Two of Fresno's largest parks are getting extreme makeovers.

Mountain bikers and BMX racers will soon pedal across new tracks at Woodward Park. Paintballers and rugby players will scramble on new fields at the Regional Sports Complex in southwest Fresno beginning this fall.

The result could be an economic windfall for the city as it attracts more extreme-sports athletes, said Parks Director Randall Cooper. After bike races and paintball wars, they're bound to rest up in local hotels and refuel in nearby restaurants, he said.

The improvements -- which will cost more than $3 million altogether -- also include more traditional elements. Woodward Park will get more seats for its amphitheater, for example. The Regional Sports Complex will get new lights for playing fields.

"When we're through, you won't be able to say there's nothing to do in Fresno," Cooper said.

Some of the work is well under way.

In Woodward, city crews and about 80 volunteers are using truckloads of dirt to create a BMX track, three mountain-bike trails and a bicycle jump course in a 57-acre lot in the park's northwest corner.

The bike courses are expected to be finished by November.

Parks officials will try to use the track and trails to lure state and national events.

"On a daily basis, we'll pull in people from around the Valley, and for bigger weekend events people will come from around the state and the country," said Ryan Garcia, a parks supervisor who is overseeing the projects and was a 2004 National Bicycle League champion BMX rider.

There also are plans to add parking and improve a Frisbee golf course in Woodward's northwest corner.

Projects in the area will cost $300,000.

Woodward's BMX track will open about the same time a track in Madera is scheduled to close. Madtown BMX in the Madera County Fairgrounds is shutting down to make room for a strip mall.

To ride the Woodward BMX track, bikers will have to buy a $45 annual membership and pay $5 to practice and $10 to race. Fees will be reduced for children from low-income families, and there will be bikes and helmets provided for those who need them.

The membership dues cover insurance costs. Practice and race fees will pay for track maintenance.

There will be no charge to ride mountain-bike trails and the jump course.

One rider eager to try the new trails is Steve Clark of Kerman. The 10-year-old has been riding a BMX bike on Madera's track for three years. He heard about a new course opening in Woodward from his father and 21-year-old brother, who are both active in the sport.

Steve said he is eager to test the new track and has this message for other Valley children thinking of giving it a try: "They're going to have a lot of fun. They just need to go out there and ride."

Also at Woodward, a canopy expected to make 100-degree days feel 20 degrees lower will be added to the Rotary Amphitheater early next year. The amphitheater also will get 800 new seats, bringing its capacity to 4,000. The $1.5 million project will make the venue more attractive for weekend music festivals, Cooper said.

The one-way road that snakes through Woodward is being converted to accommodate two-way traffic. It's hoped that the change, along with two new places to enter and exit, will make navigating the park easier for what officials expect will be an increased number of visitors.

At the Regional Sports Complex at Jensen and West avenues, the city will use $1.5 million in developer fees to install new lights at two softball diamonds and four soccer fields and build a paintball facility in an 11-acre basin that's filled with brown weeds and overgrown grass.

The paintball facility is scheduled to be finished in time to host a state competition in September.

A soccer field also is being modified for use by the Fresno Rugby Club. Rugby fields are slightly bigger than soccer fields and need permanent holes on two ends for upright poles.

The Fresno club will use the sports complex field for the first time in November for a tournament. The club will pay $75 to use the field for each game or tournament.

"The simple fact that we have a home is tremendous," said the club's president, Andrew Clark, who added that his team has practiced and played at parks and schools throughout Fresno and Clovis, most recently at Granite Park. "Every team, everywhere, struggles to find a home field."

Fresno's Parks Department is borrowing money from the city's general fund to pay for it all.

Officials plan to repay it from fees that developers pay for parks.

Cooper has many more ideas for the sports complex but hasn't yet secured money to make them a reality.

He wants to add a rock-climbing wall and build a motocross course for off-road motorcycles on 9 acres just east of the park.

"Can you imagine that?" Cooper says. "Another one of my crazy visions."

The reporter can be reached at mleedy@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6208.