By Anne Marie Amacher
DAVENPORT — The Orthopaedic Specialists Sports Complex, often referred to as the Brady Street Bubble, has been sold to St. Ambrose University for $450,000.
Purchase of the complex from Acquired Capital, based in Stafford, Texas, was finalized March 31, said Mike Poster, St. Ambrose’s vice president for finance.
The university will use the 67,000-square-foot facility for various athletic team practices and for other activities, such as intramural sports, he said. A number of St. Ambrose teams have practiced in the facility over the years, he noted.
The facility will be used solely for practices, not for competitions, because it lacks space to accommodate spectator seating while still maintaining a regulation-size field for sports.
St. Ambrose sports’ teams currently practice and play at 11 facilities in the Quad-City area. Poster said several facilities will still be needed, but this should lower the total number.
Although the Brady Street Bubble is an enclosed facility, Poster said it can get hot inside during the summer and cooler in the winter. It does not retain a steady temperature. So when teams can practice outside, they will. “But it will give us a bad-weather location now.”
St. Ambrose is in negotiations with the owner of the parking lot to purchase that as well.
