The City of Owensboro and Owensboro Parks & Recreation Department are pleased to announce the reopening of the tennis courts at Moreland Park.
This completes an approximate 6-week project to fill and repair 3,570 linear feet of cracks, and resurface all 12 courts.
Significant repairs were needed to the courts and after research, discussion with other communities and input from our local tennis community, the City contracted Tennis Technologies to install a new crack repair system and resurface all 12 courts. The crack repair system should reduce the surface cracking and canaling which had decreased the quality of play on most of the courts.
Director of Parks & Recreation Amanda Rogers, states, “The technology will help manage the cracking and canaling. It is a series of specialized fabrics installed over the structural cracks. The fabric gives or floats with the movement of the asphalt and underlying base. We anticipate this technology will help extend the time before cracks reappear and it will significantly improve the quality of play from the previous crack fill material and methods we were utilizing.”
To help support the growth of youth tennis in our community we added approved United States Tennis Association (USTA) 10 and under and 8 and under blended blue lines to the standard USTA lines on courts 5 through 8.
Moreland Park has long been a home for tennis in our community, as the first court was a dirt surface court built during World War II. Courts were added under Mayor Glenn Lovern in the mid-fifties, Mayor Hawes during his terms of 1958-1964 and Mayor Waitman Taylor who grew the location to 12 courts in total during his time in office1972-1976.
With the help of the Owensboro Daviess County Tennis Association and our local colleges and school systems, tennis tourism through tournaments and matches helps drive over $500,000 new dollars to our community annually, with an indirect impact estimated at over $750,000 each year.
Director Rogers states, “Ensuring the courts at Moreland Park stay in solid, tournament grade quality helps ensure our ability as a community to continue to drive events and tournaments here to Owensboro; and in turn, keeps those dollars flowing!”
Call the Owensboro Parks & Recreation Administrative Center at 270-687-8700 or visit our office in person Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. for information on your local parks, programs and available facilities for rent.
