Former tennis facility in Mystic to be expanded into indoor sports center

December 29, 2014 11:00 pm • Last Updated: December 30, 2014 10:39 pm

By By LEE HOWARD Day Staff Writer

Matt McCormack, owner of the new Mystic Indoor Sports, shows the workers removing the old curtain wall that will be framed in and insulated as part of the renovations taking place at the old Mystic Indoor Tennis facility in Old Mystic on Wednesday. New brighter and more cost efficient T-5 lighting is also being installed.

Mystic — Matt McCormack comes to sports club ownership by a circuitous route, having spent most of his career working in data management.

But the chief executive of QDiscovery in New London, which has branches in Illinois and Indiana, has taken control of the site on Welles Road where Mystic Indoor Tennis once stood and is busy converting it into a combination facility to be known as Mystic Indoor Sports.

On one side of the 5-acre property, the existing four-court tennis facility will remain, while on the other side McCormack plans by next fall to complete a 22,000-square-foot indoor, multipurpose sports facility as well as a 4,000-square-foot clubhouse connecting the two. Soccer, volleyball, baseball and football will be among the sports accommodated all under one roof.

"There's been such a need for this in the community," McCormack, a Mystic resident, said while offering a tour of the still-under-renovation tennis facility and soon-to-be demolished house that served for the past several years as the club's central hub. "We think we're going to fill it."

McCormack earlier this month was putting the finishing touches on renovations to the tennis facility that include new lights, nets and backdrops as well as a better-insulated building with a revamped entranceway and bathroom. The business, which closed for a few weeks as Mystic Indoor Tennis was being bought out of bankruptcy, will reopen Thursday, he said, with anyone paying the $30 individual initiation or $45 family fee on that day receiving a T-shirt, sports bottle and free tennis time, along with other opening-day goodies.

McCormack said he got the idea for an indoor sports facility after talking to parents of kids in the Mystic Little League, where his three boys have been active. The problem has been locating a property suitable for development, but in the former Mystic Indoor Tennis club he found an established facility with enough room to build an Astro Turf-covered sporting complex with a lodge-like clubhouse.

Mystic Indoor Sports won't have much competition, McCormack said, with the closest facility of its size located in North Kingstown, R.I., though another is scheduled to be built in Montville and others have been suggested in New London and in the area of Foxwoods within the past year. The sports complex will be big enough to accommodate three soccer fields, he said.

"This will be a boutique, higher end club," he said.

McCormack said he foresees the Welles Road area off Gold Star Highway becoming a wellness area, with an Advantage Personal Training fitness facility nearby adding to the location's attraction.

The centerpiece of the club will be the clubhouse viewing area, where people on one side can be viewing tennis action, while the other side will oversee the sports facility. The area will include showers and lockers as well as an area to purchase snacks and drinks, with a massive stone fireplace connecting the spaces in a homey atmosphere.

Out back, a courtyard will provide space for outdoor barbecues in the summer, and Mystic Indoor Sports gear will be for sale at the front desk.

The new facilities are being designed by local architect Peter Springsteel, and McCormack said he has felt welcome in his dealings with town officials.

"The Town of Groton has been nothing but remarkable in making this come together," he said, mentioning Planning & Zoning officials as well as Town Manager Mark R. Oefinger. "Without their efforts to keep things moving, I couldn't have done this so quickly."

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow