On July 1, 2002, a crowd of more than 8,000 descended on the newly constructed Louisville Extreme Park to watch skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk declare the $2.5 million sports venue among the nation’s very best places to skate.
ESPN cameras beamed images of the park’s concrete bowls and massive full pipe around the country, while city and business leaders envisioned hosting televised events that would brings thousands of extreme sports enthusiasts, pumping major dollars into Louisville’s economy.
“This is one of the premier parks in the world,” then-Mayor Dave Armstrong declared, predicting even greater possibilities once a $2 million indoor facility was added to the park, complete with concessions, lockers and rooftop skating.
But 7½ years later, the grand expectations for the nationally recognized Extreme Park and an expansion have been shelved, perhaps permanently.
Although The Wall Street Journal recently named the park among the world’s 10-best skating venues, no major public events have been held at the skate park since Hawk’s wildly popular visit.
City budget problems, political choices that have pushed money to other projects and uncertainty over what a rebuilt Spaghetti Junction — part of the Ohio River Bridges Project — will mean for the skateboard park property have resulted in the city spending enough to maintain the park — but little more.
“We will not see it (the expansion) built in the near future,” said Mike Heitz, director of Louisville Metro Parks, the skate park caretaker. “Even if the budget weren’t an issue, it would be on hold because of the bridges project.”
That’s disappointing, said Armstrong, who now heads the state Public Service Commission. The Extreme Park is a “symbol of how the community sees its youth,” Armstrong said, adding that he believes the city has “missed a lot of economic-development opportunities” by failing to market the park better.
Mayor Jerry Abramson has never expressed the same level of enthusiasm for the park, which draws users from throughout the region.
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