Drove by today - it looks good.
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New Youth Baseball Complex in Starkville
- Thread starter bomanishus
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I was there for a 10U tournament. The one question we all had was why home plate was sitting below the turf several inches on all the fields.
turn off 12 onto 25 (headed toward Louisville), it is on the right (you'll see a huge cross).
Sports Complex in Starkville MS | Cornerstone Sports Complex
Welcome to Cornerstone Sports Complex! We will pave the way for the next generation of sports in Mississippi and beyond.
playcornerstone.com
Will there ultimately be soccer fields like the site shows?Sports Complex in Starkville MS | Cornerstone Sports Complex
Welcome to Cornerstone Sports Complex! We will pave the way for the next generation of sports in Mississippi and beyond.
Would have to see it in person. I tend to compare all parks like this to Southaven's Snowden Grove Complex. Snowden Grove is so big you have to drive between most ballfields. Cornerstone looks better planned on layout in that regard. Should be a big plus for baseball and tourneys near the Carnegie Hall of College Baseball.
I believe the plan is to keep soccer at McKee/Sportsplex and keep Cornerstone exclusive to baseball.
Means nothing, except tourism and money for Starkville. And that’s far from a sure thing, these things are better suited for metro areas.
But what goes on out on those fields matters very little as far as developing a crop of future MSU players. It’s a money racket, plain and simple.
The market for this has to be nearing saturation. Every town in Mississippi has a turf complex now it seems. If I’m Starkville, I’d have rather seen bike trails, walking trails, etc.
We have a $10 Million - 43 mile long walking/bike trail up here from New Albany to Houston. It gets used by some, but it hasn’t had the tourism impact they thought it would.
It's not all about tourism with those things. It's about QOL for the people who actually live there, and can help attract others. That's more impactful than small tourism dollars for travel baseball/soccer. Especially considering many that play in these tournaments make day trips and don't stay in hotels regularly. Of course, there are exceptions like a state tournament, but those only happen once or twice a year.
The new fields look great.....but it looks like this is only suited for Tball up until 12U .....the biggest fields are 250ft and there are only two of them....thats what i see on the website at least....And I could be wrong about the 12U thing....I thought at 13U the fields get bigger than 250?
The city is tearing out the baseball/softball fields at the Sportsplex and adding more big soccer fields in their place. I believe one of them will be artificial turf.
12U and under is where the money is, that's because parents still have all the control and they are in the throngs and fear of missing out. At 13U and up, the kids start making their own decisions and coaches start controlling PT and kids start getting weeded out.
Is this the right way to do it? I doubt it, but reality is reality. And it's hurting future baseball fandom, as a lot of these kids don't want anything to do with it later on.
And on the field length, yeah, 250 is about the max for 12U. The way to tell if 13U and above can play on the field is to measure the bases. If the last slot in the turf is at 70 feet, then yeah it's 12U max. Many times 13U is on the big field. You're seeing less and less of the 'pony' league field. Which is another bad thing, and contributes to more weed outs at 13U.
And thus, to sum all this up.....you see less big fields. Because there's much less demand for them. Follow the money.
I also think the odds of a lot of teams older than 12u playing tourneys in stark is probably not worth investing in. But I could easily be wrong on that.
The original plan was for them to remove one of the softball quads and turn it into multipurpose fields for soccer, flag football, etc. but with how overbudget the Cornerstone project is, I'll believe that when I see it.
The turf field is already in place, bearing Jeffrey Simmons' name.
Kirby Smart said in his interview today that he goes from an exotic vacation in July somewhere in the world and then rushes home to spend several days in Southaven, MS supporting one of his sons who was in a big travel ball tourney there. Snowden Grove does host some big baseball tourneys that draw teams from all over the nation. Brings in a good amount of money for the city for a couple weeks. Ed Easely had his baseball camp facility out there, but is now building a new facility just north of Hernando near the I-55/I-269 interchange.
ELEVATE | Easley Baseball Clubs Newest Facilities
ELEVATE | Easley Baseball Clubs Newest Facilities
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We need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You can have both.
Local restaurants usually appreciate the city bringing in thousands of people week after week to their front doors, especially in seasonal markets like a college town. Even the daytrippers will buy one meal (at least). It's impactful for them.
Hotels may be less impacted by people who live in say Houston or Columbus, but there will be an impact during many multi-day tournaments, not once or twice a year. I live in the metro and stayed 2 nights in Starkville for a soccer tournament last year. A ton of these families don't want to drive 2 hours back after games on Saturday just to turn around and do it again both ways on Sunday.
I agree with you about quality of life amenities for residents, but you can't just ignore "small" tourism dollars either. All those visitors are forced to come to town and spend money, and hopefully you make a good impression on them while they're in town so they'll come back.