LakePoint

Thanks for the update... 

 

You always find things about Lakepoint & PG here before anywhere else...

 

This forum is the best...

 

 

 

 

 

$10 for the week or $10 per day?

Apparently there was some confusion. So the players do not have to pay. But spectators do. It's a per day basis. $5 now in the paved lot. When the gravel lot opens the paved will be $10. Later this summer.

Well, that response is even more confusing...$10 per day?  That means for a full week WWBA event, we will pay $70 just to park our cars?  And then parents have to pay $50ish to get in?  That's not going to play well.

Considering my son and I will be there for 3 to 4 straight weeks in July I imagine that I'll need a 2nd mortgage or we'll have to dig a tunnel.

Well most games will not be played at LakePoint. Maybe 2-3 during the week. But yeah. It's crazy expensive.

If players don't have to pay to park, I guess I'll just have to walk from just outside the gate after he drops me off...

Good idea jacjacatk. Unfortunately for me my son can't start driving until August. Oh well. I know what to do next year.

I'd at minimum teach him to drive into a lot and park a car.

Trying to recall but pretty sure this will be the first time I have ever paid to park to watch my son play baseball. Imagine PG is already getting an earful even if it is Lakepoint's doing. 

This is a LakePoint decision.  They will handle the parking at all events.  I can sure see where some might have a problem with this. 

 

I think the solution is to car pool as much as possible.  If I undersand correctly, players and coaches don't pay.  So if your a parent bringing a player in I imagine that is fine.  Not sure how scouts and college coaches will be handled.

 

Bottom line, this is a result of the astronomical cost associated with building the LP facility.  BTW, I was told that the parking was going to be $5 a day.  Please try not to bombard our people with complaints, they have no say in these policies. I do hope there is a weekly pass available.

 

LakePoint is twice the size this year.  I hope everyone that goes there has a good time and is impressed.  Teams can request not playing any of their pool games at the LP facility for any reason.  However I wouldn't recommend doing that, it's a special place.

PG I respect that you always come on here and give us the skinny even if not popular so I'm not piling on you but here's the deal:

 

LakePoint knew what they were building. They were building a top end facility which is expensive and truly remarkable.  To try to recover the cost of building this facility quicker through charging daily fees to park to watch youth sporting events is plain and simple nothing but greed.  They know they have a captive audience and frankly they are lucky to have a lessor the quality of PG where people will still show up. Bad move by LakePoint's management. 

BackstopDad,

 

You make some valid points.  I am close to the situation and I don't think this (the parking) is a matter of greed. Perhaps poor planning or survival would be more accurate reasons.

 

Before LP we held these large tournaments and there was no parking fees.  Still no parking fees at any of the many other fields we currently use.  I dislike the parking situation, but I understand it.  I don't actually know this, but was told they charge for parking at the Disney Fields.

 

Anyway, it is my belief that if enough people complain something will be done.  Problem is it doesn't get anything done if the complaints don't go to the decision makers.

My son's HS team played at Disney Wide World of Sports during their Spring Break trip. This was the first week of April, I believe. While I did not pay to park, it cost me $17 a day to watch their games. Fortunately they played 2 a day on the 3 days that I was there so I felt like I was getting something. Nah, not really.

I agree that it's great that PG posts here, and I always respect what he says.  But I also agree that LP should have factored this in to the business plan.  

 

We will be there for 2 weeks this summer, and it will add up quickly.

Played a lot of events out at Disney... Never once paid for parking at ESPN...
You don't pay for parking at Jet Blue, East Cobb, Jupiter, etc... I belive it's called 'nickel and diming' in most places...

A shovel from Home Depot will certainly cost you less!

For better or worse, PG is what everyone here associates with LakePoint, and PG is going to take the flak for questionable/greedy decisions LakePoint makes.  Feel free to let us know who at LakePoint to direct comments to, though.

 

Right now, as near as I can tell, LakePoint does not mention parking fees on their website and the only place I can find any info about that is on PGs website for the tournament.  That's just going to associate these fees more closely with PG at the moment, warranted or not.

