The Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority along with Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson stand in front of a soccer goal after cutting the ribbon on the North Lowndes Sports Complex Friday morning in Hahira.

HAHIRA – Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation cut the ribbon on the North Lowndes Park Sports Complex Friday morning.

The ribbon cutting celebrates the opening of eight new soccer fields made possible by Lowndes County SPLOST dollars. The North Lowndes Sports Complex project was completed in two phases complete with grass fields, sports lighting, paved parking, a concession/restroom building and a maintenance building.

“It was extremely important that this project came to fruition, basically because the soccer community is growing by leaps and bounds,” Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter said. “From a Parks and Recreation standpoint, in this community, we needed a soccer complex and we’ve known this for probably 10 years. Then, we started working on the idea of the soccer complex. We were able to acquire this piece of property from the Georgia Department of Transportation, which really was a blessing for us and here we are today.

“We’re opening this great complex and this is just part of it. It is the North Lowndes Soccer Complex but there’s going to be other athletic amenities that will be brought to this park. Again, for North Lowndes County, for the Hahira community, this is a great day for them.”

The Sports Complex is connected to North Lowndes Park, which is home to a multipurpose field, skate park, pavilion and walking trail. The nine-field complex will host soccer, football and other local sports.

Like the Harry B. Anderson Tennis Center and Freedom Park in Valdosta, North Lowndes Sports Complex will also be a tournament destination for travel leagues around the Southeast and beyond.

VLPRA board member Suzan Garrett, who was instrumental in the expansion of Harry B Anderson Tennis Center at McKey Park, talked about the need for the establishment of a soccer complex as far back as 12 years ago.

Garnett also credited VLPRA Executive Director George Page as an important figure in executing the plans for so many projects in the area.

“Since the 2011-12 time frame, this has been at the top of our priority list,” VLPRA board member Suzan Garnett said. “I remember meeting with Mr. Pritchard so many times and at the time, my 17-year-old daughter was playing soccer and I just knew there was a need for it. I saw how big soccer was growing. It’s growing all around us. We needed it here.

“I think the greatest thing Valdosta-Lowndes County ever did was to bring George Page in as our director for VLPRA.

He hit the ground running and George knew as a community that we had so much more potential and we did and we still do and we know that. We have bigger plans even for this amazing facility, but George put the plan to action.”

While there is no official projection of the economic impact the complex will have yet, Slaughter believes the growth of soccer in the area combined with the amount of families and community members participating should be an economic victory.

“I don’t have any numbers, but you can just imagine if they’re having a tournament out here and there’s thousands of families that are coming in with their children playing in the tournament, they’re going to be staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants so the economic impact is always huge with a facility such as this,” Slaughter said. “This is why we do it, but we really do it because of the citizens in our community.

It’s the citizens that live here, through the willingness to support the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that brings a project like this to fruition. It is their park, it is their complex and we’re sure that a lot of the area community’s families and children will be able to enjoy it.”

For the Lowndes County Commission and VLPRA, cutting the ribbon on North Lowndes Sports Complex is a 10-year conversation that has manifested into reality.

“I’ve been Chair for 10 years and we’ve talked about it for 10 years. Once we got started with it, there were a few delays – stuff like the turf not taking onto the fields like we thought it would. That delayed us a complete growing season. We actually completed the park in two different phases, which was to put the fields in and get that done and then we had to do the lighting and the grandstands and those sorts of things in Phase 2. It’s taken a little bit of effort and a little bit of time to get it here, but we are here today. We cut the ribbon on it, we kicked the ceremonial soccer ball and we’re ready to start playing soccer out here at North Lowndes Sports Complex.”