Camden County pitches 500‑acre Georgia‑Florida Sports Park to capture tourist spending and hotel room nights

Camden County officials on the state capitol’s “lunch‑and‑learn” panel outlined plans for the Georgia‑Florida Sports Park, a roughly 500‑acre sports tourism complex near Exits 1 and 3 on I‑95 they said is designed to draw out‑of‑state visitors and increase hotel room nights, retail sales and local jobs.

James Coughlin, head of the Camden County Joint Development Authority, told the legislative committee the project is a public‑private effort sited near Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and “will draw out of state visitors to Camden.” He said the county will ask voters to approve a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum on March 18 to fund the park’s backbone infrastructure — water, sewer, a spine road and storm drainage — and that the city of Kingsland has adopted a Tax Allocation District (TAD) with the county and school board agreeing to participate to help build playing fields.

The nut graf: Project backers said sports tourism produces sustained multi‑day stays and ancillary spending that can broaden Camden’s primarily residential tax base. Proponents argued the complex would convert transient I‑95 traffic into destination visitors, keep retail and lodging dollars in Georgia rather than flowing…