 

LakePoint doesn't allow outside food or drink, coolers (including water for players according their website, though I thought that was OK last year), doesn't allow tailgating of any kind (which I'm given to understand basically includes sitting in your car and eating in the parking lot), charges captive audience pricing for food and beverages on site, charges admission (or gets a cut of PGs admission fee, I assume), and now charges for parking with, apparently, the plan to charge more for premium parking at some point in the future.

 

This is the sort of business plan that encourages competition, and it would be ironic if PG ended up encouraging someone to compete with them, even just at the local level here, because LakePoint wants to squeeze every drop of blood from the stone.

 

Maybe nickel and diming everyone to death is the profit-maximizing move, I'm sure some MBA somewhere at least thinks it is. But, IMHO, if the Braves, far from the most altruistic organization on the planet, can afford to allow outside food and drink into their facilities, I think someone at LakePoint/PG could find a way to build free parking lots in the middle of friggin nowhere and let me bring in a couple bottles of water.

The built a real nice facility by me with all sorts of ball fields.  Costs $5.00 to park and that's it. No gate fees.  Better deal than a $5.00 ea. Gate fee.  

Notes from today's visit.

 

Paid $5 for parking at 7:15 am.  Good news is parking ticket is good for a "free" drink.  Bad news is it's raffle ticket style ticket which implies they'll be trying to collect more than once a day.

 

For a place that doesn't let you bring in any food/beverages, it might be a good idea to have concessions running whenever the place is open.  Plenty of employes around to collect your parking/admission money and make people throw away whatever drinks they have on them coming in though.

 

Will update when we come back for game 2.

Concessions opened at 7:45.

 

Selling chickfila combo for 10.50 with an actual chickfila open across the street.  

 

Wonder where I'll be eating lunch...

 

Also, though I'm no fan of tobacco, it's apparently only off limit for attendees.  Guy scoring the game for PG is dipping right in front of the sign that prohibits tobacco.

My son will graduate HS tonight. I recall thinking, when they started the design and announcement about building Lakepoint (6 miles from the house) and then afterwards....."Man, wouldn't it have been great to have started over again with his youth baseball years and get to play there alot?". Now, i'm glad he wont be very often. Not a penny pincher or big time complainer about fees etc, and i know folks have to recover costs and make money, but uber glad i wont have to pay those parking/entry fees.And PG........"Carpool?"...c'mon Man! You know we Georgians and southerners like to drive our own Tahoes, 2 deep and shudder at the possibility of riding with other people. Ha.

if u drive across street for lunch will they charge u again to park or do u get a ticket good for entire day?

The ticket is apparently for the whole day, though I haven't actually tried to use it to get back in today, yet.

I feel for you guys I really do. You are all trying to survive and I know its not easy.

Either charge a parking fee or gate fee, not both. Allow people to bring in food.  They still will buy snacks and drinks, its a ball park. 

Players do, apparently, park free.  Son dropped me off at the incomplete back of the parking lot road, I walked in, he parked.

 

There's an entrepreneurial opportunity here for some enterprising young men...

That wasnt my point, my point is that you either pay for parking, or you pay a gate fee.

I understand that the place has to recoup to make money, but at the expense of parents who are already paying huge fees for sons/daughters to play in tournies just doesnt sit well with me. I may be wrong on the tournie fee.  If you are traveling out of town, this can become quite expensive.

Keep in mind that all is relative, when son was in HS his travel team really didnt have parents coming unless it was close to home, it was expensive back then. If we paid 3K+ for a summer travel team, it left little for extras.  But we didnt worry about food, hamburgers, slice of pizza and hot dogs chips and a coke or bottled water didnt cost as much back then as they do now! And the team covered subs (allowed to bring in to park) covered that cost. But the way it is now, companies say I pay you to support your facility, I want only my food there, at an amateur event just gets to me.

 

Baseball on every level has become big business, its a shame, because you really shouldn't have to spend this type of money for your sons to play.

JMO

 

Just having a little fun here but soon...Lakepoint will start charging to sit in the high back chairs. 

The seats do have row letters and numbers on them...

In many places where we hold tournqments there is a policy against bringing in food.  We also have always charged a gate at all tournaments.  This has been going on for many years.

