Mayor Paul Winfield made his case for a sports complex a bit more public Wednesday, telling a small group that a 130-acre site has been selected and Vicksburg’s voters will make the final decision on whether the hospitality industry will be taxed more to pay for the complex.

“We’re at a point in time where we need to move forward,” Winfield told a group that included city and economic development officials and three representatives of the hospitality industry. “A sports complex will be a game changer. It will have an important economic impact for the city.

“If we don’t present the best — not better — project (to prospective tournaments and sports groups) an alternative will be found,” Winfield said.

“If we don’t look at our future and invest in our youth, we will perish,” he said at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center. “This is a bold project. I think it’s time.”

Winfield said the proposed site is in north Vicksburg and in excess of 130 acres “that isn’t hidden from the world.” He would not say if it is inside the city limits.

He said he will approach Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Sid Beauman in the first or second week of February with a proposal to seek legislative OK to increase the city’s hotel tax by 2 percent and add a 1.5 percent food and beverage tax to fund a loan to buy the land and develop the project.

Winfield projected the new taxes will yield about $1.2 million annually, enough to pay off an $18.5 million to $19 million loan over 15 years. The taxes will expire when the loan is paid, he said.

The city currently levies a 2 percent hotel tax to support the Vicksburg Convention Center. Warren County has a 1 percent tax on occupied hotel rooms and food and beverages sold in the county to fund the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Once he gets the board’s OK, the mayor said, he and city attorney Lee Davis Thames will meet with the county’s legislative delegation to draft the bill.

When the bill is filed, he said, the city will get an option to purchase the property, with the money paid on the option going toward the selling price if the city decides to buy the land.

If the local bill wins legislative approval, Winfield said, voters must approve the taxes in a citywide referendum before the taxes can be collected. If 60 percent of the voters approve the increases, he said, the city will purchase the land.

“If we don’t get the tax increase, we won’t buy the land and we’ll lose the money we placed for the option,” he said. “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”

He said the businesses have to get behind the plan for it to succeed.

“I’m going to be the cheerleader for this,” he said. “I will be coming to your business. I’m going to want you to call your elected officials, from the board to the legislators, and tell them to support this initiative. This will benefit everyone.”

Winfield has discussed his sports complex vision on several occasions and expanded it at a meeting of city and county officials in December when he discussed the proposed tax increases.

The city in 2003 bought a 200-acre tract on Fisher Ferry Road for a sports complex for $325,000. City officials abandoned the project in 2009 after spending an additional $2.7 million for preliminary plans, engineering and dirt work.

Winfield said Wednesday that the Fisher Ferry site was not suitable, saying part of the property, including the access route, is in a flood zone.

“I’m a person who believes you don’t throw money into a bad project,” he said.

In 2007, the city board hired USA Partners Sports Alliance of Jacksonville, Fla., for $250,000 to determine the feasibility of a proposed $25 million sports complex at Halls Ferry Park, including Bazinsky Field, proposed by the Aquila Group of Vicksburg. It would have included baseball and softball fields and related amenities, a water park, a baseball stadium/ballpark and facilities for golf, soccer, volleyball, tennis and other activities. The Aquila Group would lead the construction and management of the fields and sports facilities.

The project died after a study by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality found the site was not suitable because part of Halls Ferry Park was built on what was once the city’s landfill.

Under an agreement between the city and USA Partners, which was hired after the Aquila Group approached the city, the company would return the $250,000 feasibility study cost to the city if the complex did not materialize. More than four years later, the city has not been reimbursed.

If his plan goes through, Winfield said, the sports complex will include baseball, softball and soccer fields and a walking track. He said the facility would be built in stages, projecting its completion in 12 to 18 months.

He asked Vicksburg Deputy Chief John Dolan, whose son, Derek, 15, plays baseball, to speak at the Wednesday meeting. Dolan said he has attended tournaments across Mississippi and in other states.

Dolan said the areas he’s visited “put a lot of effort into having really, really good facilities. Canton, Tupelo and Madison hold tournaments every week, we can’t do that.”

Having a sports complex in Vicksburg, he said, would be a plus, adding that the city could attract tournaments “if we really had a nice facility here.”

Lynn Foley, director of sales for Southern Hospitality Services, which owns four hotels in Vicksburg, said she supports Winfield’s plan, adding she has twin sons who play tennis, baseball and soccer.

“I’m a big supporter of youth sports,” she said after the meeting. “I know what kind of economic impact a sports complex can have here. But the mayor, somewhere along the line, is going to have to address the general public and explain it to them.”

“If it’s something that’s going to be built and bring the people to the area, it benefits everyone,” said Paul Caudillo, who owns Annabel bed and breakfast inn on Speed Street. “If it’s going to cost a little more to do it, so be it. You have to spend money to make money, as the saying goes.”