Hundreds showed up for the unveiling of the Golden Eagle Regional Park sports complex in Wingfield Springs in Northern Sparks Monday morning.

Pretty soon thousands of athletes and fans will be using the largest public works development in the history of the city.

Currently, six adult softball, two Babe Ruth Baseball and two Little League/softball fields are complete and ready for action. The rest, which includes a stadium-sized soccer/football field as well as two multi-purpose fields are about 90 percent finished. Most of the construction now has to do with infrastructure and landscaping since real grass takes longer to grow than the turf used on the fields.

The main purpose of the new facility was to provide a new home for the softball and baseball programs that used Don Mello Sports Complex before it was leveled for The Legends at Sparks Marina project.

Golden Eagle Regional Park is a much-needed upgrade for the City of Sparks, which has not built a new sports complex in 25 years.

Construction was slightly behind schedule due to snow and a late winter freeze that pushed the pavers back about six weeks. Tony Pehlé of the Sparks Parks and Recreation Department hoped the fields would be ready in March, which has cut into teams' practice times on the fields. But opening night was planned for last night and several teams finally got to experience the new FieldTurf fields.

The FieldTurf will allow for year-round activities, and won't be using approximately 42 million gallons of water needed for irrigation for a comparable facility that used natural grass.

While Golden Eagle Regional Park is primarily meant for the sports programs in the Sparks Park and Recreation Department, it might not be long before an inquiry or two emerges about high school athletes using the venue. The new complex has caught the eye of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, the state's governing body for prep sports.

NIAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine lives in the area and has seen the park firsthand. He had rave reviews for the project and said if fields are regulation size for prep sports, he'd definitely look into hosting NIAA events at the park. The most likely possibilities are softball and soccer.

"The facilities there are one of a kind with the artificial turf. The baseball and football fields are not regulation size for high school, but it might be possible for softball and soccer," Bonine said. "I'll definitely consider talking to the people at Sparks. The venue is incredible."

The park will be home for the AYSO and Pop Warner football, and will also host soccer clinics during the summer.

As the largest usage of artificial turf at a sports complex in the United States, it's not just getting local attention.

"We have had a lot of out-of-state organizations trying to get tournaments in here. We've got a group out of Minnesota, Las Vegas and a few in Northern California trying to bring tournaments in," Pehlé said. "We've already met our expectations as far as people wanting to bring in national events. We've got one in July and one in October already."

As one of the largest per capita adult softball programs in the nation, there was some concern the location of the new fields would deter some participants from making the drive up Vista Boulevard, especially with traffic congestion. However, Pehlé has seen quite the opposite. State-of-the-art facilities tend to outweigh slight inconveniences.

"We actually have the most teams we've ever had, 310 teams at the start of the season," he said.

Golden Eagle Regional Park is not just for youth and adult sports affiliated with the Sparks Parks and Recreation Department. With 47 teams and over 450 girls participating, the Sparks Fastpitch Softball Association didn't realize it would have access to the new park even though it needed it.

The league uses many of the area's middle school and elementary school fields that sometimes resemble cow pastures more than softball fields. Marie Hooft, a member of the league's Board of Directors the past 18 years, is excited to have access to a field where the girls can just go out and play and don't have to worry about chalking it and getting it ready beforehand.

"We didn't even know we were going to be able to use it," Hooft said. "We thought it would just be for baseball and adults, but we get to use the field up on top three days a week. We're excited. That's just wonderful."