Daphne eyes artificial turf as sports tourism takes off

DAPHNE, Ala. (WPMI) — Sports tourism and the revenue it brings has been taking shape all across Baldwin county, and making a huge difference in tax revenue.

In Daphne the push is on as the city begins to spend money on installing artificial turf at the Daphne Sportsplex.

The first step may be a small one, but artificial turf may be where the money is as city recreation officials finished putting down synthetic turf on what will be the park’s T-Ball field.

The bright and shiny colors stand out at the T-ball field. It’ll be for the smallest of sluggers, but the plan is to install more of the artificial turf throughout the park’s 10 other ballfields.

“We had a bunch people write letters of support for it. Our hotels and restaurants and other businesses, so we’re very excited about the possibilities and that there is such a grant out there for this type of thing,” said Daphne Mayor Robin Lejeune.

Artificial turf on each field could run as high as $400,000 for each baseball diamond. The city is expected to match a percentage of whatever amount it gets in grant money.

“If it doesn’t happen, then we’ll just have to say we’ll try to do this on a phase out type of thing. Pick one field at a time, because it is so expensive on the front. We do see the advantage of long-term,” said Lejeune.

Sports Recreation Director Charlie McDavid says each year the city has turned away or canceled tournament games because of rain.

With artificial turf, losing tournaments to other cities will be a thing of the past.

“This past spring we had three or four that we had to cancel due to rain over a weekend of having 30 to 70 teams in our in our area, thats a significant impact,” said McDavid.

A 70 team tournament in one weekend adds up to nearly 2,000 people spending money city-wide.

The city has already put in their grant application, but because this is COVID relief money, they may not hear back from the federal government for at least another year.