Big-ticket basketball events are migrating to South Carolina, thanks to new facilities. Myrtle Beach Sports Center opened in March 2015 and is set to host NTBA boys’ and girls’ championships among other tournaments and camps. The 100,000-square-foot indoor facility features eight basketball courts (and 16 volleyball courts) spread over 72,000 square feet of column-free, hardwood space. Event planners love the team rooms, telescopic bleachers, a private mezzanine for elevated viewing and a café with indoor/outdoor seating. Upward Star Center, which opened in fall 2014 in Spartanburg, hosts a variety of basketball events, tournaments and series. The 120,000-square-foot facility comprises six basketball courts (among volleyball courts, batting cages, a running track, and outdoor sand courts and fields), complete with team and meeting rooms, a players’ lounge and café.
Tyger River Park in Spartanburg is South Carolina’s premier softball/baseball tournament facility. It features 12 fields in four-field clusters; a premier stadium with seating for 600; and a clubhouse with a conference room, meeting rooms, park administrative and athletic offices, restrooms, concessions and picnic tables in the clubhouse pavilion. The park has hosted events like the ASA State Championships, NSA & Louisville Slugger Class B Eastern World Series, 2015 ASA/USA 18U Class A Girls Fast Pitch National Championship and ASA Diamond Classic World Series. Tyger River Park and other complexes scattered throughout the state play host to SC USSSA, girls’ youth fast pitch.
“Spartanburg has always been a hotbed for softball, but with the addition of Tyger River Park it was an obvious choice to bring some of our largest tournaments here,” said Chad Greene, SC ASA commissioner. “A lot of towns host big events, but scatter teams to venues over a 40-mile radius. At Tyger River Park, you have the luxury of hosting those same type tournaments all at one location.”
When it comes to the game made famous by the Harry Potter series, South Carolina is a cauldron for quidditch. In 2014, North Myrtle Beach Sports Park and Sports Complex hosted Quidditch World Cup 7. The complex offers plenty of room for racing brooms and snitch snatching with eight regulation soccer/lacrosse fields (to do justice to the complex as a whole, there’s also a variety of baseball fields and eight batting tunnels). Quidditch players and fans delight in the concession areas, picnic shelters, playgrounds, amphitheater, trails, dog park and 25-acre lake. Quidditch hightailed its way back to South Carolina in April 2015 for Quidditch World Cup 8—this time at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill. The 70-acre park features eight soccer fields, two lighted, synthetic turf fields—each with stadium seating for 750—six lighted natural turf fields and additional fields for multipurpose use. And an event of this caliber couldn’t take place without the park’s pavilions, concessions and shelters.
South Carolina offers more than a picturesque backdrop for tennis tournaments. Take Columbia, for example, which hosted 2015’s SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament at the University of South Carolina. The university’s Carolina Tennis Center features 12 courts with lights and scoreboards on each one, plus video cameras, seating for 670 fans and courtside storage. South Carolina hosts many USTA events, too; the 2014 USTA/ITA National Small College Championships was hosted by the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter. The center serves up 24 lighted tennis courts, making it the largest tennis center in the state. In April, 2016, Charleston’s Family Circle Tennis Center will host the WTA Family Circle Cup—the largest women-only tennis tournament in the world, with 100,000 spectators and more than 70 athletes.
For cycling events, Rock Hill is a shining beacon. The city’s Rock Hill Outdoor Center houses a variety of cycling venues from paved to off road. The center’s Novant Health BMX Supercross Track will host the 2017 BMX World Championships by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The event is expected to bring approximately 3,000 amateur participants and 300 professional athletes from over 40 countries, and attendees will stay an average of 10 days. Another major venue at the center is the 250-meter, world-class Giordana Velodrome. Endorsed by USA Cycling, the facility hosts national and UCI caliber events while introducing the local community to the Olympic sport of track cycling through a variety of rider development and outreach programs.
“The Novant Health BMX Supercross Track in Rock Hill is the new gold standard for USA BMX tracks. It has been so thrilling to see the city of Rock Hill completely commit to the sport of BMX racing and create a world-class BMX venue,” said John David, chief operating officer of American Bicycle Association. “Hosting the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships in Rock Hill is a dream come true for all parties involved, and this will be a phenomenal event. Earlier this year we hosted the USA BMX Carolina Nationals in Rock Hill and we could not have been more pleased with the facility—especially the staff. They truly understand big events and do them well.”
South Carolina’s natural beauty sets the stage for unmatched golf events. The state offers 368 courses, 26 of which are Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries, boasting some of the country’s most beautiful surroundings and wildlife. Myrtle Beach, the “golf capital of the United States,” offers hundreds of courses from pro-style to casual. PGA.com notes several other top golf courses in South Carolina, including Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, The Ocean Course Golf Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Johns Island and Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken.
You can’t go fishing without water—and not only is South Carolina positioned along the Atlantic Coast, but the state is also home to 12 major lakes with sizes from 7,500 acres to 110,000 acres, and types ranging from reservoirs (such as Lake Jocassee in the upstate mountains) to the swampy wilderness of Lake Marion in the lowlands. Lake Hartwell in Anderson, located in the upstate region popularly known as The Upcountry, hosted the 2015 Bassmaster Classic. The state also plays host to Fishers of Men Tournament Trail and Ministries, Governor’s Cup King Billfishing Series, South Carolina BAIT Division 1 and Striped Bass Festival.
South Carolina rolls out the red carpet for stellar sports events. The state’s subtropical climate allows for year-round play, and top-notch facilities are catalysts for competitive and unforgettable events—not to mention the highly-visited state offers a plethora of activities for all ages and interests.
