SportsQuest has lost its partnership with an indoor sports training facility in Chesterfield County and is actively engaged in selling off several parts of its business.
The Richmond Indoor Sports Experience, which has a facility on Oak Lake Boulevard near the SportsQuest complex in Chesterfield, cut its business ties with SportsQuest on Friday. The two groups had been partners on a number of programs, including baseball and indoor lacrosse.
The move came "for many reasons that can't be discussed right now," Christopher Robinson, the managing director of RISE, said on Monday.
Steve Burton, the founder and chief executive of SportsQuest, said the move was an effort "to keep innocent bystanders from getting hurt."
"What we didn't want to do was have some of the challenges facing our membership (division) hurt our other business units," he said.
On Feb. 6, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a lawsuit in Chesterfield that claims SportsQuest fraudulently marketed and sold memberships to a health and fitness club that has yet to be built. The suit asks, among other things, that SportsQuest offer refunds to all of its 700-plus customers. It also calls for as much as $3,500 in civil penalties and the cost of litigation.
The day before RISE ended its deal, Burton posted a "member update" on his website saying that SportsQuest had been divided into three distinct business units and that buyers were "now engaged in separate acquisitions" of two of the three.
According to Burton's letter, SportsQuest is now divided into units called Events, Academy and Memberships. The latter two are apparently in the process of being sold, and Burton said in the letter that "three parties … have a strong interest in working collectively to acquire" the Events portion.
The divisions are the latest twist for SportsQuest, a 250-acre sports training and competition campus. Originally planned as an Olympics-style sports village, SportsQuest has struggled to raise money in the three-plus years since it was announced. The campus has a dozen lighted outdoor soccer fields and some infrastructure improvements on its east campus — the Genito Road campus is split by state Route 288 — and use of an off-site fitness center.
In a news release emailed to RISE members over the weekend, Robinson wrote, in part, "I would like to take this opportunity to clarify what you may have seen in the news recently involving SportsQuest and to ensure our patrons that this situation does not, and will not, impact your experience at RISE."
Later in the two-paragraph letter, Robinson wrote, "We have severed all ties to SportsQuest and all of its business units. RISE is in no way associated with SportsQuest or involved in any of SportsQuest's current and future legal issues."
The Cuccinelli suit Feb. 6 was the most recent in a growing list of claims against SportsQuest.
In late January, a contractor filed a mechanic's lien for nearly $500,000 against SportsQuest for unpaid bills relating to site work on the 250-acre campus.
Two other contractors filed for mechanic's liens last year for more than $250,000 worth of work, and a local landscaping company sought a judgment for an unpaid bill in December.
Burton said "discussions are ongoing" with potential SportsQuest investors.
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