SHAWNEE FIELDS READY FOR PLAY; SEVEN TEAMS COMPETE TODAY

After five years of planning, $2 million in expenditures and the moving of uncounted cubic feet of dirt, the Shawnee Park Sports Complex softball fields will open today with a tournament.

The Shawnee Park Sports Complex Open Tournament will bring seven softball teams from as far away as Pevely. Brock Davis, recreation coordinator for the Cape Girardeau Department of Parks and Recreation, said this will be the first of 15 tournaments for the new softball fields this year, including larger tournaments that will draw teams from distant parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and possibly Texas.

Unlike the Osage Community Centre, the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this week, the Shawnee Complex is ready to go. But that doesn't mean it is finished.

Five softball fields are ready, but city officials hope to build three more. The complex needs eight to attract national tournaments, said Jay Knudtson, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

Children have been kicking soccer balls on two new fields on the other side of the park, but plans are in place for one more field with bleachers for use as the site of championship games. Shawnee Park previously had nine other soccer fields.

City officials proposed the Shawnee Complex and the Osage Centre at the same time five years ago."They are actually one project," said Dan Muser, director of Parks and Recreation for Cape Girardeau.

Advocates for both projects touted them as ways of bringing more travelers into Cape Girardeau, travelers who would spend money and boost the local economy.

Local softball players benefit from better playing conditions and longer games. The fields have electric scoreboards, water fountains in every dugout, and computer-designed lights.

Having five new fields means scheduling games to last an hour and a half instead of an hour, and eliminating the one-strike-one-ball rule. Muser said that because of the heavy demand for fields, the city decided to speed up games by giving each batter one strike and one ball before they step to the plate. Now, players will have longer at-bats.

Knudtson is a softball player who moved here from Minnesota. "The softball fields at Arena Park are atrocious," Knudtson said. "The fair completely tramples all those fields."

Knudtson said he became involved in parks issues because he wanted the city to have better softball fields. But good fields come at a steep price: The city had to acquire 56 acres on the north end of Shawnee Park and pay more than $600,000 just to level the rolling hills there. Some of the land was donated, Knudtson said.

The city paid for building the new fields and the Osage Community Centre with funds from the city's hotel and restaurant tax. Money for upkeep and improvements will come from user fees, Knudtson said.

Playing at the Shawnee Complex will cost more than playing at Arena Park. All players must pay card fees in addition to the fees teams must pay, plus spectators will have to pay $1 to get in.

Knudtson said the city wants the users to pay their fair share toward the upkeep of the complex. Players in more casual church leagues may still use the fields at Arena Park for lower prices.

In spite of the price, more than 70 teams have signed up for leagues already, Knudtson said.

The city decided not to skimp on building it. Knudtson said the city talked to softball players who travel to other cities for tournaments to find out what kinds of facilities would bring in the most out-of-towners.

"You're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars being brought into the city," Knudtson said. "If we bring in tournaments of this scale, they all need to rent hotel rooms, and they all need to eat."