Sun News - Check the stat sheet for The Ripken Experience-Myrtle Beach this year, and there's one number general manager Bobby Holland just doesn't like to see. One hundred thirty. That's the number of teams of 13-year-olds and older that couldn't play in one of the complex's tournaments because there weren't enough fields. That's about to change. Work to add a third field for players ages 13 and older - the complex's eighth field overall - started this week. That $1 million investment will allow between 100 and 140 more teams the chance to play at The Ripken Experience next year, Holland said.
"It is going to have a tremendous impact on business," he said, walking through what will become the diamond's infield. "We had just been having to turn teams away. We just couldn't get them in because we only had two fields [for that age group]." Business at The Ripken Experience, a partnership between Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc., has been brisk since the 50-acre complex opened off Mr. Joe White Avenue in Myrtle Beach in 2006, Holland said. Teams from across the country and overseas come to compete in tournaments on the AstroTurf fields and learn lessons of the game infused into the program by the Hall of Famer.
Like other tourism businesses along the Grand Strand, The Ripken Experience had a solid summer. More than 400 teams played during the 10 weeks of summer tournaments, with business up 26 percent from summer 2009, Holland said. Players came from as far away as Canada and Kuwait, he said. Some of the tournaments for next summer already are sold out. The complex is a component in the Grand Strand's push to increase sports tourism, with the Ripken name luring visitors who might never have come to Myrtle Beach otherwise but are likely to return once they see what the area offers, said Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
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