 

So the issue here is parking at one of the many places we use.  It is not something we wanted, but I sure can understand both sides of the issue.

 

What surprises me is that in this thread there is hardly one positive post about the LP facility.  8 fields, all with the best artificial turf made, all with the best lighting system ever developed.  All with the biggest scouting towers in baseball, all set up with TrackMan and other technology.  All with digital scoreboards and chair seating.  This is the cleanest complex I have ever seen.

 

The cost to build all of this and to operate all of this is extremely high.  It is a great facility to hold tournaments.  It is a great facility for playing when other fields are unplayable due to weather.  For the most part we hear rave notices from those that have played there.  Yet for some reason most of the posts, even last year, here have been n very negative.

 

Individuals pay to play on many travel teams.  Those individuals don't pay us a dime.  The travel teams pay the entry fee.  The cost to play on travel teams that attend PG events is different from one team to the next.  The reason these tournaments are so popular and large is because they have become the number one venue for scouting and recruiting interest.  It is a place to be recognized and get exposure.  It is a place to see a very large number of talented prospects.  Travel teams desire to get their players to the next level.  That is what drives their existence for future years.  Most of the better travel teams recruit players similar to the way college coaches recruit players.  We scout the players and put their profile on our website.  Our website is by far the most utilized by the scouting and recruiting world.  And that individual player might be spending a lot of money to play or he might not be paying anything, we don't really know what they pay, because they don't pay us a dime directly.  We provide quality umpiring, cost over 2 million last year.  We provide the staffing, we even provide the baseballs.

 

So back to the parking... I don't like it either.  Teams can play in the tournaments and request not playing at this one facility.  Remember these tournaments grew to the size they are long before this facility was built.  That would eliminate the parking issue.  Teams can quit coming to these tournaments and play somewhere else that is not as big, but less expensive. That would also eliminate the parking issue.  

 

I don't think it is fair to tell people who have lived this thing for several years and invested so much money that everything they are doing is wrong.  I do think if someone has a complaint, they should file that with the appropriate people.  We have seen LP make changes based on previous complaints.  That is how changes take place.

 

As far as I know, I am the only person associated with PG or LP that is a member of HSBBW.  And I am involved here to help support a great site and discuss baseball.  Not sure many understand that truth be told, I actually hate business, but I love baseball.  And there is not another amateur organization out there that does more to help those that are disadvantaged.  Money does not motivate me, but baseball does.  Problem is it takes money to keep going.  Some would be shocked by PG's profit margin.  Everything from payroll to insurance it just keeps going up.  Not complaining, just trying to explain the situation.  Striving to get better is very expensive.

 

I understand most of the concerns people have.  Among other things I have had kids that played the game.  I know how expensive things can be.  I understand what people are going through.  We do things that can get expensive, but that player on one of the tournament teams might be spending more than a $1,000 to play that week and most all of it is going towards travel, lodging and food.  Paying to park adds to that cost, but it isn't much compared to the other costs.  Still I know that it is a concern and hopefully something can be done.

Thanks for frequently taking the time to post here, PG.  Having you as a regular contributor adds credibility to an already great site.

 

I can only speak to my particular situation, so here are my feelings on the topic of LP.  My son is not in that top percentile who will get drafted or offered a spot at an SEC or ACC D1 program.  His number one goal and thus that of our family, is to get the best education he can while playing college baseball.  We have sought a summer team that will expose him to the college coaches that he is targeting.  That team is making the trip south to play the 17U Round Robin and 17U WWBA this summer because it will benefit some on the team and because the WWBA is the premier tournament of the summer, and one cannot really call oneself a serious exposure team if it doesn't play in that tournament.  It will be my son's 3rd trip to the WWBA, and we really look forward to it every year.  The tournament is well run, the talent is amazing and its fun to watch the buzz around some of the top kids.  The chances are that my son will get no direct return from this event, but as part of the team and part of the experience we will attend.  

 

My husband and I consider the money that we are spending as an investment in our son's education, and we are fortunate enough that we can afford the expenses.  I'm not being boastful, just providing another data point for information gathering.  And I hate being nickeled and dimed to death with things like parking fees and not being able to bring my leftover fountain soda into the park.

