Belgium will host Europe’s biggest sportainment park

The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring

Europe’s largest sports entertainment (or sportainment) park is set to open doors sometime this spring in the town of Hasselt (Belgium). The facility is created and managed by Sparkx, a sports company, which is also currently looking for 40 new employees to staff the upcoming park.

It won't be the largest in terms of square meters, according to the entrepreneurs, but it will be the biggest in terms of the activities on offer. A total of 50 sports disciplines will be accessible for people to practice, including modern additions, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) simulators.

Physical and mental well-being

The whole amusement park is set to be indoors spread over 3,500 square metres.

In addition to the classic sports (football, basketball, tennis, baseball, etc.), other lesser-known sports such as curling, pigeon shooting, sport fishing, and virtual dodgeball will be offered. Or even sports that are usually too expensive or for which you need to travel far to practice - such as paragliding.

Visitors will be able to train on an alpine skiing simulator, on a virtual F1 circuit or enjoy a wingsuit flight simulator.

What’s more, the venue is meant to be intergenerational and multi-functional in terms of offering value for users. The organizers emphasize the physical and mental health benefits of practising sports together.

"On Wednesday afternoons and weekends, we mainly expect families, on weekdays we mainly target schools and companies in the morning and, in the afternoon, we will of course welcome everyone,” explains Anja Swinnen, park manager, as quoted by Tendences Trends.

Sparkx has big development ambitions. The Hasselt park is only the first stage of an international project. The partners' objective is to create the first park in Belgium, then to develop gradually and, eventually, to build other parks in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.