Financing a Facility

By Tim Kuzma
From May 2010 Issue of VolleyBiz

The Munciana Volleyball Club has a long and proud history dating back to 1977 when Steve Shondell formed the first club team comprised of girls from Muncie Northside High School. Presently, the club is comprised of over 300 young ladies ranging in age from 8 to 18. The club is located in Muncie, Indiana, a town of 65,000 located in East Central Indiana between

Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. With such a small population base it is surprising to most people in the volleyball community to learn that Munciana has won seventeen national championships competing in the USAV and, most recently, the JVA national tournaments.

Wes Lyon, who has been the club director for over twenty years, was joined by Michael Lingenfelter as co-director seven years ago when David Shondell left the club to become the head volleyball coach at Purdue University. Lingenfelter's 18-1's team won both the JVA and AAU national championships last year. Since Title IX was enacted, over 300 Munciana graduates have gone on to play volleyball at the collegiate level. The long list of distinguished alumni has performed at the highest levels including on the U.S.A. National teams. Moreover, dozens of coaches have matriculated to head and assistant coaching jobs at every level.

In 2008, local businessman Tim Kuzma joined Wes Lyon and Mike Lingenfelter who, together, began to formulate a business plan that would serve as a roadmap for Munciana as it embarked on it's plans to become a full service club that including an apparel arm, an expanded camp schedule and a new facility that would permit them to hold practices, conduct tournaments and provide a concession service. Upon surveying the community for potential sites, Kuzma learned of a multi-sports park being built in Yorktown, IN., a suburb of Muncie. A meeting was set up with the town officials who were well aware of the tremendous reputation that Munciana enjoyed in the community. They offered that if we would locate our new facility on their site between the baseball and soccer fields that they would lease us the land for $1 a year for 99 years. We would also have access to the vast parking lot that they had planned for the project.

As plans progressed, Yorktown incented us to add 10,000 square feet to our footprint so that a community YMCA could co-occupy our building. This made an eminent amount of sense to us as we had been looking for a partner to provide our girls with a physical workout regimen to supplement their volleyball training. The final product has been a building containing six volleyball courts on 27,500 square feet, a 10,000 square ft. YMCA and a 5,000 square foot common area housing our apparel shop, concession area and rest rooms along with space where people can relax between matches. Plans call for a walking trail through a seven acre woods located on the property and a bike trail connecting the complex to the town park a half mile away.

To finance the project, Munciana applied for a loan through a local bank which partnered with the Small Business Administration 504 Program to provide the necessary funding. Basically, Munciana contributed 10% of the capital, the bank 50% and the SBA 40% at a fixed rate for 20 years. These loans are available on a national basis for credit worthy projects such as ours. Banks are amenable to making these loans because the SBA provides them with a government guaranteed margin of safety. For more information you can google the 'SBA 504 Loan Program', consult your local banker or give me, Tim Kuzma, a call at 765-748-4071.

Junior Volleyball Association

All communities are looking for ways to attract jobs, enhance their quality of life and bring in overnight visitors who stay in their hotels and frequent their establishments. The Munciana Volleyball Club accomplished all three objectives for Yorktown and Delaware County. We are huge advocates of the JVA organization and look forward to rapid growth in partnership with their programs.

About the Author, Tim Kuzma

I read over my email and realized that I was remiss in mentioning anything about myself. have been in the financial services business for nine years and am currently employed as a registered Certified Financial Planner at Raymond James and Associates, Inc. In my former life I owned a manufacturing company which I grew from nine to one hundred and twenty employees and sold to Knape and Vogt Mfg. Co., Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1996 I co-founded the Indiana Basketball Academy in Indianapolis with Tom Abernethy. That was a successful business and afforded me the opportunity to learn the sports business before I sold my interest in 2001. In 2008 I joined Wes Lyon, Mike Lingenfelter and Steve Shondell as part owner of the Munciana Volleyball Club.

We have four children including three girls all of whom were fortunate enough to participate in the Munciana Volleyball Club program. My eldest, Kristi, was the libero at Eastern Kentucky University. Kimberly is currently the starting libero at The University of Wisconsin and previously played on the U.S.A. National team for two years in Puerto Rico and China. Our youngest daughter, Karyn, is a current member of the Munciana 16-1's team. She played libero for Wes Lyon's state champion Muncie Central Bearcat volleyball team last fall as a sophomore. My son, Tim, did not play volleyball, but he played several sports, including basketball through high school. He graduated from Albion College and went on to get his Masters Degree in Accounting at The University of Michigan.

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