SYSA gets Rafferty Center green light from Pensacola

• The new 10,240-square-foot, $3 million building will host more basketball space and educational space for SYSA’s youth sports program.
• The city will own the building once SYSA finishes building it, but SYSA will have primary use of the building.
• Westside Garden District Neighborhood Association wants greater access to Theophalis May Center for the neighborhood’s use.

After years of fundraising, the Southern Youth Sports Association finally got the green light from the city of Pensacola to move forward with the construction of the Rafferty Center at Legion Field.

The Pensacola City Council voted 6-1 on May 22 to approve a 46-year lease for the new building that will be built at SYSA’s expense for an estimated $3 million.

The new 10,240-square-foot building will host more basketball space and educational space for the SYSA program, but the city will own it.

What is SYSA?

SYSA is a non-profit that runs a youth sports, tutoring, and cheerleading program at Legion Field and the Theophalis May Community Center.

SYSA raised the funds for the new Rafferty Center building, including a $1 million donation from Pensacola attorney Troy Rafferty.

Other donors to the project included Doug Baldwin, Jim and Shirley Cronley, the late Fred Levin, Mike Papantonio, and other associates of Levin Papantonio Law Firm. The Florida Legislature also approved a $150,000 contribution to the project in 2022.

SYSA was started under the umbrella of the Salvation Army by John Chandler and other parents who wanted a youth basketball program in the predominantly African American westside neighborhood. The organization later became an independent non-profit, and is led by Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May.

Theophalis May Community Center, named for May’s father, was built in 2014 largely for the program, which has had thousands of participants and hundreds of volunteers.

“This is a 15-year journey of people who have given their sacrifices, their life, their money, and so we’re very fortunate,” May said.

What’s in the lease?

The lease gives SYSA exclusive use of the center for most of the year, Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. From June 1 through Aug. 18, the exclusive use goes to seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The lease allows the city to use the facility for special events even during those hours with 10 days’ notice if SYSA has no scheduled events, and requires the building to be used as an emergency shelter during a declared state of emergency.

The lease requires the city to take over maintenance of the building, and the city estimates that those annual costs will be about $17,500 plus $25,000 in utilities and $3,000 in other supplies. The lease caps the amount of money the city can spend on annual building maintenance to $52,000.

Supporters of SYSA filled the City Council chambers on May 22 to a near-standing-room-only level to show support for the agreement with the city. The room is rated to seat 325 people.

The number of speakers during the meeting meant a nearly three-hour hearing on the lease before a decision was reached.

Westside neighborhood wants greater access to the May Center

A small group of about 10 people from the Westside Garden District Neighborhood Association spoke against the lease on the grounds that there wasn’t enough public access under the terms of the lease.

“The Theophalis May Center is the only community center in the Westside Garden District, and according to the city’s own website, it’s the only community center in all of Pensacola that doesn’t currently offer programs or services for the residents of the surrounding neighborhood,” said Michelle Press, president of the Westside Garden District Neighborhood Association.

Councilman Delarian Wiggins, who represents the neighborhood, said he supports SYSA, but he asked May to work with the Neighborhood Association to find opportunities for the neighborhood to hold programming in the May Center, and May agreed.

“We will be partnering with the neighborhood association,” May said. “Quite frankly, there are never enough volunteers.”

Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier was the only vote to oppose the lease. She noted she was elected to the City Council largely on the outcry of her neighbors over the partial privatization of the Vickery Center, with it becoming a YMCA location under former Mayor Grover Robinson. She noted that over the term of the lease, the city’s cost could add up to more than $2 million.

Brahier pointed to SYSA’s public tax returns and noted that at the May Center, the organization said it took in $392,000 in income and had $224,000 in expenses. She thought that the organization could handle the building’s maintenance costs.

May responded that the organization actually runs a deficit and the numbers are because of fundraising efforts to the new building.

“I grew up in Catalonia and Calloway. I grew up at Bill Gregory and Terry Wayne. When the kids at Bill Bond had nice equipment, and the poor Black kids on the westside didn’t have an opportunity,” May said. “And so the reason that I go out and raise this type of money is because God has allowed me that opportunity to do that. And so we’re never going to be apologetic for raising money to give my children the things that they need, nor am I going to be put on Front Street. This is where we are. Jennifer, I appreciate you, so we are trying to give our children the same thing that other children have.”

Brahier suggested that the better move would be for the city to gift the land to SYSA rather than take ownership.

No other council members took up Brahier’s suggestion, but Mayor D.C. Reeves said it would be “baffling” for the city not to approve the lease.

“From a cost standpoint, just every time we talk about that, it’s baffling to me, that we put a $0 cost on the impact to the community—zero,” Reeves said. “…There’s nothing similar about Vickery. There’s nothing similar about Malcolm Yonge. This is somebody coming to us, hat in hand, and saying, ‘Do you mind if we give you $3 million to have an impact on our community?’ It’s baffling to me that we’re even having these conversations about electric bills and all that.”

Reeves said the $2 million calculation was misleading because, adjusting for expected inflation, it’ll likely come out to something like $840,000 spread out over 46 years, while SYSA is adding the $3 million building plus the impact their organization has on the community.

“Every mayor would hope that someone would bring something like this to help impact their community at that cost to the citizens,” Reeves said.