Congrats to Memphis on Spring Fling

[Sequatchie]

Money can't be the only answer because Chattanooga had the same bid amount thanks to a Chattanooga business.

 

I hope the TSSAA learns the hard way. In the Pocket Book!!

[sportsguy1]

The softball fields at Chattanooga are so bad that the regularly host National Tournaments there. You people don't know what you are talking about. Those fields are fine. What I want to know is what is with this opening ceremonies bull crap??? Who is going to be there...tennis??? The other teams won't even be there. Plus I really doubt NSYNC will come to do this either. I don't care in Justin Timberlake is from Memphis or not.

[Indian]

Sure if I came from Memphis or Nashville or Johnson City, and I HAD TIME, I'd want to check out the aquarium in Chattanooga or whatever in Memphis. If you come early there's probably some time, but try playing in a loser's bracket or playing in one of the early week events and see how important the tourism is..the other stuff is fun but it's all secondary to the actual championships going on. Oh yeah the NSA nationals in softball will be in Chattanooga so there must be something right.

[Edited by Indian on 6/6/02 5:27P]

[std]

There's no Bea's Resturant in Memphis!!!

[tntallguy31]

I hope you people are not surprised by TSSAA going to Memphis. When has the TSSAA ever done something that made since. Now we have a state championship on the far end of the state. Whats next one win football team making the playoffs. Oh wait a minute we already have that. Maybe basketball teams that can lose three games from the start of the distict tournament and still win a state championship. Wait we already have that too. Remember people the T$$AA is all about money. It has all those huge saleries to pay that it has to make money any way it can. Did you people know Tennessee is one of the only state high school sports agency that doesn't answer to anyone. The do things the way they want to with out having to justify them. Talk about giving the prisoners the key to the jail. One time I would like to see what those people make. But that won't happen because they are not a public orgnazation. Can you believe that. A state run high school sports orgnazation that can do what ever it wants. I maybe wrong about somethings and if I am and you know for sure please correct me. People never be surprised by anything the T$$AA does, Unless it makes sense.

[Funman]

Softball takes a beating in the TSSAA decidion today.......Every team who makes the state tournament wants to get to the final to play in the Field of Dreams! There is no better setting for softball than Chattanooga and their softball complex......does Memphis or Nashville or Jackson have a Field of Dreams,,,no....what a shame for softball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TSSAA is clueless

[TheEgoHasLanded]

In response to what there is to do in Memphis

 

There is a zoo that is set to open up at new 12 million dollar exhibit in July.

 

There is also a family park called Libertyland that is similar to Dollywood, but a little bit bigger.

 

There is Graceland, Sunshine studio, always an exhibit at the pyramid, there is this thing called Memphis in May where the entire city celebrates a specific country, that is when they have things such as Musicfest (165,000 people attend for 3 days groups for everyone from country rap alternative), Barbeque festival (teams from all over the world form to try and win), and the Southern food festival.

Always fun to go downtown to see the redbirds play (have a stadium that is only 2 years old and very nice), or go to Jillians (restaurant at OpryMills), there is Tunica (casinos for adults, and arcades and shopping for kids and people who dont want to gamble, and huge buffets)..you could also go see memphis' pro soccer teams or arena football teams play. There are many things to do in Memphis, and in alot of ways I am glad they moved it because Chattanooga is just so crowded sometimes.

[ERA]

Don't stay out past dark, don't go anywhere unless there are three of you together at least one male, don't make direct eye contact with people at intersections, don't expect to drive a nice car and not have something stolen. These are just parts of the short list of Memphis no-no's. I have a brother in Germantown with his family of two girls. I've heard it all. He moved from the Arkansas side seven years ago and now the crime has come into Germantown. The cops all wear bullet proof vests and helmets with shields in Germantown. It's a beautiful place but this book's cover is a chameleon. Even the housing prices (beautiful homes) are falling.

 

The Murder Mall or Mall of Murder as someone tried to correct me about is called the latter by the press and the former by the local public. It's a story of gangs, rapes, murders and control of territory that brought down a new multimillion dollar mall a few years ago. All taking place in the mall itself and parking lots. The press had to put it in the back pages because the merchants in the mall threatened to cut all their advertising with the press and tv stations. Eventually, the mall was brought to its knees and is nothing more than a dying hulk. There's a lot more to this story.

 

Another fine mess we're in. I am suspicious of money like the rest of you but I can't shake a gut feeling I have that this is also about something else, maybe two or three things in all. When you have org's that don't have to answer to anyone but themselves, anything goes, even spitefullness. Is there any ties to Memphis amongst the board? It doesn't stop there either. There's more I'm sure, it will eventually come out.

[CoachT]

There are several posts, on different boards, concerning this same topic with similar comments. Therefore, I am going to make this one post on several boards.

 

Personally, I hate to see the Spring Fling leave Chattanooga. They have done a great job with it for 9 years and I fully expect them to come back in three years with a dynamite proposal. Also on a personal level, I would like to see the Fling in Middle Tennessee...just like every other area of the state would like it in their part of the state. This time it is Memphis' turn.

 

This time around, Memphis had the best proposal. If you look through them all and weigh the best proposal in terms of the players and their schools then Memphis was out front. The three parts of the proposal that point this out most dramatically:

 

(1) financially Memphis is underwriting all expenses. This means that the schools will receive twice the expense money that schools received last year. Schools that travel the farthest will receive the most expense money. This is important to the participating schools.

 

(2) The University of Memphis is providing dorm space for the majority of the participants at $25 per double room ($15 for a single) which includes two meals a day. $12.50 per athlete is hard to beat.

 

(3) Hundreds of additional athletes will be able to participate because of the additional teams that will be added in baseball and soccer due to the large number of facilities made available.

 

The negatives, or perceived negatives:

 

Security- some fans have commented about downtown Memphis and expressed their concern about feeling secure there. As with ANY major cities there are areas that people are not as safe as others. First of all, most of the activities will take place on the perimeter which is as safe as any other suburban, big-city area. Second, the downtown area of Memphis is being strongly promoted by the city and the major corporations there in order to attract other major businesses as well as tourist traffic. Therefore, they are working hard to make that area of Memphis very secure and, from the reviews I have seen concerning the new baseball stadium downtown and the events that are held for teenagers in that area, they are achieving that. And, when the Fling is in town, I would imagine it will be more secure than ever.

 

Geography- Memphis had to know this would be the hard part to sell which is probably why they enhanced the rest of their proposal so well. Memphis feels they have something to show-off and want the people in the rest of the state to come there and give them the chance to see and experience it. I can't blame them for that. But, yes, it is a long trip for a lot of people. As I am sure the people in Memphis would tell you, though, the road goes both ways.

[Sequatchie]

Is it true that some of the games won't actually be played in the state of Tennessee but rather in Mississippi? I can see the trophy now....

 

Sequatchie County High School

Tennessee Class AA State Champions

May .., 2003 Tunica, MS

[CoachT]

No more so than this years being played in Georgia.

[FPFanatic]

After nine years, it was well long enough for a change.

Frankly, I'm tired of going to Chattanooga for years and

years. Also, some of the parks around Chattanooga and

Nashville are not in the safest areas of those towns either.

Citizens in those areas get robbed, mugged, raped, and

murdered every day in you listen to the news.

Around Germantown, Collierville, and Bartlett are some of

the nicest places in the state as an article in the Tennessean showed that their per capita income was the

highest in the state after Belle Meade. They will do a good

job for the next three years, then Nashville has to get their act together to win the next contract. Anyway, as

long as the TSSAA is running the tournament, you won't see

much of a difference in anything.