Southaven tennis complex expansion to start soon

Southaven officials say construction will begin within a few weeks on the next phase of expansion at the Snowden Grove Tennis Complex.  

In his Mayor’s Report blog post Wednesday, Mayor Darren Musselwhite said the latest $2.7 million park-enhancement project will add eight additional outdoor tennis courts just west of the existing eight-court cluster on the vacant land in front of the park maintenance shop.  

“This project will complement the 2017 $1.6 million eight-court expansion that included a central pavilion and bathrooms as well as the 2018 $770,000 transformation of the old metal building on site into a pro shop with offices, locker rooms, concessions, and retail gear,” Musselwhite wrote. “This project will move us from just 4 courts prior to 2017 to 20 total courts and 4 pickleball courts.  It also creates the option to convert more of the old tennis courts to pickleball creating 20 pickleball courts while still having 16 tennis courts.  We will gauge demand and tournament opportunities before finalizing this decision.”

In 2017,  the city tennis operation was created as part of the Parks and Recreation Department headed by new Director of Tennis, Michael Johnson.  

“We’ve averaged over 100 new players in our program every year,” Musselwhite said. “Earlier this year, our tennis program was named the state’s best by USTA-Mississippi.”

This project, funded completely by local tourism taxes, is expected to be completed in November of this year.