North Myrtle Beach OKs $27M financing plan to expand sports complex

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — North Myrtle Beach’s Park and Sports Complex is ready to grow after city leaders last week approved $27 million worth of bonds to pay for the work.

“The expansion of this facility will allow the city to host larger tournaments as well as multiple tournaments and special events at one time,” officials said in a Friday statement announcing the project. “Youth sports have grown tremendously, especially in baseball, softball and soccer.”

In 2020, more than 54% of all American children between the ages of six and 17 participated in youth sports at least once over the previous year, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Included in the park’s expansion are:

• five soccer fields
• six baseball fields
• freshwater ponds
• walking trails
• playgrounds
• picnic shelters

Construction began in May with grubbing, site preparation, grading, erosion control and other underground work.

Officials hope the second phase is completed by September 2025. The facility is located at the intersection of South Carolina Highway 31 and Robert Edge Parkway.

“We see upwards of over 1,800 teams a year,” Amada Player-Wofford, the city’s athletic and sports tourism director, told News13 in April 2023 when plans for the expansion were first announced. “Thirty-six million in economic impact is what we’re projected this year. It brings teams from all over the country, all over the southeast, to spend money in our city, in our hotels, our entertainment, our restaurants,” she said.

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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12 . See more of his work here .

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