Sportsplex breaking attendance records for weekend tournaments

It was two years ago Jason Compton sat in front of the Jackson City Council during the City’s budget hearings.

Compton, who’s the director of the West Tennessee Healthcare Sportsplex, was asked a question by then-Councilman Paul Taylor: “What is the ideal size tournament for the Sportsplex that it’s profitable but not overcrowded?”

By the end of that season in 2022, the Sportsplex would generate a total attendance of 935 teams, which was a record at the time.

In the two years since then, they finished with 1,516 teams in 2023 and are at 1,646 with two tournaments remaining in the fiscal year.

“So unless something major happens, we’re looking at getting around 1,830 teams in here this year,” Compton said. “And that’s with one tournament we had to totally rain out that would’ve been about 50 teams, so we could’ve been close to 1,900 before it’s over with.”

But with all the teams that come through the Sportsplex on a weekly basis, Compton said facility that houses 17 youth league fields is successful because of a large team of people – those working at the Sportsplex and other City employees who help the Sportsplex crew do its job.

“It wasn’t that long ago when it was a chore to get people to come to Jackson,” Compton said, referencing a time before he took over in 2019 when tournaments were regularly called for rain when there might not have been a lot of rain falling in Jackson.

So it took investments from Visit Jackson TN, the tourism bureau of Jackson, along with a commitment of consistent work on the part of Compton’s team.

Ryan Blake is the tournament director, who’s in communication with the coaches of each team leading up to each tournament, which many weeks will be more than 100 in one weekend.

R.C. Waddell has done so well in recent years handling the playing surfaces at the Sportsplex that the City promoted him to head groundskeeper for the entire city.

Then guys under Waddell like Kyle Sisk, Jarrett Cavness, and Shea Nickias do a lot of work throughout each week leading up the weekend tournament and a lot of work throughout the offseason and year to ensure the playing surfaces are in position to take on a lot of water, let it run off quickly and get back to being playable as soon as possible.

Those efforts have been put to the test over the past couple months in particular.

“Everything was fine in March and April, but then May hit, and we had seven straight weekends where at least one day – Friday, Saturday or Sunday – was affected by rain somehow,” Compton said. “Either we had to call off play for the entire day and reschedule things for the next week, or we just had to come off a couple hours and get back on after a summer storm moved through and then needed to dry up.”

Compton said there were times when the crew “worked miracles.”

“There were times when I walked on the field and water coming up around my shoes at 7 p.m. and thinking, ‘There’s no way we’re playing tomorrow,’” Compton said. “And I would actually say that, and the guys almost take that as an insult because they want to be out there, they want the kids out there playing … they’ve worked too hard on these fields for these games not to be played.”

In addition to the full-time staff, there’s a crew of about 80 seasonal part-time helpers who are also a key part of the process as well.

“They’re taking money at the gate, handling concessions, keeping the place clean, emptying trashcans, keeping bathrooms stocked with toilet paper and soap, keeping 17 fields playable with work between games,” Compton said. “This is a massive operation, and we’re becoming a success for Jackson.”

Of the 1,800 projected teams who have played at the Sportsplex since last July, a portion of them would be classified as local, and many of them are coming from as far away as Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas.

“Most of them are coming from Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri,” Compton said. “But we’re getting more and more from Middle and East Tennessee each year too.

“And they’re coming, and they’re playing. If it’s a bad weekend with a lot of rain, their time playing may be cut to 65-minute games, but they’re still getting time on the field and getting games in. And we’re doing our best to make sure that when they’re not playing, they have different avenues available to them for them to enjoy their time in Jackson as much as possible.”

A team’s typical schedule over the weekend might include a game on Friday night, two games on Saturday – one early and one later – and then tournament play on Sunday, which could be as many as four or five or even six games on Sunday.

“We make sure that the last games on Sunday start at 5:30 at the latest, especially when kids are still in school,” Compton said. “But even on Sunday, the last games start maybe 7:30 at the latest.

“Because to be honest, we want the teams in Jackson eating at restaurants, going to movies or Skyzone or somewhere else for fun or going back to their hotels and relaxing for a while,” Compton said. “They can’t do that if they’re staying at the Sportsplex until midnight.”

Compton said other departments of the City are involved in the teamwork as well.

“Maintenance is a big part because if we have a piece of equipment or a toilet or something malfunction, we can’t just let that be broken and deal with it next week,” Compton said. “So they’re great about getting over here and helping us out.

“HR people will dedicate an entire Saturday to get our seasonal people on-boarded, and then spend hours on different days afterward getting more people on-boarded that might not have been able to be there on that Saturday. Because they all know that if we’re successful, that’s a good thing for Jackson.”

Compton wouldn’t say his team is undefeated, but they’re close.

“In the last 73 weekends we’ve had a tournament scheduled, we’ve had two rainouts,” Compton said. “That’s a great record that I will take for any team that’s important to me anytime.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news