Best Tournament Facilities

[02BlazeCoach]

Since we will all be scheduling our spring/summers over the next couple of months, I thought it would be fun to rate our favorite faciliites to play. This should be a great way for feedback without any hard feelings (see best 12U team in IN posts). This could also be a way to provide a constructive forum for site directors to improve.

Condsiderations could include, field conditions, concession quality, abiltity to recover from adverse weather, parking, typical gate fees, additional activiites on-site, warm up areas, etc...

I have only been at this for four years so I have not been able to see a lot of facilities as most the older teams. I really just want to hear where others like to play to help me put together a great season for my girls.

Of the few sites I have either played or watched games, Midwest (great field condition, concesssions and ability to play regardless of weather), Center Grove Lassie League (great field conditions and concessions), Twin Lakes in Bloomington (huge parking area, great field conditions, good concessions), and Jasper (lot of parking, large areas for warming up plus batting cages, can have a LONG walk to bathroom depending on what field you are on) stand out as great places to play. I will leave my most unfavorites to play off of this posting.

Thoughts?

[slapperdad]

Best facility hands down is the Summitt of Softball, Chattanooga, TN.

As far as diamonds are concerned in no particular order:
Twin Lakes Bloomington
Lincoln Park Columbus (until they added the astro turf doohickeys in the batter's boxes)
O'Fallon Sports Park O'Fallon Il (parking sucks)
Ohio State Intramural Complex (no fences, parking is worse than sucking)

I don't really do the concession thing, I do love the Grillmaster's BBQ at Midwest. I've been buying my BBQ sauce from him in half gallon containers. I usually pack my own concessions. It's cheaper and the locals seldom sell my brand. Five bucks for a Coors Light ain't working for me. My LJ on my Football crew works at Park and Rec in Columbus, he swears by the orange smoothies at Lincoln Park with copious amounts of Captain Morgan added.

[10GatorCoach]

Agree with Slapper on most! The Summit is awesome. We have not been lucky enough to play there, but hopefully we qualify for ASA/USA this year and they choose The Summit to host. Warner Park in Chattanooga is also very very nice. Fields watered and lined after every game and some games played inside Frost Stadium, home of U Chattanooga. With NSA A and ASA/USA 12U being in Chattanooga I will put it out that Camp Jordan fields were not great last time, but I am told changes have been made and should be different this year.

Blaze 02, 1st time I have ever heard positive about field conditions at Midwest!
HSE is always in great shape and concessions good, Twin Lakes is great along with the park in Jasper where Diamonds of the South is held. All fields at Ohio Stingray's tournament are very nice. The fields on OSU Campus have no fences like Slapper said, but good condition. Coffey Park where 10U is played has ver little room for fans and players, but worth it for the competition and no gate fee. Both Pickerington HS sites are great!

[illini 1]

Champions Fields in Bloomington IL, East side center in East Peoria IL and Green Valley Sports Complex in Moline IL!! Both Bloomington and Moline have hosted numerous Natiional ASA/USA
Tourneys and East Side has hosted numerous NSA World Series as well as Illinois High School Championsips

[jksdad]

Brownsburg has an OK field no good place to warm up teams fields are nothing special. Plainfield (ASA State games) Parking was OK you play at the park and High School no gate fees. You are at a park so a lot of room to warm up. One diamond is a long walk. Fields are not great. Cerland (sp?) in Columbus IN I hated. The Diamonds were slow pitch and nobody every put up a temp fence. Small bathrooms. Terre Haute I would not go back to ever. Shelbyville had a nice setup.

[clayface74]

Tyger River Greenville SC!! Beautiful facility, plenty of parking, 13 fields (1 is an actual stadium), fans in the dugout, bull pens, lots of room to warm up....etc...

Concessions were great as well!

[afastpitchfanatic]

Ohio State Intramural Complex.....other than being on OSU campus, is awful. No fences (great for offense, horrible for defense), no dugouts (just benches out in the open), sewer gas fumes if you're on the diamond by the road, parking is sub par at best, backstops are so close to plate that umps butt is on fence and they're still hovering uncomfortably close to your catcher, run downhill to first base......need I say more??
It'd be on my top 3 least favorite places, for sure.

Two of my fave's in Indiana that I didn't see mentioned (or missed) are HSE/Olio Fields and the newer complex in Shelbyville, I think. Was only there twice a couple of years ago, but I recall it being very nice.
Olio Fields at HSE have great concessions, there are 7 fields (and one is a stadium, LOL!, jk!), good parking, etc etc. Didn't play there last year, but for the first several years we did. Always liked going there.

Out of state....Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

[Pridefpsb17]

Champions Fields in Bloomington IL, East side center in East Peoria IL and Green Valley Sports Complex in Moline IL!! Both Bloomington and Moline have hosted numerous Natiional ASA/USA
Tourneys and East Side has hosted numerous NSA World Series as well as Illinois High School Championsips

Green Valley? Not even close. Needs a major overhaul.

East Peoria's outfields are very nice and I like the complex overall, infields need work.

Bloomington is nice, but fields are all setup for slowpitch and use temporary fences for youth fastpitch events.

The best fields overall were at Tyger River Park in Spartanburg, SC
http://www.spartanburgparks.org/parks/t ... r-park.php

As nice or nicer than The Summit in Chattanoga.

[Pdaugherty46143]

We have worked hard on our fields. They do not compare to the elite complexes around but we put on great tournaments. We have a low entry fee, no gate fees and run first class tournaments. Some of the coaches on here that have attended our tournaments can testify to that.

We will be hosting our 2nd annual Greenwood Quake Summer Sizzle May 31-June 2. Spots will have to be cut off at 8-9 per division, so grab a spot before it fills up - they always do.

Here are our past winners of our tournaments.

2010 -
Halloween at the Quake
1st Gators99
2nd Greenwood Quake99
2011
Greenwood Invitational
10u
1st Soutport Lighting
2nd Monsoon Fastpitch
12u
1st Gators99
2nd Brownsburg Blast
14u
1st Franklin Fury
2nd Edgewood Blaze
2nd Annual Halloween at the Quake
10u
1st Mafia Black
2nd Soutport Lighting
12u
1st Brownsburg Blast
2nd Indy Edge 00
14U
1st Indy Edge Lawson
2nd Indiana Aftershock
2012
Greenwood Summer Sizzle
10u
1st MV Maniacs
2nd Moonsoon Fastpitch
12u
1st Indiana Heat
2nd Greenwood Quake 99
14u
1st Franklin Fury
2nd Indiana Mojo
2nd Annual Greenwood Quake Invitational
10u
1st Cats - Johnson
2nd Brownsburg Shockers
12u
1st Mafia White 00
2nd Indy Edge 00
14u
1st Indy Swag
2nd Greenwood Quake 99
3rd Annual Halloween at the Quake
10u
1st Gators 02
2nd Indy Crush
12u
1st Mafia Black 01
2nd Indiana Irish
14u
1st Edgewood Blaze
2nd Team Indiana

[dailyjoy]

For indoor tournaments I highly recommend the dome at the ball park in rosemont Illinois. Really nice facility with two full size diamonds.