State Championship Games

[Neil]

I can't believe what I just heard, The state playoffs in softball will be held in Mississippi!? Seems like the decision to move the Spring Fling to Memphis is backfiring all over the place. Let's get back to Chattanooga as soon as we can.

[FPFanatic]

Softball games will be held in Southhaven, MS (home of

the Illusions). Apparently, fields at Bethel Baptist in

Bartlett did not work out.

[backoff]

Tenn.state champingships in miss.must have been a lot of money change hands.

[ERA]

Does this mean that all the tax revenue from the players to the families to everyone involved staying in the hotels, eating and drinking will be lining the pockets of Missippians? How does that get explained away? When tournaments are held in our county, the most highly touted advantage is the revenue from the hotels to the restaurants. I would love to hear this explanation!

[rSquared]

At the TSSAA Coaches/Officials meeting in Knoxville this past Monday night, Mr. Childress (Childers?) from TSSAA explained the switch by saying that the new church fields that Memphis submitted in the bid may or may not be ready in time and that as a result of that uncertainty and the hesitancy by TSSAA to let a state championship be played on a "new" non-tested (non-broken-in) field, a decision was made to play across the state line in Mississippi.

I sure would like to see the tournament held closer to home.

Chattanooga was fine, but I'm wondering if Knoxville has ever submitted a bid for the spring fling. Surely there are facilities somewhere here that are more than adequate for the hosting???

 

---rSquared

[Edited by rSquared on 2-8-03 9:33A]

 

[WesVLT]

You wanna know why Memphis was chosen?

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

Enough said.

[ERA]

Given the fact that the site of the "Spring Fling" was put out for bids, what were the criteria for winning the tournament?

 

Most likely, there is a multi-faceted contract with contingencies if obligations are not met. Yet, I find it interesting that the winning community can't fulfill it's contractual obligations of hosting such a large event with all that Memphis brokered and brought to the table.

It is disturbing to know you can keep the tournament with this amount of advanced notice of not being able to meet your contract. It's one thing to move it out of town and bring it to an in-state suburb but it's another, in my opinion, to take it and our tax dollars across the border. Can this be right? It certainly looks bad but I am interested to know what the TSSAA and the second place bidder, ˜Chattanooga˜ is thinking right now.

 

1. Should Memphis get to keep this event with this much notice of not being able to fulfill obligations?

 

2. Should the second place bidder be allowed the option to take the tournament with such monies at stake?

 

3. What is the official position of the TSSAA about this unfortunate circumstance?

[rSquared]

Good questions, ERA.

We can only hope that they will be answered sometime soon by the powers that be.

 

---rSquared

[Neil]

It seems that softball isn't the only sport that has had some major complications with venues in Memphis. Baseball finals can't be played in the stadium that was included in the bid. I am not anti- Memphis. I am against "experimenting" with such a major undertaking as Spring Fling. Chattanooga may have had some early kinks when the Fling first went there, but it has been running pretty smoothly for years now. If Memphis can not uphold it's contract, then the Fling should be returned immediately to Chattanooga.

[2Shooter4]

I agree. Why change a good thing?

[std]

Ok 1. 32 teams x 15 rooms per team x 4 nights x $75 = 144,000. 32 teams x 40 people per team x 3 meals per day x 4 days x $5 per meal = $76,800. Total room and board $220,800. At 10% tax (higher on hotels lower on food just and average) = $22,080 in tax revenue for the great state of Mississippi. Let's go back to Nooga.

 

Personally I would rather play in Manchester (plenty of hotel rooms) than Memphis and have the finals at Coffee County's High School field. You could count on one thing the girls would be treated like queens and the games would be treated like the Olympics.

[RaiderOne]

STD,

 

Thanks for those kind words. We too would like it to be played in our community. I'm wondering why it is not being held in Murfreesboro. They have all the facilities needed. If they can hold most of the other championships, why not Spring Fling? By the way, we sent our tournament information out the other day. I hope your games are ok. With the field of teams that are entered, a team could get beat four games straight. Should be fun, we are looking forward to it.