Sports park manager says 19 tournaments proposed; venue aiming to open in March

Chastity Heron (goes by "Chas"), representing the county sports park, briefed McCracken County Fiscal Court on June 9 about programming, staffing and tournaments planned for the venue.

Heron said the park has 19 proposed tournaments under consideration that would occupy mostly separate weekends from March through July, with additional events in August, September and October. The events include youth baseball partners (UTrip and GameDay USA), softball organizers (NSA), and discussions with soccer and national rights holders for small-sided events (3v3 and 5v5). One prospective youth baseball event could draw about 100 teams, Heron said.

Staffing plans include a director of operations, Jeff Woodside, already on board, a shared finance manager with a nearby venue, and a planned business-development hire around September–October. Heron said the venue will be cashless, is launching booking software, preparing an operations manual and establishing equipment maintenance tracking.

Heron discussed weekday programming as well as weekend tournaments: approved NFL Flag Football activities, camps and clinics; county soccer programming; potential adult-recreation leagues; and possible disc-golf tournaments with the National Amateur Disc Golf Association. She said organizers will award weekend dates based on projected team counts and revenue and that some requests for the same weekend have already been declined.

Heron expressed confidence in a target opening in March, while noting some event agreements might be finalized closer to the dates. Commissioners asked about overlap with other regional venues and praised coordination with adjacent facilities to avoid scheduling conflicts.

The briefing was informational; no formal court action was taken on the presentation itself.