Wet fields are pushing back the start of the spring sports season.
In Frisco, the city Parks and Recreation department reports they have more than 10,000 children signed up for spring session.
However, they’ve barely been able to play.
“This has been an interesting season for us,” said Steve Walsh, Frisco’s facilities manager. “We’ve had 22 of our last 35 days rained out.”
According to Walsh, the issue is safety, as the fields are saturated and slippery.
For Mesquite-based Baseball Nation, an organization that maintains ballparks in McKinney, Mesquite and Balch Springs, owner James Belt says it has been “a slow start”.
“We’ve canceled our past three tournaments,” he said. “We stepped on the field for the first time this Tuesday night since February 21st.”
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The cancellations over the past three weekends have cost his business an estimated $200,000 in lost entry fees.
With 183 teams coming into town this weekend, tournament director Leonard Meyer describes the fields as “playable” after hours of work by the grounds crew.
Any more moisture, however, could mean more cancellations, though organizers say it’s hard to complain about rain after years of drought.
“I know we need the rain,” Belt said. “It’s been a long drought, but from a business perspective, it hasn’t been too nice to us the past few weeks.”
