Spartanburg's $17.3 million

By Charles Sowell  

OCTOBER 13, 2010 7:34 a.m. (0)

Just four years after getting into the parks business, Spartanburg County has launched an ambitious $17.3 million parks building program that officials say they hope it will return an equal amount in economic impact in the first year of operations.

“If things go as we hope they will the Tyger River Park will play host to several regional tournaments next year that should generate an economic impact at least equal to the total cost of the parks building program,” said Jeff Caton, director of parks for the county.

Spartanburg is trying to come a long way in a short amount of time since it is the last major metropolitan county in the state to create a recreation department, Caton said, and it has the lowest allocation per resident, $23 dollars, to pay for recreation.

Their budget is $5.892 million based on a 5.8-mil assessment on unincorporated property and in participating municipalities. Greenville County spends about $12 million a year on recreation but also ranks low when compared to other metropolitan counties in the state. Charleston County, for example, spends about $110 per resident.

Caton calls recreation a quality of life issue and Spartanburg was late getting into the game, but now he said things are moving at a brisk pace thanks to about $3 million a year generated by state hospitality tax revenues.

The building programs at Tyger River, Va-Du-Mar and North Spartanburg are all being funded through bonds. Income from hospitality tax revenues will be used to pay off the bonds.

Projects funded through hospitality tax revenues are required to have a major tourism-related component.

Tyger River should be up and running early next year and the various councils that decide tournament venues will begin selecting in November. Caton feels confident Tyger River, with 12 state of the art softball/baseball playing fields and a championship stadium will bring home at least two tournaments.

The economic impact of a Tyger River depends more on the length of each tournament than the number of teams playing. A three-day tourney brings in proportionally less money than a week-long event, Caton said.

One of the difficulties the recreation commission faced early on was dilapidated and antiquated facilities throughout the county. Recreation was not a priority with the county or the city for years.

Now it is, and one of Caton’s biggest problems was how to provide services to the more diffuse population of the county.

One of the challenges was a family might have one child participating in a program centered at one facility and at the same time have another child in a program located miles away.

A regional park like Tyger River or Va-Du-Mar solves this problem by being large enough to host a variety of age groups and at the same time offer recreational opportunities for the upper and lower ends of the age spectrum, Caton said.

At the younger end, Tyger River will have a playground area with four themes: earth, wind, water and sun. Moms can bring older children to practice at the surrounding ball fields and then take the younger children to the playground area.

Seniors can participate in events at Tyger River’s open air pavilion, picnic areas, amphitheater or leisure trails.

Currently the recreation commission has more than 400 seniors who actively participate in a variety of programs.