In July, Upper Merion Area Spotlight reported on the township’s application for a $20 million state grant toward a roughly $197 million mixed-use sports and entertainment development in Moore Park. The proposal described a multipurpose venue with more than 7,500 seats for professional sports, concerts and community events, alongside housing, shared parking and other improvements.

The township did not receive the requested $20 million in the state’s announced grant round. More than two and a half years after the first documented approach to township officials, the proposal’s future is unclear. Newly obtained records show how much public money was paid to one consultant as officials worked on it, and how uncertain its financing remained even before the grant decision.

Upper Merion paid Neumann & Associates, LLC at least $163,993.66, according to 17 distinct township electronic-payment confirmations dated from September 2024 through April 2026. The payments covered monthly consulting, travel reimbursements and a $25,000 economic and fiscal impact analysis. The confirmations identify the township’s general fund as the payment source.

That is a documented minimum, not a complete accounting of the project’s costs. The township’s August 2024 accounts-payable packet lists two earlier Neumann invoices totaling $10,585.56, but the records reviewed do not establish when they were paid. In a June 2026 email, Neumann said his April and May fees, totaling $25,000, had been paid; the township did not supply the corresponding payment records. Neither amount is included in our $163,993.66 total. Supervisors also approved a $46,200 EwingCole proposal, but the records do not establish what EwingCole was paid. Total spending on this effort could exceed $200,000. The records do not yet establish the full amount.

Richard Neumann, the firm’s president, contacted Board Chair Tina Garzillo and Township Manager Anthony Hamaday in February 2024 to suggest exploring a minor league baseball venue and related development. Hamaday replied that supervisors had previously discussed a similar possibility. The supervisors approved a consulting agreement at their July 18, 2024 public meeting. The initial arrangement called for a $5,000 monthly fee; later agreements increased the monthly fee to $10,000 and then $12,500.

The work went beyond discussions of a ballpark. The township’s September 2025 grant application said Neumann had prepared an economic-impact analysis, EwingCole had developed preliminary site design, and LF Driscoll had prepared a construction-cost analysis. Those were described as work used to support the application, whose proposed $20 million use was construction and site infrastructure.

The board approved $46,200 from General Fund Reserve for an EwingCole family entertainment and sporting-event venue study in September 2024. Emails indicate that EwingCole subsequently produced studies of several sites and that Driscoll revised a construction estimate. The $46,200 is an approved proposal amount, not a payment established by the records we have. We have not established who retained or paid Driscoll. Neither amount has been added to the confirmed Neumann payments.

The Neumann payment total does include $25,000 for the economic and fiscal impact analysis. It appears alongside a $5,000 monthly fee on an April 10, 2025 township payment confirmation for $30,000. Neumann’s invoice says the analysis was delivered in March 2025, and correspondence describes the study being shared and discussed. That evidence does not support saying the township received nothing for its money. A July 21, 2025 email about revising the economic-impact study refers to 1,161 residential units and 10,000 square feet of office space, modeled over seven years also being included.

The Upper Merion Area Spotlight requested reports, analyses, presentations, contracts and payment records in an August 19 Right-to-Know request. The full economic and fiscal impact analysis was not included in what the township supplied. In its September 25 response, the township granted the request in part and denied it in part, citing internal predecisional deliberations, confidential proprietary information and attorney-client privilege or work product. The letter did not identify the full analysis as a specific withheld record or explain its absence. Its omission from the supplied folders does not mean it was never produced.

The grant application projected $197 million in funding from a mix of state, private, township and county sources. Those figures described a proposed financing plan; the application does not establish that every source had committed money.

By June 2026, Garzillo was seeking Montgomery County’s support for legislation that would allow a higher county hotel tax. In a June 10 letter to commissioners, she wrote that there could be “no Project without the bed tax increase.” Her request was for enabling legislation and county consideration, not an approved tax increase or a county funding commitment. Current Pennsylvania law caps the hotel tax for a second-class A county at 5%.

In a July 13 email, Hamaday said he thought additional design and owner’s-representative work was on hold. He questioned who would pay for a separate $94,000 EwingCole design proposal that had not been budgeted for 2026. That was a proposed additional phase, not another confirmed township expenditure.

The supplied email correspondence ends July 23, before the state announced the grant awards. It does not establish whether the board later revised the financing plan, pursued another funding source or decided to end the proposal. The absence of the $20 million award does not, by itself, prove the broader concept is dead.

At a March 12, 2026 meeting, a King of Prussia resident asked what a Neumann agreement on the consent agenda was for. Township Manager Anthony Hamaday said the board was looking into a possible sports and entertainment facility in the township. He also mentioned a sports component at the former JCPenney store and the township's outdoor skating rink as examples of other possibilities. The resident asked why the agenda item did not include an explanation and the contract amount, so residents could understand it and comment. Hamaday replied that the board had approved a monthly consulting price in February.

Later, Vice Chair Bill Jenaway returned to the resident’s question. He said supervisors needed sports-management expertise and cited tourism's work attracting youth sports, interest in hockey facilities, growing soccer programs and concerts. Neither response in the minutes described the $197 million mixed-use proposal or the township's $20 million grant application, both of which preceded this meeting. The minutes do not record a dollar figure being stated during the resident’s exchange with Hamaday.

The July 2024 hearing concerned where spectator-sport facilities could be permitted and their parking requirements. It was not a vote to build or finance the specific development described in the later grant application. The records reviewed for this story do not provide a complete accounting of all consultant payments, the full studies behind the projected benefits, or a current decision on whether the township is pursuing this particular proposal.

The questions now are straightforward: How much has the township paid in total for this effort? What did each consultant deliver? Is there a viable financing plan without the requested grant and hotel-tax increase? And is the township still pursuing the development?

As soon as we get those answers, we’ll share them.

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Thank you for reading,

Corey