Q&A with Allison Barber and Glenn Tilley about The Marvella Project in Fair Oaks
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA $98 million, three-phase project in northwest Indiana first announced last week is taking shape as a future destination for girls sports and leadership development.
Known as Marvella, the youth sports complex will feature indoor and outdoor playing fields, basketball and volleyball courts, and a training center. There are also plans for a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena that will host championship games, large-scale tournaments, concerts and other events.
There will also be the Women’s Tribute Museum, which will honor the state of Indiana as being the birthplace of Title IX. Marvella is named for Sen. Birch Bayh’s wife, who inspired the creation of Title IX.
Outgoing Indiana Fever President Allison Barber has been named chair of the Marvella Foundation, which will help fund programs and provide scholarships for girls to attend programs. Founder and CEO Glenn Tilley is a longtime leader and builder of sports management and marketing organizations.
With its location at Fair Oaks Farms, Marvella hopes to reach girls in Indianapolis, Chicago and around the country. Inside INdiana Business spoke to Barber and Tilley about their plans for the organization and the impact they hope to have on girls and women’s sports.
These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
What is the Marvella Project?
Barber: Marvella is the nation’s first girls sport and leadership complex that is primarily built around the value and the importance of physical fitness, mental fitness and emotional fitness: bringing all of those components together to really build strong girls to be successful in their journey in life.
Tilley: It’s about a 100 to 120-acre sports campus. All your amenities will be right there—hotels, food, lodging, some other entertainment and all the sports facilities. We’ll have our health and wellness education initiative, and we’ll have a media environment where we can host high profile speakers on the specific topics for that tournament week or weekend, to kind of complement the sports experience.
Why is it important for something like this to be established?
Barber: My first career was being a first grade teacher up in Lake County, and what I learned early on as a school teacher is that sometimes girls do better when they’re learning, growing and developing with girls around them. This facility is going to be the best that the state and the country have ever seen for girls. We believe that there’s some good value in coming alongside girls and women and letting them have this space and this place to develop.
Tilley: The main purpose to not only develop a terrific athlete, but to help build a terrific adult with confidence for life through the platform of sports. Our primary guest target market is 8-9 year olds up through high school. We also see opportunities to partner with colleges and local conferences to host events and team building opportunities.
What will the impact of this campus be on the community?
Tilley: We developed this model first and foremost for its social impact, but it will also have an economic impact for Northwest Indiana and Newton County. This will inspire additional development in our partnership with the community out there.
Indiana is going to be the first state to step forward and to do the right thing. It will have social impact, economic impact and historical impact for our country. We’re going to lead together and we’re going to set an example. It’s very important to make sure that all girls, regardless of background, have access to this experience and facility. This has to be affordable.
From a business standpoint, what made Indiana attractive?
Tilley: I’m an East Coast guy, and during the last two, two-and-a-half years of developing this process, every time I have a meeting in Indiana, I walk out of the meeting more confident that this is the place it should be. The community is so unique, I love the value system and I think it’s something that should be cherished and applauded.
Barber: The model is that we will create this wonderful public-private partnership. The Marvella Project will be a new destination in Indiana for both Hoosiers and people outside of the state to come for clinics and tournaments and training and for girls to have time together with their families. Our projections are that we will hire 1,000 new employees.
Allison, what kind of experience and knowledge will you bring from your role with the Fever to Marvella?
Barber: I’ve learned a lot from the leadership team here at Pacers Sports and Entertainment. I’ve learned so much from our fans, who have spent their whole life fighting for girls and women to have equal opportunity, especially in this space of sports. I’ve learned from my players and coaches the value of team sport. Even though it can be so hard emotionally, physically and mentally, you have a team that comes around you to help you through the difficult times. All of those components and characteristics will be front and center at the Marvella Project.