New indoor sports center to open in Loves Park with a bigger second phase on the horizon
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — A new indoor sports complex is designed to give athletes of all ages and families a place to play and train year-round.
Elite Sports Center is a 10,000-square foot training facility with premium arena turf at 6800 Forest Hills Road, which is near the northwest corner of Forest Hills and Riverside Boulevard. The complex will open on Sept. 5, but that’s just the first step the owners have planned for the nearly 11-acre plot of land.
“This is kind of an opening act for us,” said co-owner Darko Gligorevic, taking a page from how Hard Rock Casino Rockford rolled out its opening.
Next up, crews will break ground on a second, 24,000-square-foot facility that will include a turf baseball infield. That work is expected to start in the coming days and be complete in time to open in late summer 2026.
The second facility will include lofted areas for spectator seating. It will serve snacks and drinks, including alcoholic beverages, while looking to nearby restaurants for catering special events.
“It’s going to bring people into the community, and it’s going to allow them to see other things in the community once they’re here,” Mayor Greg Jury said. “There’s such a need for indoor sports during the winter. There will be a lot of teams that are now traveling to the suburbs to get practice time, they’ll be able to stay right here.”
The sports center is being developed by two former area athletes who are now in the construction industry. Gligorevic, the owner of Ambassador Homes, and Mike Urena, the owner Armoured Exteriors, partnered to overhaul a long-vacant former lumber yard into the new sports complex.
“This was sort of an eye sore for the city,” Jury said. “When you have as much traffic as goes down Forest Hills Road, this is awesome now the way it looks.”
When they started remodeling the former lumber building it was initially envisioned as a flex space for small contractors to have their offices and storage. They changed focus after meeting with a local baseball organization and a football training program that both needed space to train.
The baseball program, 342 Legacy, is leasing a 5,000-square-foot space where it will have batting and pitching cages and other training grounds, the owners said. They’re also expected to be one of the primary users of the larger building when it opens next year. The other group, 360 Premier Football Academy, is expected to be a regular user of the sports center.
Elite Sports Center is open to other sports as well, from soccer to Ultimate Frisbee, dodgeball and other activities. Gligorevic said he also hopes to keep the space active in early mornings by opening it for seniors for walking, games or other light activities.
Urena, a 2009 Harlem High School graduate and football player, and Gligorevic, a 1998 Guilford grad and soccer player, both understood the need for athletes to have a year-round home for training.
The center features two spaces that can be rented by the half hour, with a minimum one hour reserved.
There is a small agility training area with free weights, and a larger space that includes two soccer goals. That field is 47-foot by 110-foot, fitting for five-on-five soccer for adults or more youth competitors, Gligorevic said.
The field is covered with arena padded turf that doesn’t use rubber granules for its playing surface.
“When you go play sports indoors, you come home with all kinds of rubber in your shoes,” Gligorevic said. “This kind doesn’t use rubber. It’s called arena turf and it’s mostly put in universities and big arenas.”
It also has a seating area that overlooks both fields.
“It’s very centralized in Rockford,” Gligorevic said. “You can bring your son and daughter and actually sit and watch, being close and personal to everything.”
There is access to the sports center from Forest Hills Road and Riverside Boulevard near the future Super Bowl Mongolian Grill. Jury said the city will likely have to consider new access points to make it easier for people to get in and out as the business expands in the future.
The owners said if the two indoor complexes are successful, they could add outdoor features to other parts of the property.
“This could be a sports complex,” Urena said. “We’re going to see how the community accepts, how it works and just take it and move it.”
About | Elite Sports Center
Where: 6800 Forest Hills Road, Loves Park
Opening date: Friday, Sept. 5, 2025
Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Online: elitesportscenter.net
Phone: 815-222-2999
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas
