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Grand Park
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Grand Park has now made its way up there with Midwest and Sportzone in my 'Least favorite places to play' parks. The pickup "Sandlot" games that several teams played Sunday afternoon were some of the most enjoyable games yet. At least the umps actually knew how to call a game....can't say the same for the ones we had. #Hopeweneverplaythereagain.
- TiredNbroke
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:14 pm
I am disappointed in the games getting cancelled but do understand the immense challenge that must go along with getting the fields ready in a facility that large.
What was most disappointing was driving 1.5 hours to get to the fields, warm up, then get cancelled on Sunday. This was disappointing because everyone knew it was going to rain around 10:00AM on Sunday. Every weather application agreed on rain coming at that time and that forecast was unchanged from the forecast the night before.. If the complex had no intent on playing after a rain then the Sunday games should have been called the night before. The weather was no mystery.
I at least hope that those that paid a gate fee were refunded since no games were played on Sunday. I got in before the tables were setup so I would not know.
Negatives about Grand Park...
1. Some of the softball fields are not located adjacent to any parking lot. The walk to get to the fields would be too long for anyone with issues walking.
2. There is not enough parking. The lots on Saturday were an absolute mess with people being forced to park in the median of the road adjacent to the parking lot.
3. I did not see a large amount of warm-up space around the softball fields. I did not explore much though so there might have been plenty of room somewhere.
Good things about Grand Park...
1. The facility is beautiful. Everything was well kept and ascetically pleasing.
2. Had we played, the fields looked to be very nice (only game we played was at Monon Trail EC).
3. There are ample concessions with a good variety
4. The bathrooms were very clean
I am willing to give Grand Park another chance during the summer. I would think twice, however, if there is any chance of rain.
What was most disappointing was driving 1.5 hours to get to the fields, warm up, then get cancelled on Sunday. This was disappointing because everyone knew it was going to rain around 10:00AM on Sunday. Every weather application agreed on rain coming at that time and that forecast was unchanged from the forecast the night before.. If the complex had no intent on playing after a rain then the Sunday games should have been called the night before. The weather was no mystery.
I at least hope that those that paid a gate fee were refunded since no games were played on Sunday. I got in before the tables were setup so I would not know.
Negatives about Grand Park...
1. Some of the softball fields are not located adjacent to any parking lot. The walk to get to the fields would be too long for anyone with issues walking.
2. There is not enough parking. The lots on Saturday were an absolute mess with people being forced to park in the median of the road adjacent to the parking lot.
3. I did not see a large amount of warm-up space around the softball fields. I did not explore much though so there might have been plenty of room somewhere.
Good things about Grand Park...
1. The facility is beautiful. Everything was well kept and ascetically pleasing.
2. Had we played, the fields looked to be very nice (only game we played was at Monon Trail EC).
3. There are ample concessions with a good variety
4. The bathrooms were very clean
I am willing to give Grand Park another chance during the summer. I would think twice, however, if there is any chance of rain.
- Kidcanhit02
- Premium Member
- Posts: 57
- Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2012 1:13 pm
We have had 2 tournaments in a row at Grand Park and both were cancelled after an early Sat rain - with a beautiful Sunday the following day. Have not yet received a refund for the 1st one - we are supposed to be getting 75% back b/c we played one game.
No refunds were given for gate fees paid on Sunday. My parents shelled out $ to a guy still taking fees at the tent as the games were being cancelled.
This tournament we played 2 games, so we will only get 25% back - so essentially $300 for 2 games is what we paid.
We will no longer give money to Grand Park. They obviously can't handle even a short rain. I will say we went 5 minutes away from Grand Park in Westfield (just after the rain) to scrimmage on a perfectly playable, run down little elementary school field. Hmm... Girls softball just not a priority to them.
No refunds were given for gate fees paid on Sunday. My parents shelled out $ to a guy still taking fees at the tent as the games were being cancelled.
This tournament we played 2 games, so we will only get 25% back - so essentially $300 for 2 games is what we paid.
We will no longer give money to Grand Park. They obviously can't handle even a short rain. I will say we went 5 minutes away from Grand Park in Westfield (just after the rain) to scrimmage on a perfectly playable, run down little elementary school field. Hmm... Girls softball just not a priority to them.
- happy
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:09 pm
When you say softball is not a priority at Grand Park, that is an understatement. They threw 6 softball fields in as an afterthought. Didn't bother put lights on them. Didn't design parking for them (added on some nonpaved area to help, but it's not nearly enough and way too far from the fields). But, the worst part is they don't want to maintain the softball fields when there is any rain. The 18U ASA State tourney was held there last year. On Saturday morning during the first games of bracket play, it started raining. Nothing heavy, the game was not stopped. After about 15 minutes, the area where the pitcher was striding got wet enough to make it mushy and a little slippery. The umpires stopped the game and had the field crew come out to fix the area. They didn't bring any field dry, just shovels and a load of dirt and tried to dig out the wet dirt and replace it with dry. When we asked them why not just throw down a little field dry, they said they were told they couldn't. Well, what they did wasn't acceptable to the umps, so the head of field maintenance was called. He came and looked around. At this point the rain had stopped. He said it would be too expensive to use any field dry because there was more rain coming within the hour. They ended up calling off all games for the rest of the day (the other fields were similar to ours at this point) because of the impending rain. The double elimination was changed to single elimination starting on Sunday. We left the park and went to a restuarant in Carmel and sat outside and enjoyed the sunny day all afternoon. It never rained again that day or the next. All day Saturday was cancelled because 2 bags of field dry per field was too expensive for the multimillion dollar facility. But, not one baseball game was cancelled that day including the coach pitch rec league games that were going on the turf fields. By the way, only 8 of the 20 baseball fields are turf. And no, there is hardly any area to warm up in around the softball fields. Pitchers for the next games would go in the bull pens of the fields (which are outside the fences), but there was basically no flat area for anyone else to throw or hit. Grand Park was a great idea and is fantastic for soccer and baseball, just not for softball.
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LeftyHitter - Posts: 64
- Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:14 am
Is there anyone who represents Grand Park that could help us understand what is being done to improve on softball?
Specifically...
Warm up space
Parking
Distance from parking to fields
Field maintenance during rain
Priority of baseball over softball
Refunds for tournaments that have not been received
Refunds for gate fees when no games were played
I am fine with baseball having a nice facility to use. However if you are going to promote softball than you need to show both sports equal support. If Grand Park does not want softball then just use every field for baseball. I, personally, won't be offended. Remember though, softball money is just as good as baseball money.
Specifically...
Warm up space
Parking
Distance from parking to fields
Field maintenance during rain
Priority of baseball over softball
Refunds for tournaments that have not been received
Refunds for gate fees when no games were played
I am fine with baseball having a nice facility to use. However if you are going to promote softball than you need to show both sports equal support. If Grand Park does not want softball then just use every field for baseball. I, personally, won't be offended. Remember though, softball money is just as good as baseball money.
- Kidcanhit02
- Premium Member
- Posts: 57
- Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2012 1:13 pm
Hi my name is Blake Hibler and I represent Bullpen Tournaments. I am happy to chime in on your concerns in regards to softball. I also want to take a minute to explain baseball vs. softball and the rental process that goes into that.
Yes we have had a tough go with weather in the recent weeks. We have now tried to run 5 softball tournaments and 4 have been rained out on Sunday in which I completely understand everyones frustrations. I also want to touch on improvements we are striving to make. This week we have installed new drains on four of the infields alone. Our fields are designed to drain towards the backstops which essentially puts all of the water passing right over home plate. The design flaw is the brick wall. If the wall was not there we would have a much better chance. We use clay in our mound areas and the plate areas. As many of you know clay is a substance that is not designed to get wet and becomes much more difficult to maintain which is why diamond dry is not the answer and a shovel with new material is the better approach. We are looking into a more permanent solution to take care of the plates/mounds better. We will see how these new drains react this upcoming weekend (Yea!!!! More rain said in a sarcastic tone).
As far as baseball vs. softball and this complaint I continue to hear. Understand, when a softball company comes in and rents they rent a specific number of fields and particular diamonds. In those cases we use those fields for softball. Turf has not been the norm in the softball community and when we first began setting up deals with organizations we promised specific fields. Those fields were used for those events. In most cases, we promised the 6 dirt fields (D-21-D-26) the over flow going to Monon. We do have future events in which the turf is rented to softball and in those cases baseball will be looking at softball playing and not baseball. I am currently trying to build portable fences to be able to turn our HS baseball diamonds into smaller diamonds. So we have a better option for when it rains.
As far as which fields get ready quicker, the smaller grass infield baseball fields get ready the quickest. They have the least amount of dirt on them so yes they get playable quicker than any other field on site. We have yet to play a game on the high school baseball grass fields, or the middle school baseball fields on a day where we cancelled softball. Those fields react the same way. This past Sunday no game was played on grass after the cancelation. I am receiving just as much hate mail about the cancelation from baseball as I am softball. Also, please understand our staff was out until 4am on Saturday night getting fields ready for Sunday. We then had 18 guys working from 630a-1030a. To play at 10:30am. We were ready for the morning. We do recognize we have an issue with getting fields playable and our staff has had several meetings this week about it and we are researching a couple of different options. The drains were put in this week and will continue to go in throughout the week in hopes to help the park.
Parking issue----Parking is an issue for everyone. The park is 400 acres with 7 parking lots. It does not matter what sport you are playing the walk is long. We will eventually be tearing the house down in Parking Lot J and turning that into a permanent parking lot which has always been the plan. The house has been held up in some form of legality and that is the reason it is not taken down. You are allowed to park in the front lawn of that house as an overflow lot as well. We will have parking attendants now on Saturdays to help assist in the parking.
Refunds----I will take 100% blame for this. I received a check I was unable to cash. The situation has been rectified. The checks will be going out this week.
Dreams DID NOT play the Bandits after the rain on turf.
From a lot of the posts on here it seems the biggest complaint is field preparation after weather related issues. This is honestly our biggest issue as well. We are in our first full year and last year we were fortunate to have a light rain season. This spring as been a much more challenging year. Which is good for us to learn now how to fix it so we can be better prepared. We will get the situation rectified. We owe to you as the customer, the City of Westfield, and ourselves to rectify the problem.
Yes we have had a tough go with weather in the recent weeks. We have now tried to run 5 softball tournaments and 4 have been rained out on Sunday in which I completely understand everyones frustrations. I also want to touch on improvements we are striving to make. This week we have installed new drains on four of the infields alone. Our fields are designed to drain towards the backstops which essentially puts all of the water passing right over home plate. The design flaw is the brick wall. If the wall was not there we would have a much better chance. We use clay in our mound areas and the plate areas. As many of you know clay is a substance that is not designed to get wet and becomes much more difficult to maintain which is why diamond dry is not the answer and a shovel with new material is the better approach. We are looking into a more permanent solution to take care of the plates/mounds better. We will see how these new drains react this upcoming weekend (Yea!!!! More rain said in a sarcastic tone).
As far as baseball vs. softball and this complaint I continue to hear. Understand, when a softball company comes in and rents they rent a specific number of fields and particular diamonds. In those cases we use those fields for softball. Turf has not been the norm in the softball community and when we first began setting up deals with organizations we promised specific fields. Those fields were used for those events. In most cases, we promised the 6 dirt fields (D-21-D-26) the over flow going to Monon. We do have future events in which the turf is rented to softball and in those cases baseball will be looking at softball playing and not baseball. I am currently trying to build portable fences to be able to turn our HS baseball diamonds into smaller diamonds. So we have a better option for when it rains.
As far as which fields get ready quicker, the smaller grass infield baseball fields get ready the quickest. They have the least amount of dirt on them so yes they get playable quicker than any other field on site. We have yet to play a game on the high school baseball grass fields, or the middle school baseball fields on a day where we cancelled softball. Those fields react the same way. This past Sunday no game was played on grass after the cancelation. I am receiving just as much hate mail about the cancelation from baseball as I am softball. Also, please understand our staff was out until 4am on Saturday night getting fields ready for Sunday. We then had 18 guys working from 630a-1030a. To play at 10:30am. We were ready for the morning. We do recognize we have an issue with getting fields playable and our staff has had several meetings this week about it and we are researching a couple of different options. The drains were put in this week and will continue to go in throughout the week in hopes to help the park.
Parking issue----Parking is an issue for everyone. The park is 400 acres with 7 parking lots. It does not matter what sport you are playing the walk is long. We will eventually be tearing the house down in Parking Lot J and turning that into a permanent parking lot which has always been the plan. The house has been held up in some form of legality and that is the reason it is not taken down. You are allowed to park in the front lawn of that house as an overflow lot as well. We will have parking attendants now on Saturdays to help assist in the parking.
Refunds----I will take 100% blame for this. I received a check I was unable to cash. The situation has been rectified. The checks will be going out this week.
Dreams DID NOT play the Bandits after the rain on turf.
From a lot of the posts on here it seems the biggest complaint is field preparation after weather related issues. This is honestly our biggest issue as well. We are in our first full year and last year we were fortunate to have a light rain season. This spring as been a much more challenging year. Which is good for us to learn now how to fix it so we can be better prepared. We will get the situation rectified. We owe to you as the customer, the City of Westfield, and ourselves to rectify the problem.
- Blake Hibler
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed May 13, 2015 11:05 am
Blake Hibler wrote:Hi my name is Blake Hibler and I represent Bullpen Tournaments. I am happy to chime in on your concerns in regards to softball. I also want to take a minute to explain baseball vs. softball and the rental process that goes into that.
Yes we have had a tough go with weather in the recent weeks. We have now tried to run 5 softball tournaments and 4 have been rained out on Sunday in which I completely understand everyones frustrations. I also want to touch on improvements we are striving to make. This week we have installed new drains on four of the infields alone. Our fields are designed to drain towards the backstops which essentially puts all of the water passing right over home plate. The design flaw is the brick wall. If the wall was not there we would have a much better chance. We use clay in our mound areas and the plate areas. As many of you know clay is a substance that is not designed to get wet and becomes much more difficult to maintain which is why diamond dry is not the answer and a shovel with new material is the better approach. We are looking into a more permanent solution to take care of the plates/mounds better. We will see how these new drains react this upcoming weekend (Yea!!!! More rain said in a sarcastic tone).
As far as baseball vs. softball and this complaint I continue to hear. Understand, when a softball company comes in and rents they rent a specific number of fields and particular diamonds. In those cases we use those fields for softball. Turf has not been the norm in the softball community and when we first began setting up deals with organizations we promised specific fields. Those fields were used for those events. In most cases, we promised the 6 dirt fields (D-21-D-26) the over flow going to Monon. We do have future events in which the turf is rented to softball and in those cases baseball will be looking at softball playing and not baseball. I am currently trying to build portable fences to be able to turn our HS baseball diamonds into smaller diamonds. So we have a better option for when it rains.
As far as which fields get ready quicker, the smaller grass infield baseball fields get ready the quickest. They have the least amount of dirt on them so yes they get playable quicker than any other field on site. We have yet to play a game on the high school baseball grass fields, or the middle school baseball fields on a day where we cancelled softball. Those fields react the same way. This past Sunday no game was played on grass after the cancelation. I am receiving just as much hate mail about the cancelation from baseball as I am softball. Also, please understand our staff was out until 4am on Saturday night getting fields ready for Sunday. We then had 18 guys working from 630a-1030a. To play at 10:30am. We were ready for the morning. We do recognize we have an issue with getting fields playable and our staff has had several meetings this week about it and we are researching a couple of different options. The drains were put in this week and will continue to go in throughout the week in hopes to help the park.
Parking issue----Parking is an issue for everyone. The park is 400 acres with 7 parking lots. It does not matter what sport you are playing the walk is long. We will eventually be tearing the house down in Parking Lot J and turning that into a permanent parking lot which has always been the plan. The house has been held up in some form of legality and that is the reason it is not taken down. You are allowed to park in the front lawn of that house as an overflow lot as well. We will have parking attendants now on Saturdays to help assist in the parking.
Refunds----I will take 100% blame for this. I received a check I was unable to cash. The situation has been rectified. The checks will be going out this week.
Dreams DID NOT play the Bandits after the rain on turf.
From a lot of the posts on here it seems the biggest complaint is field preparation after weather related issues. This is honestly our biggest issue as well. We are in our first full year and last year we were fortunate to have a light rain season. This spring as been a much more challenging year. Which is good for us to learn now how to fix it so we can be better prepared. We will get the situation rectified. We owe to you as the customer, the City of Westfield, and ourselves to rectify the problem.
And here's the kind of post you get when you don't hide behind a screen name and take responsibility for your own actions,
Refreshing to say the least.
-
fastpitchdad05 - Premium Member
- Posts: 2115
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:43 pm
I have not been involved in any of these rainouts. A couple of points I would like to make for the uninitiated.
1. The playing surfaces are nice, and among some of the better I've seen for youth tournaments, second to none in this state.
2. I'm sure a project the size and scale of this had high dollar engineers and architects involved, and yet there are design flaws? No drainage, poorly designed drainage, etc. I know, I know, it's never the architect's fault.
3. Pick your poison, you either have properly designed, installed, and maintained batter's boxes and pitching areas, that will take time to dry, or you have Midwest, what do you want? Perhaps some tarps for those areas?
4. The parking issue was my biggest concern. My DD played there last fall in the College Opening Day deal, I had my elderly parents with me. Had there not been golf carts available, they would have been screwed. The golf carts are a workable solution, do they run at every event?
Completely off the cuff, but as a concerned taxpayer in a community that's looking at building a similar facility on a much smaller scale, does the Westfield hope to make any money with this thing? Blake I read your comments and I have some kind of idea the manpower and hours it would take to maintain a facility like this, and frankly, I don't see there being any money in it. I see this as being a GIANT loser for the city, am I wrong?
1. The playing surfaces are nice, and among some of the better I've seen for youth tournaments, second to none in this state.
2. I'm sure a project the size and scale of this had high dollar engineers and architects involved, and yet there are design flaws? No drainage, poorly designed drainage, etc. I know, I know, it's never the architect's fault.
3. Pick your poison, you either have properly designed, installed, and maintained batter's boxes and pitching areas, that will take time to dry, or you have Midwest, what do you want? Perhaps some tarps for those areas?
4. The parking issue was my biggest concern. My DD played there last fall in the College Opening Day deal, I had my elderly parents with me. Had there not been golf carts available, they would have been screwed. The golf carts are a workable solution, do they run at every event?
Completely off the cuff, but as a concerned taxpayer in a community that's looking at building a similar facility on a much smaller scale, does the Westfield hope to make any money with this thing? Blake I read your comments and I have some kind of idea the manpower and hours it would take to maintain a facility like this, and frankly, I don't see there being any money in it. I see this as being a GIANT loser for the city, am I wrong?
Every man lives by a code:
1.Always look cool
2.Never get lost
3.If you get lost, look cool
1.Always look cool
2.Never get lost
3.If you get lost, look cool
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slapperdad - Posts: 887
- Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 7:28 pm
Blake,
Thank you very much for your feedback. As a whole the facility was beautiful and I do hope to play there again. It says a lot that you took the time to respond to the group. Mainly it says you are the kind of person who listens and is actively trying to fix any issues there are with the facility. I have a lot of faith that Grand Park will continue to improve and be one of the premier softball locations in the Midwest.
Don't hesitate to "toot your own horn" so to speak and keep us posted as improvements are made.
Thank you very much for your feedback. As a whole the facility was beautiful and I do hope to play there again. It says a lot that you took the time to respond to the group. Mainly it says you are the kind of person who listens and is actively trying to fix any issues there are with the facility. I have a lot of faith that Grand Park will continue to improve and be one of the premier softball locations in the Midwest.
Don't hesitate to "toot your own horn" so to speak and keep us posted as improvements are made.
- Kidcanhit02
- Premium Member
- Posts: 57
- Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2012 1:13 pm
Kudos to Crown Point Complex. Lots of rain overnight and this morning, but able to have fields ready to play even with the brick walls at the backstops.
No doubt that if Grand Park can get their water issue worked out these are the 2 premier parks in Indiana.
No doubt that if Grand Park can get their water issue worked out these are the 2 premier parks in Indiana.
- sftballguru
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Wed May 15, 2013 10:15 pm
22 posts
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