A new addition to a sports complex in Jacksonville offers athletes the opportunity to exercise indoors.

The Midwest Athletic Center, 409 Hardin Ave., has completed the conversion of a former swimming pool into a 6,000-square-foot indoor sports facility. The facility features both an indoor turf court and a wood hard court underneath.

The sports complex hosted its first flag football game in the renovated facilities on Monday.

While it’s not the largest indoor turf surface in central Illinois, along with the complex’s other 35,000-square-foot playing surface, the Midwest Athletic Center has the most indoor playing surfaces in the region, said co-owner John Rohn.

John and Rachel Rohn took control of the sports complex, built in the former Jenkins Education Complex on the former MacMurray College campus, in March 2023.

The pool renovation took about six months, John Rohn said. It was exciting to finally have it finished, he said, describing it as “the one big black hole in the whole building” since neither he nor his wife knew when it would be finished.

“It’s a great feeling to see the completion just over a year after purchasing the building,” he said.

Rachel Rohn said the renovated space is intended for multiple uses and can serve as a venue for sports such as soccer, baseball and football, as well as an event space during inclement weather. She said she and her husband plan to create “a great opportunity for Jacksonville to utilize things when they don’t have the opportunity to be outside.”

The new space will also help support youth sports programs in the Jacksonville area, Rachel Rohn said. She and her husband also own Fitness World Health Club, 1521 W. Walnut St., which hosts several children’s leagues for various sports. Rachel Rohn said those leagues are at maximum capacity for “everything we’ve ever done at Fitness World.”

“When we took over the Midwest Athletic Center, that was our main goal,” she said. “How can we attract more kids and make sure every single sport is covered, not just basketball and volleyball?”

Sports like soccer are much better played on grass or artificial turf, John Rohn said. The new facility will eliminate the need for athletes to travel to places like Springfield to train during the colder months of the year, he said.

“Like many things we’ve done in our other businesses,” he said, “it’s an excuse to keep people in town and attract people from out of town.”

The Rohns already have tenants for the new space, John Rohn said, and there are plans for an indoor soccer league to use the space and winter practices for baseball and softball, as well as a number of other sports and competitions. John Rohn also hopes to hold concerts in the new space, as the acoustics are surprisingly good, he said.

The Midwest Athletic Center will be the venue for Jacksonville Main Street’s Downtown Concert Series in case of rain, he said.

Rachel Rohn said the couple hopes to create another place to play without leaving Jacksonville, which should benefit the entire Jacksonville community.

“It’s going to be better for the hotels, it’s going to be better for the restaurants, it’s going to be better for downtown and the boutiques and just anyone who has something to do in Jacksonville,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for them, too.”

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