A "Ground Breaking" Project, Welcome Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater to Albertville

Sand Mountain Park, Baseball Complex, Championship Field

Something "BIG" is coming, something rather unprecedented for Marshall County, AL, much less, Albertville. Something of the magnitude of approximatley 133 acres, buildings of near 300,000 square feet, and more; but, we'll get back to that in a minute. For years, as a municipality, we've struggled to gain the attention we deserve from retailers and developers who have notoriously built just outside of our city limits, often times, in Guntersville, to draw from the lake, or previously, in Boaz, to be near the now decrepit Tanger Outlets. Albertville is three times the size of our neighboring cities ranging 26 square miles, with a population of nearly 30,000. When Wal-Mart, Belk, Lowe's, Staple's, Chik Fil A, Cracker Barrel, Publix, and a vast array of other retailers decided to locate outside of our city limits to the North and South of us, our friends in Boaz and Guntersville began "eating our lunch", pun intended, in sales tax dollars. These businesses relied, and still rely, on Albertville's population to keep them afloat, but their tax revenue goes outside of our city.

This began jogging the minds of city officials over 15 years ago for unconventional ways to generate revenue, and keep it in Albertville, so we could pave our streets, equip our public safety departments with better technology, improve our infrastructure, and be in a better position to pay our employees competitive wages to keep up with other cities who we were losing good talent to year after after. They began to ask themselves, what are we known for? What is the one thing that still drives our economy here? How do we capitalize on that? The answer was, has always been, and is sports and fine arts programs. I mean, come on, we've all heard of the "Aggie Band." If you haven't heard of them, you've seen them on TV marching in the Rose or Macy's Day Parades and didn't know it. We are state champions in Pro Start Culinary Arts, Little Aggie and Aggie Theater, and Albertville VocalEase Show Choir boast a host of major accolades and awards. Aggie soccer, baseball, football, and tennis all have extremely respectful records and bring much pride to this community year after year.

My grandfather, J.C. Bryant, is known in Albertville as the "father of youth sports" and Little League Baseball in Albertville. He had a vision nearly 50 years ago to bring the best facilities possible to Albertville so that the children of that generation had a place to play ball and be active other than the empty field beside Wayne Poultry where the mill village kids would play ball because there was nowhere else to go. It's no secret that he and a group of dedicated individuals lead the city to build the current Albertville Recreation Center, in the 1960's. Back then, the facilities at Albertville Rec. were the best of the best. In 1978, grandaddy coached lead the team that won the Little League World Series from Albertville. Those were the days and I'd give anything to have lived then to be able to see it. I miss that man so much. His influence has shaped so much of who I am today and I am forever proud to call myself his granddaughter!

Flash forward until about eight years ago, and the rec. center was nothing more than old, broken down, and neglected as low budgets and decreased economic development in town simply couldn't support bringing the facilities up to where they needed to be. A new regime once again took over in Albertville; this time, however, they were of the baby boomer generation. The generation that played for my grandaddy and the likes and remembered what it was like to have stellar facilities and programs for youth. They envisioned a city much like they grew up in, one that would entice their children to stay home and raise their families at home, verses leaving to go somewhere that already had those quality of life aspects so many search for in where they will plant their roots now.

Nearly a decade later, over 300,000 square feet of new retail space has been attracted to Albertville and is over performing previous sales projections. This, in turn, has spurred developers to not just "take a chance" on Albertville, but to knock our doors down wanting in. These things take time, no development, due diligence period, or construction phase moves quickly, but nearly a decade later, we're finally feeling the effects of all the hard work that's gone into "turning the wheel" for this city. In the one and 3/4 terms the current city administration has been in office, they've received credit rating increases that took us from a C credit rating in 2012, to an A credit rating in 2018, which we've been told by municipal investment bakers is unprecedented and astounding. Last year, we were able to finally qualify for, and receive a bond issue to build Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater. A development projected to change the face of our city, as we know it, forever. JSU's Center for Businness and Economic Development completed the Feasibility and Economic Impact Study for the park project that showed stammering favorable results for the park's ability to generate tourism and revenue through tournament play, concerts, family leisure, and more.

Sand Mountain Park, Amphitheater

We recently said goodbye to what I call "my granddaddy's rec. center." It's demolition was completed in February. The only thing left standing or recognizable as part of the old facilities is the one field that city officials voted unanimously to keep in the fields package of the new park, "J.C. Bryant Field." My eyes fill with tears when I think about it, and though change is sometimes bittersweet, I'm so proud of my city because I know this is something he would've been proud of and something he would've stood behind wholeheartedly. This administration is providing Albertville's youth, of today, and the future with top notch facilities that will only entice them more to want to get involved in activities that keep them grounded, focused, allow less time to get caught up in alcohol, drugs, and other dangerous temptations that are so easily accessible to kids today. What started out as a plea to bring in more sales tax dollars to our city has turned into an added quality of life aspect that we want to serve our community, first and foremost. The rest is simply an added bonus.

Sand Mountain Park Rec. Facility and Outdoor Water Park

Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater will boast a number of best in class baseball and softball fields, including championship field complexes, multipurpose fields for lacrosse, soccer, football, and more, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts with the addition of clay courts, racquetball in the nearly 200,000 square foot fitness facility, gyms, group fitness rooms, indoor and outdoor aquatics, competition pool, lazy river, water slides, spash pad, and birthday party areas. It will include over three miles of nature trails for hiking and walker, natural wetlands, and botanicals. Perhaps one of the most exciting components of the new park is the amphitheater, which has been designed to seat approximately 9,000, with 2,000 in permanent seating, and the remainder on the lawn. We are looking forward to hosting Aggie Band Concerts and Competitions here, Show Choir Competitions, like the Diamond Classic, which brings in thousands to Albertville each year, in addition to other regional acts. The amphitheater has been designed with back of house "green rooms", loading docks, and tour bus access to accommodate national recording artists as well.

Sand Mountain Park, Outdoor Water Park, Lazy River

We are thrilled to announce we have contracted with Sports Facilities Management (SFM), who manages facilities of the likes of the Hoover Met, Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg, Myrtle Beach Sports, and a number of other prestigious facilities, to manage Sand Mountain Park. We are currently in the negotiations phase of potentially contracting with OVG, a subsidiary of LiveNation, to manage Sand Mountain Amphitheater. A great deal of care has gone into ensuring a project, expense, and venue of this magnitude is taken care of at the highest level and provides our community, surrounding region, and families visiting us to compete or come see a show in our facilities have the best experiences possible.

Look for us to announce the Grand Opening of Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater Summer of 2020!

Sand Mountain Park, Softball Complex