Sports Force Park @ Cedar Point Sports Complex - Sandusky, Ohio

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Feb 12, 2014
648
43
Had the opportunity to play at the recently opened Sports Force Park in Sandusky this weekend and wanted to take a moment to review the experience for others who might be thinking about attending a tournament there.

Positives:
1. The facility itself is top notch. In a few years when the trees have grown, it will be even better. The turf is very, very nice. Lots of stuff for siblings to do around the facility while games are happening.

2. They had a large soccer field and several batting tunnels set aside for warm ups. This was very nice.

3. The team trophies and player medals were as nice as you'll find at any tournament you play.

Negatives:
1. We had entered the Coaster Classic before it was moved to the new facility. Communication about the switch was limited from the City of Sandusky and then communication from the new facility wasn't the best. They wanted more paperwork than any other tournament that we have ever attended. The schedule wasn't posted until 5 days before the tournament opened. For people needing to take off work, this creates numerous problems.

2. The fields all had cinder block backstops that were waist high and not padded at all. To me, this seemed like a major safety issue both for catchers chasing foul pop ups and for umpires who had to duck balls coming right back at them. I was really surprised they didn't have those block walls padded.

3. They had no safety bases at first. As the Dad of a first baseman, this is a major pet peeve of mine. At a facility of this caliber, knowing they were going to be hosting softball games, this is simply unacceptable.

4. We were never quite sure what rules we were playing under. I never saw anything that said ASA, USSSA, NF, etc. Maybe I just missed it, but I don't think so. There were a couple of pages of tournament rules that were obviously designed for baseball (no pitchers allowed to re-enter games for example), but even those rules were only sporadically followed. In one pool play game, we had an umpire flat out tell us we were not playing by their tournament rules. They also decided, without any notice, to change a couple of the rules. We had no idea until the pre-game coaches meeting at the plate.

5. The umpiring was a mixed bag. It seemed that in a couple of our games we had umpires more interested in getting the game over than in maintaining the integrity of the game. We had one umpire calling girls out for leaving base early with the girls standing on the bag when the mercy rule was still very much in doubt. He could have very easily cost himself another inning. He then proceeded to call a ridiculously large strike zone to make sure he was done as soon as possible. In the championship game, the plate umpire refused to allow our pitcher more than a single warm-up pitch in the first inning and threatened to throw out anyone who protested. I've NEVER seen that before. He then refused to allow appeals on check swings and had the wrong count costing one of our girls a BB and refused to check with the official scorer or the base umpire on the count. It's one thing to be an obnoxious jerk when you're right but it's so much worse when you're wrong which he was. I'm not sure where they got the umpires or who they were licensed through (they didn't have ASA or USSSA gear), but teams have the right to expect better. I know at least one game was delayed nearly 30 minutes when the two teenage umpires didn't show up on time.

6. You're going to pay for EVERYTHING there. I get it. They're trying to make money. But, not to allow a team cooler is ridiculous. In an email prior to the tournament, they promised to have full coolers of water in the dugout for each game which they used as the rationale for not being able to bring anything into the facility. Well, on Saturday it's 90+ degrees and sure enough, our water cooler is empty and we've got a girl sick from the heat. We flagged down a golf cart and they promised water was on its way. Two innings later we're still out of water. I approach the official scorer, who is a uniformed employee of the facility with a radio, and ask him to radio to get us some water and that we have a sick girl. He was exceptionally rude and informed me that water "wasn't his job." He refused to make the simple radio call asking someone to get us water. What a joke. Also, the water was only in the dugouts. Games were consistently behind schedule, so if you needed water in the 90 minutes to 2 hours you were there before your game started then the only option was to dig deep and buy a bottle.

7. A related item - if they aren't going to let you bring in food and then charge very high prices you for what you buy there, they need to have their concessions adequately staffed. Extremely long lines made it difficult to get food between games. It's bad enough to pay $10 for a turkey sub, but don't make people wait forever to get it!

8. The tournament set up itself was very strange. Without any notice, they decided to create two tournaments out of one. We think they made it*separate 12U and 11U tournaments, but nobody made it clear that it was done that way. When we signed up and paid for the Coaster Classic it was a 3 pool play followed by bracket play format. When the tournament scheduled was finally released, they had changed the format. It was still three pool play games but then it just got weird. The top 4 teams went directly to a semi-final with 1 playing 4 and 2 playing 3 and then on to a championship game. For everyone else (16 teams in just the 12/11U groups), they got only a single friendly game on Sunday and then their tournament was done. No chance to advance, no chance to play more than the single game. I know of at least one situation where a team decided it wasn't worth their time and just didn't show up on Sunday. That left their opponent ready to play, warmed up and at the field with no opponent. Shame on the team that didn't show up. Even bigger shame on Sports Force Park who created the situation and then only offered a $50 refund to the team who was promised at least 4 games and only got 3 with no weather issues at all over the weekend.

9. Since we were originally signed up for the Coaster Classic, we got a price break. But, other teams paid $695 and the facility is Stay to Play. I guess more power to them if they can get people to pay it, but in my opinion, that is way over priced even with the nice facility, especially given the gate fee and no outside food/drink policy.

10. They have major issues with their parking. How they could have built this facility and not done a parking study is beyond me. They set up off-site parking with a shuttle service to handle to overflow. We managed to get a parking space all three days, but I have to believe it was a huge inconvenience for people who were forced to use the off-site parking.

In conclusion, it's a very nice facility with the potential to host a really awesome softball tournament. But, they fell far short of that potential this weekend. They seem to be a jack of all sports (baseball, softball, soccer, football, lacrosse, etc) but certainly don't have the expertise that we regularly see to run a softball tournament. Given the price point, we won't be back.
 
Last edited:
Apr 1, 2017
535
93
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but its all I found in search, so seemed like a good place to start.

Anyone here played in the tournaments at this park? We play our games/tournaments in Chicago area, so never do actual "travel", but we do 1 tournament a season with travel/hotel rooms/etc. Working on next summer, and Cedar Point was one idea to roll in a couple days of the amusement park. Based on the original post, it sounds like the extra costs will add up quickly. Can plan for that, but also curious what level of competition typically shows up?
 
May 22, 2015
410
28
Illinois
Dd’s 16u team just played there for their first tournament after school was over to start the summer. As mentioned the facility is top notch. Lots of fields and plenty of space to warm up or hit. All turf fields so be prepared to play in the rain, which we did for a day and a half. It is still stay to play so expect to pay more for hotel rooms. They must have addressed the previously mentioned parking issue because we didn’t have any trouble finding a spot. They have free putt putt golf and a sky walk deal to burn some time between games or keep the siblings busy. Competition was a decent mix of A and B teams. We played teams from Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania I believe. The weather was so crummy for us we never made it to the amusement park.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but its all I found in search, so seemed like a good place to start.

Anyone here played in the tournaments at this park? We play our games/tournaments in Chicago area, so never do actual "travel", but we do 1 tournament a season with travel/hotel rooms/etc. Working on next summer, and Cedar Point was one idea to roll in a couple days of the amusement park. Based on the original post, it sounds like the extra costs will add up quickly. Can plan for that, but also curious what level of competition typically shows up?

If you are looking for something more in the “day trip” range, I’d recommend coming down to Bloomington-Normal for a tournament. Very well run, nice complex (not futuristic/high end), and usually good competition. All their tournaments are USA Softball.
 
Jan 27, 2019
141
28
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but its all I found in search, so seemed like a good place to start.

Anyone here played in the tournaments at this park? We play our games/tournaments in Chicago area, so never do actual "travel", but we do 1 tournament a season with travel/hotel rooms/etc. Working on next summer, and Cedar Point was one idea to roll in a couple days of the amusement park. Based on the original post, it sounds like the extra costs will add up quickly. Can plan for that, but also curious what level of competition typically shows up?

When DD was playing we went to Sandusky for our end of the year tournament every year. Spend one day on Nickle Beach in Huron, OH and went to Cedar point, discount tickets through tournament, Monday. It was an enjoyable experience. Softball was average but the time at the beach with friends was great and Cedar Point is a must see if you enjoy amusement parks and roller coasters.

My only experience with them was as a dad, I never worked for or coached in the Sandusky tournaments.
 
Jun 14, 2018
172
28
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but its all I found in search, so seemed like a good place to start.

Anyone here played in the tournaments at this park? We play our games/tournaments in Chicago area, so never do actual "travel", but we do 1 tournament a season with travel/hotel rooms/etc. Working on next summer, and Cedar Point was one idea to roll in a couple days of the amusement park. Based on the original post, it sounds like the extra costs will add up quickly. Can plan for that, but also curious what level of competition typically shows up?
You should look at St. Louis for the travel tournament. Plan an extra couple of days on the trip and hit up the zoo (free to get in parking is $15) and there is always the Arch, Magic House (for the younger kids), Butterfly House (really cool), City Museum (even fun for the adults), conservation areas and state parks if your family is into nature, and so much more!

I know we don't have any of the big "national" tournaments but some of the smaller ones are great. It would be nice to see some other teams in town to play as well.
 

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