have the movie bowl grill coming in, then the tennis facility and then we have the proposed ball fields and extra ball fields and multi-use courts multi-use facilities and fields. So you’ll be able to have soccer you they have football you’ll be able to have you know, just multiple number of sports there. It just gives us kind of a destination place plus we have sand volleyball coming and then we have our outdoor park area and we have the trail system that we have going through. It’s just it’s a great time to be in Bryan.”

Texas A&M Athletic Director, Ross Bjork, thanked the council during Monday night’s meeting for their partnership with the university and expressed excitement for the new facility.

“We just thought that from a recruiting standpoint, from a playability standpoint, from a proximity standpoint this location right near Texas A&M, right near West Campus where most of our athletic facilities are it really just became a no-brainer as we analyzed all the components of this,” Bjork said.

The facility is expected to be completed 24 months after both parties sign the agreement. This new facility will allow A&M to be in the running to host NCAA and SEC tennis tournaments now that there will be a regulation indoor option. A&M Tennis teams used Mitchell Tennis Center located on campus for their outdoor tennis courts.