Greenwood marks opening of new sports park
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(photo courtesy of the city of Greenwood)
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Officials cut the ribbon on the Greenwood Sports Park on Sept. 6, 2024. (photo courtesy of the city of Greenwood)
Officials in Greenwood cut the ribbon Friday morning on the $10 million Greenwood Sports Park.
Sitting on 40 acres near the Interstate 65 interchange at Worthsville Road, the park features eight baseball and softball diamonds, a splash pad, and a multiuse sports field, among other amenities.
Mayor Mark Myers told Inside INdiana Business that the project, which has been in the planning stages for about four years, will create a huge economic impact for the city.
“This is going to host travel teams on the weekends. It’ll host city residents during the week for our softball leagues and get them going again,” Myers said. “For the area that’s around us, we’ll see more restaurants come in. We’ll probably see a hotel or two come in out of this. We’ll have business owners looking at it. To have a sports complex here on the south side of the city, [it’s] one more amenity for those businesses to bring business into Greenwood.”
The ball fields are split between two quads with four fields each, half of which are 225 feet and the other half being 300 feet to accommodate teams of varying ages.
“Baseball is something we’ve been lacking on as a city,” Myers said. “The travel ball, especially, we haven’t been able to hit that league. Now we’ll be able to hit the travel ball league on the weekends and get people in.”
Myers first mentioned plans for the sports park during his State of the City address in 2020. Additional details and designs for the park were unveiled during his address the following year.
The amenities also include an all-inclusive playground for children of all ages, including those with disabilities. The multiuse sports field includes a cricket pitch, which the mayor said will be a benefit for the local Sikh community.
“They love to get out and play cricket,” he said. “So this is something, an extra added amenity that we added for them.”
Additionally, the park features an interconnected trail network, a key component to the mayor’s goal of adding quality of life amenities for residents.
“By adding parks, by adding trails, this helps get people out,” he said. “We want people out running on our trails, riding bikes on their trails, parents pushing strollers on our trails, be a part of the community and get to know your neighbors, and this will bring them out and give people the opportunity to get to know each other.”
We’ll have more on the impact of sports tourism on Indiana communities, including Greenwood, on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.