LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — The vision for a 17-acre sports and entertainment complex along View High Drive in Lee’s Summit started on a napkin.
“It actually did,” 3D Builders KC Managing Partner Scott Wheatley said. “It started on a napkin, with me and another dad, we were sitting there watching our kids play in a tiny, little facility, and were like, ‘We’ve got to do better for our kids.’”
Kansas has added several pristine facilities — especially for soccer, basketball and volleyball — in recent years.
“The vision for this property really is for Missouri residents to have a state of the art facility in Missouri, so they don't have to drive to Kansas every weekend for games at Compass Minerals or Garmin or HomeField KC or Bluhawk,” fellow 3D Builders KC Managing Partner Justin Beebe said. “... We'd like the residents in Missouri to be able to have something of their own and be able to stay local and do something for the community and for the kids that are here.”
Wheatley has two daughters, ages 8 and 11, while Beebe has 9-year-old triplet girls who love soccer, basketball, swimming and even jiu jitsu.
“We started this thing two years ago,” Beebe said. “We're like, ‘Let's just see what we can do. Let's see how far we can take this, if we can get it done.’ ... I live right around the corner, and he (Wheatley) lives right down the road right there, so it's great for our neighbors and for the community to have something like this right here.”
View High Sports and Entertainment grew from its humble beginnings, scrawled onto a napkin, into a 180,000-square-foot concept one mile north of Longview Community College. It’s anchored by a full FIFA-regulation indoor soccer field, gym space for eight basketball courts or 12 volleyball courts, an athletic training facility, hitting and pitching tunnels, a restaurant and a family entertainment center, which will include an arcade, golf simulators and an indoor playground.
The building will also have space for a medical office and retail space, while an additional 90,000-square-foot outdoor space will include a multi-use field and five pickleball courts.
“They underestimate themselves a little bit when they portray themselves as a couple dads on a napkin — only because there's been a lot of dads doing this with a lot of napkins, moms and dads over the last 30 years, but they're getting it done,” Lee’s Summit Mayor Bill Baird said.
The project received a boost last month when the Lee’s Summit City Council unanimously approved a Community Improvement District to help pay for View High Sports and Entertainment.
3D Builders KC hopes to break ground on the project this fall after a final round of investment, with plans to have their daughters playing there by the fall of 2026.
“I'm extremely excited,” Wheatley said. “I've dreamed about it for the last two and a half years as we've gone through this whole process. The process starting out is way more than we ever dreamed it would be, but it's starting to come to fruition.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