 

Yes, the facility is amazing and a technological marvel, but I would be curious to know how many kids get drafted or get a college offer based on TrackMan data and better lighting. The same number of kids were being noticed without these before LP was built, and I would speculate that LP would not exist without a longterm commitment by PG.  A vast majority of kids that play in the PG events at LP do not benefit from the very things that make this facility so expensive.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts!

 

Matty 

All good posts here. 

Baseball is a simple game, all you need is a field. Its great to go to a nice place to play, but what really makes the game special is how the game is played, not where. JMO. Maybe that's why people have more complaints than compliments.

 

I do believe that most families are just made up of regular people who work hard to make things happen for their kids.  It may sound silly, but an extra 5/10 dollars here or there, adds up after a while.  

 

 

 

My son is no longer involved in this. In some ways I'm glad - don't know how I afforded it all those years. In some ways, I really miss it and wish he could have played in some tournaments at LP. We just missed it by a couple years. I did get a chance to go there once for one of his college games. It is a beautiful facility. Very clean, very organized. Not sure they had Trackman at the time and I don't remember seeing any radar readings, but it was a nice environment. I did pay $5 to park, $5 to get in and got a candy bar and a water for $5.50. So, $15.50 for the night to watch a game. It's not going to kill me, but I remember thinking I forgot how expensive all the travel ball stuff was.

I'll say this. If you don't think PG tournaments are going to help you, you don't have to go. I understand it's hard NOT to go especially when your whole team is going, but it is not mandatory. There are other, less expensive ways to get recruited. It's a free market. If PG prices itself out of competition, that will be their loss. As long as people are willing to pay what they ask, they will continue to provide the service.

I think most people are concerned with both a parking fee and an entry fee.  

 

I guess what I don't understand is if the facility is awesome then why not charge a few more dollars on the entry fee and pass on to the facility to cover the costs.

With what it costs teams to enter most of these tournaments, they could increase the entry fees by enough to cover parking and gate (and probably a bit more) and no one would blink an eye since that money would be committed/budgeted at team formation time.

 

With regards to the LakePoint facilities, I know a lot of people aren't super fond of the turf relative to real grass, and most are also more willing to spend on concessions when the money is going to a local HS or park than to a corporate entity.  Fewer rainouts is nice, but in the greater scheme of things, I'm not sure the players or teams care that much once they've played a game or two there and the novelty has worn off. I guess we'll see going forward.

On a slightly different note (now that I learned how to have my player park to save the fee), any hotel/housing recommendations?  This will be our first trip this summer and we have not made any reservations (I know, I am late, but it is what it is).

 

 

 My two cents.... PG is the best at what they do.... they help many kids get noticed

 

 LP is a money pit.... they over did it.... the fields are nice, BUT they are not as nice as dirt.  The foul territory is slim, so there can be picnic seats down the lines... the fields are good, but is it really necessary? 

 

From what I remember that had an issue with charging way to much for water for the teams...now the parking fee..... the lights are great but do they have to be that good?

 

My oldest son never played at LP and he still got to play D1 baseball..... 

 

Now my youngest is going for two weeks this summer. Here is my plan... I am going to use  a small camper  a friend of mine has and stay at a camp ground... it's 7 dollars a day..... I will eat and sleep and shower there....

 

It will be the two of us... no hotel, no eating out, ( maybe a little ) and if we have to I will shower at the truck stop.... when we don't play at LP I will drive to other fields.

 

what about getting a drone flying over the field and transmitting video back to laytop

My son was there with his college team several months ago.  They are building a hotel on site, but not sure on the opening date.  Check for chain hotels in Cartersville.  We stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn which was lovely.  We also stayed for a week (3 years ago) in a little studio on the lake.  Check VRBO.com or Homeaway.com for housing in the area.  PG does have housing requirements for the team, however.

 

If you want to stay in a central area for traveling to other field venues, Kennesaw or North Atlanta (north of the beltway) is a good area.  We have stayed at the Doubletree in North Atlanta twice recently, which was very nice and right off the highway.

$50/day restricted airspace fee?