Manteca needs to start the ball rolling on the development of its much touted 150-acre family entertainment zone better known as the FEZ.

And the way to do that is to secure a water park.

You read that right.

Manteca needs a water park;

A good old-fashioned one cut from the same cloth of Manteca Waterslides.

Something like Raging Waters.

Wait, you say, what about Great Wolf?

It’s got 95,000 square feet of temperate controlled indoor water park features, 500 hotel rooms, a conference center, a bona fide restaurant, and numerous arcade-style entertainment and dining options.

And if you get “x” amount of local people together they can rent a room and secure water park access for days at a rate comparable to a Raging Waters ticket.

Or you can try to scramble for few and far between one-day water park only access tickets that is much more than the cost of a Raging Waters ticket.

But here’s the problem with that.

Great Wolf at the end of the day operates like a destination resort. That’s a good business model.

It has, however, limited appeal to the people within 60 miles that will:

*fill all of the restaurants in the FEZ that Manteca dreams of.

*create the synergy of local regional draw that would get the family entertainment businesses. *add to the under tapped draw of the Big League Dreams sports complex that in turn can help lure more hotels when weekend tournaments in Manteca BLD become more that just about softball and baseball games.

Let’s go back to 2008.

What got the ball rolling on an indoor water park?

The city had inquiries in the past from firms interested in building Raging Waters style outdoor water park adjacent to the BLD sports complex.

Such a combination in Mansfield, Texas — a BLD sports complex paired with. Hawaiian Falls water park — has been enjoying substantial success.

In fact, after Manteca Council members 17 years ago visited Mansfield to see how the water park-BLD combo worked, they got the idea the Family City could do better.

Fourteen years later, Great Wolf opened in Manteca.

It should be pointed out that it took:

*a lot of negotiations.

*Manteca doing the grunt work prior to having anyone sign on the dotted line to prep for an indoor water park from a complete environment impact report to basic infrastructure.

*Great Wolf walking away from talks with Manteca and courting Brentwood and Gilroy.

*their competitors trying to sweet talk their way into Manteca.

*a second round of successful negotiations with Great Wolf.

It should be noted what was written into the final deal that Great Wolf and the city signed.

*Manteca for 25 years from the day Great Wolf opened, was prohibited from providing incentives for any indoor water park that includes more than 5,000 square feet of indoor water park space.

*It did not restrict other water parks such as Raging Water from building in the FEZ and, if deemed necessary, receive some type of financial incentives from the city.

*Didn’t prevent destination business competitors of Great Wolf such as Kalahari Waterparks that was at one time was in negotiations for than 30 acres from the city to build in Manteca.

Let’s be clear that more than one water park can thrive in close proximity to others.

The Dells in Wisconsin, as an example, has four massive indoor water parks — including Great Wolf — as well as five outdoor water parks.

And many of the water parks has everything from outdoor go-cart racing, mini-golf courses, wave pools, and permanent amusement style rides such as Ferris wheels, roller coasters, and carousels.

Keep in mind the success of Manteca Waterslides — California’s first outdoor water — included a heavy dose of travelers, foreign and domestic, going to or from Yosemite National Park.

It was a cool respite from the late spring, summer, and early fall heat.

Toss in 800,000 people within 30 miles of Manteca that have no access to a regional water park, and you have a local regional pull along with the Great Wolf NorCal pull.

That is a one-two punch.

Imagine what would happen if a Raging Waters was built next door to BLD or within clear view of the 120 Bypass like the Sunsplash Water Park is in Roseville?

Judging from the goodwill Manteca Waterslides, it would create what one might call political goodwill in the community and make it clear Manteca is the water park and family fun capital of Northern California.

The funny thing is when Manteca first started talking about trying to snare a water park, the was no less than three outdoor water park concerns knocking on their door.

Rest assured, whatever prompted such interest, that it is like two-fold today.

So what can Manteca do to get things going?

There are no sales taxes collected on sales tax in California.

That leaves a property tax split as one of only two ways to offer an incentive, if one is needed to make an outdoor water park pencil out in Manteca without the city going into debt or being on the hook for any debt.

The other could do the trick without giving up and money per.

Manteca has been hinting lately the FEZ may include some high-profile retail along the freeway with the family entertainment style businesses north of Daniels Street.

It should be noted the Great Wolf deal gives the indoor water park an option — that has a time limit — to purchase the adjoining 9.67 acres to add an addition 200 rooms.

That would make the overall Great Wolf some 700 rooms on 39.67 acres.

The city should pursue an outdoor water park.

It should go next door to BLD or on the 9.67 acres that Great Wolf doesn’t seem to want.

If it goes next to Great Wolf, it doesn’t take away from the original plan which was to have 9.67 acres of the adjoining city land dedicated to water park uses.

And there is one nice thing about an outdoor water park.

They don’t charge $15 for guests to use their parking lot like Great Wolf does.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com