A relatively young sport resembling soccer, played on a hard surface about the size of a basketball court, is being positioned for major development in Hawaii with an estimated $10 million complex in Kapolei.

The facility is slated to open in October with three indoor air-conditioned courts and the ambition of giving the sport called futsal more than a foothold in Hawaii, with training programs and leagues for all ages plus tournaments for local players and international teams.

“We’re going big,” said Kawika Del Rosario, the facility’s director. “We’re not just opening a facility. We’re literally going to be changing soccer and sports culture in Hawaii.”

Futsal is a five-on-five game that derives its name from a contraction of the Portuguese phrase “futebol de salao,” translated as “hall soccer,” though the court has boundary lines and not walls as there are in some forms of indoor soccer.

The game became big initially in Brazil, and the first Futsal World Cup was played in 1982 a year after a national governing body was created in the United States, according to U.S. Futsal. Play is high-scoring compared with soccer, and rewards players who can control the ball, dribble and pass in tight spaces.

In Hawaii, futsal’s presence has been spotty with some unsuccessful attempts to establish and sustain leagues and tournaments.

Del Rosario, a former soccer player and coach, started one pickup league in 2000 at King Intermediate School and in 2005 attempted to create a major tournament with an entry fee. “It was a big failure,” he recalled. A year later he had a hit getting a 15-team tournament sponsored by Niketown played outside the store in Waikiki, but his organization, Futsal Hawaii, petered out. Other organizations, including the Hawaii Futsal League, haven’t fared much better.

The Kapolei facility dubbed 808Futsal is driven by Richard Pentecost, a businessman and entrepreneur from New Caledonia who moved to Hawaii 40 years ago and played on a local semipro soccer team called the Coca-Cola Kicks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The former center fullback and sweeper said it was around that time when he discovered a variation on futsal being played by guys in the McCully District Park gym.

“We used to play two against two,” he said. “We didn’t know the word ‘futsal’ back then.”

Pentecost said he got hooked on the game’s fast pace. “It was more fun than playing soccer outdoors,” he said. “Every week we couldn’t wait to get there because it was so much fun.”

Soon Pentecost expects the same will happen to legions of Hawaii soccer players.

The 808Futsal facility on Opakapaka Street in the industrial area of Kapolei will feature three regulation-size futsal courts in an air-conditioned building with spectator stands, a snack bar and pro shop.

Pentecost declined to say how much money is being invested in the project, though a building permit values the work at $10 million.

There will be user fees, though they haven’t been set yet. Del Rosario said there will be training programs, recreational and competitive leagues, and tournaments; 808Futsal also will establish coach and referee development programs.

In February and March 808Futsal will host an international tournament with teams from the mainland and Japan. Del Rosario said Hawaii is a perfect meeting point for teams from Asia, South America, Australia and the mainland to participate in major futsal tournaments.

Within Hawaii Del Rosario said he expects strong interest especially from youth soccer players because futsal is quicker-paced and soccer players can master skills and speed up reflexes they can use in soccer. “It translates huge to their abilities,” he said.

Del Rosario said futsal has long been big in countries where soccer is a standout sport but is still developing on the mainland.

A professional U.S. league backed by the general manager of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Donnie Nelson, and the team’s owner, Mark Cuban, aims to play an inaugural season in 2018 after an exhibition season next year.

“We’re really kind of seen as the last (undeveloped) market,” Del Rosario said.

Pentecost expects his timing with 808Futsal will be right for the sport in Hawaii. And he already has a bit of experience that gives him confidence the new facility will do well. That experience was building an indoor inline skate hockey facility that opened in 2010 with two rinks, a pro shop and snack bar in Kapolei across the street from where the futsal complex is under construction. Kapolei Inline Hockey Arenas, as it is known, has done well.

“Like you say, build it and they will come,” Pentecost said.