Ascension Parish Government has struck a purchase agreement for 100 acres of land along Edenborne near River Parishes Community College in Gonzales, laying the groundwork for a new sports complex in the fast-growing parish. The plan came into public view this week alongside a separate push from a parish councilman to bring back video poker as a funding source for recreation and roads.
A Deal Near the College Campus
The land sits along Edenborne near the Gonzales campus of River Parishes Community College, according to the Gonzales Weekly Citizen, which first reported the purchase agreement. The report, credited to journalist Michael Tortorich, says Ascension Parish Government now holds an agreement for the full 100 acres, though it does not detail the purchase price or when the deal might close. District 6 Councilman Chase Melancon discussed the project during a live Facebook question-and-answer session Saturday, the outlet reported, where he also floated the idea of a video poker ballot measure to help pay for parish priorities.
The Edenborne area has already seen institutional growth tied to the community college. According to River Parishes Community College, the school purchased more than 43 acres in the Edenborne Development off Louisiana Highway 44 near Interstate 10 back in 2012, and its technical training campus relocated there in 2016, consolidating the college onto a single site. A new sports complex next door would extend that corridor's transformation from undeveloped land into a hub for education and recreation.
Melancon's Video Poker Pitch
Melancon said he plans to ask his fellow council members to place a video poker proposition on the ballot early next year, per the Weekly Citizen's report. He told the outlet he wants the resulting revenue split 60 percent toward recreation and 40 percent toward transportation, a formula aimed at easing pressure on parish budgets for both parks and roads. Melancon noted that video poker is already legal in nearby Assumption and St. James parishes, framing the idea as something that works for Ascension's neighbors.
“I will be very vocal about it,” Melancon said, according to the Weekly Citizen's account of the Facebook session. The remark underscores how central the gambling proposition has become to his broader push for new parish funding streams, even as the land deal for the sports complex moves forward on a separate track.
Building on an Existing Recreation Footprint
Ascension Parish already operates a Multi-Use Sports Complex at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, which features seven lighted, tournament-based soccer fields along with restrooms, concession facilities, paved parking and its own entrance off South St. Landry Avenue, according to The Advocate. The Gonzales Soccer Club partners with the parish to maintain and operate that facility and coordinate scheduling with the parish Recreation Department, the paper reported. A new complex near River Parishes Community College would add to that existing footprint rather than replace it.
How Other Louisiana Parishes Are Building Big
Ascension's ambitions echo a broader trend across Louisiana, where parishes are racing to cash in on youth sports tourism. Jefferson Parish is opening a roughly $45 million complex in Avondale, according to NOLA.com, which reports that families nationally spend more than $40 billion a year on youth sports, citing data from The Aspen Institute. The state-funded, 147-acre John Alario Jr. Youth Sports Complex includes four multipurpose artificial-turf fields, a sports shop, pavilion, concession stand and covered restrooms, and its inaugural tournament was set to draw 60 baseball teams, per the same report. The project's cost ended up between $42 million and $45 million — more than double the original estimate — after rising material and labor costs and the addition of a fourth field, and NOLA.com notes the facility was already nearly fully booked with travel-sports tournaments for 2026, with dates filling into 2027 and 2028. Regional tournament sites also already operate in Baton Rouge, Youngsville, Hammond, Pelican Park and Coquille Park, the outlet reported.
Further north, Caddo Parish has pursued a far costlier vision. Officials there planned to ask voters to approve $60 million in bonds for an indoor, multisport complex in Shreveport, according to The Shreveport Times/Bossier Advocate, with the full project expected to cost about $70 million. The Caddo proposal calls for a 12-acre facility with multiple multipurpose sport courts, and a feasibility study projected the complex could generate roughly $11 million in economic impact in its first year, rising to about $20 million by its fifth year — though that same study also forecast an operating loss of about $243,000 in year one before potentially turning a profit of around $270,000 by year five. As of the report, Caddo officials had not identified a specific site, saying only that it would likely land somewhere in the Shreveport area.
Those out-of-parish comparisons show the range of scale Ascension Parish could be working with as its own sports complex plans take shape — from a modest neighborhood addition to a multi-million-dollar regional draw. For now, the parish has secured land near a growing educational corridor in Gonzales, and Melancon has made clear he intends to keep pushing the funding conversation into next year's ballot cycle.
