Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – It’s now called the Springfield Clinic Dome at Scheels Sports Park.

That’s now that the clinic has been identified as one of the major financial backers of the project at Legacy Pointe — and now that the dome has officially been inflated.

But project manager for Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly, Chris Stritzel says it’s not time to play ball just yet.

“In the next couple weeks, we’ll have the lights in,” said Stritzel, at a Wednesday news conference. “They’re going to start hanging some of the netting that divides the play up a little bit. There’s various finishes that have to be done on the electrical side. Lastly is going to be the rubber flooring that will cover the concrete slab. That’s where the basketball and volleyball…will play. So, that will be done early fall.”

Stritzel expects the dome and maybe some outdoor fields to be ready to be used for practices by then as well, with indoor and outdoor competition play filling up almost 100 percent of 2026. Springfield Public Schools students will be likely be the first inside the dome and with fields outside to test it out this fall.

It’s all that play that Mayor Misty Buscher sees as the best of things.

“The Springfield Clinic Dome and the outdoor complex will draw visitors and guests from near and far,” said Buscher. “We are expecting the Scheels Sports Park to bring 250,000 new visitors to Springfield, providing $25 million in an annual boost to our local economy, and over 50,000 new hotel nights.”

Officials say the Springfield Clinic Dome will be the “largest air-supported sports dome in the world.” The dome itself will be 715 feet long and 275 feet wide — almost the length of three football fields. There are also plans for hitting cages and other amenities.

But, if the size of the dome is hard to comprehend, Stritzel says you can think of this way.

“The entire Scheels store, plus another half of a store, could fit comfortably inside the dome,” said Stritzel. “It could hold seven-and-a-half billion ping pong balls. It’s tall enough where you could stack over 30 baseball bats end to end, and every soybean harvested last year in Sangamon County could fit inside that dome.”

The dome was originally to be inflated in April, and despite delays largely due to weather, Stritzel says crews feel comfortable with the timeline for completion in place.