The indoor sports center at Bremerton’s Pendergast Park has new owners — and they have a vision for expanded activities and community involvement at the center.
The Olympic Soccer and Sports Center is now the Bremerton Sports Center, after it was bought by its new owners, Keegan Burmark and Tim Duffey.
Burmark, who has been a teacher for 12 years and been in real estate for the past five or six years, said he was transitioning out of teaching and looking for a business to buy.
Keegan Burmark and Tim Duffey are the new owners of the Bremerton Sports Center (Photo by Kitsap Scene)
Initially, he was considering something along the lines of buying a restaurant franchise. But when he spoke to longtime friend Duffey about his plans, Duffey mentioned that some friends of his owned the Olympic Soccer and Sports Center and were interested in selling it.
“We both love soccer, we both love the soccer center,” Burmark said. “We’ve both been playing here for 10 years. And we thought, ‘Why not? Let’s do it.’”
Summer is typically the slowest time for the sports center, because people would typically rather play sports outside while the weather is nice. So while things are a bit calmer, Burmark said the plan is to more or less keep the status quo, while fixing things up around the center and making capital improvements.
But business will pick up in the fall.
“Once fall hits, things start to heat back up," Burmark said. "We’re planning on making a lot of changes in fall."
They're still figuring out exactly what those changes will be, he said, but they have several ideas: Fitness classes during the day, for example, or a volleyball league.
"We think we can get at least three volleyball courts on the field at any given time, if not four," Burmark said.
Occasionally, the center is rented out for sports other than soccer, such as lacrosse or ultimate frisbee, Burmark said. But they're hoping to attract leagues that meet regularly for sports like volleyball.
One sport does currently meet regularly at the center: cornhole, in which players attempt to toss a beanbag into a hole at the end of a raised platform.
“There’s a cornhole league that meets every week and we do big tournaments,” Burmark said. “We’re looking for more things like that, that can be weekly things, not just one-off field rentals.”
They are also hoping to expand the center’s children's programs, Burmark said. Currently there are about 60 kids enrolled, but they’d like to get that number up to 300-400.
Although the center has an accessible location — it’s located near Highway 3, off the Loxie Eagans Boulevard exit — awareness of the center in the community could be bolstered. One way the new owners hope to accomplish that is by partnering with local businesses.
"Both Keegan and I are very passionate soccer players ... We feel that by fostering more connections with community and expanding that — partnerships, collaborations, and things like that with the local community and soccer organizations — we can really create an amazing community resource here," Duffey said.
In the meantime, the duo is excited to be at the helm of the center.
"Right now we’re just trying to keep it running with no interruptions," Burmark said. "People basically don’t even notice that we’re taking over, for now. But we’re really excited for fall.”
The Bremerton Sports Center is located at 1191 Pendergast Pkwy, Bremerton.
For more information, visit the center's website or its Facebook page.
