After welcoming Joe Henry as business director, the Great Bend Recreation Commission Board dived into a recap of winter as well as a look ahead at spring offerings at its monthly meeting Monday afternoon.
Other business discussion centered on an upcoming partnership with Barton Community College on Esports tournaments catering to the Rec’s youth participants.
Henry informed the group that Esports has caught fire with the college set and is reaching into the high school and middle school levels. “It’s everywhere, even at the rec level,” Henry said. Revenue streams include tournaments and leagues, as well as live-streaming, sponsorships and prize money.
“It’s pretty incredible what’s going on,” Henry said.
Henry noted there were two avenues where GBRC could get involved. One of them, because of a resource link to BCC, is to partner with the college program to learn how it works for the establishment of leagues and tournaments.
The other avenue is the acquisition of equipment, such as Playstation 5s, to present its own. These mirror computer units that run Esports games.
Henry said that a GBRC tournament could feature six units with a seventh unit as a backup, with HDMI connections to large-format flat screens.
Because the tournaments feature one-on-one, two-on-two or three-on-three player scenarios, a typical tournament with 30 entries could be played on a bracket within about 3.5 hours of playing time.
“If you had 30 people sign up for a, say, Rocket League tournament, you could probably play through a bracket in under three hours on a two-on-two format,” Henry noted. “If you had 60 people sign up, you could do three-on-three which is still very popular,” he said. “You could also shorten the length of the games by just a little.”
In other matters
In his liason report, GBRC Executive Director Chris Umphres informed the board on progress with the Brit Spaugh Park project, a joint project with the City of Great Bend. Among amenities being discussed at the south end of the park are the addition of a basketball court, pickleball courts and a mini soccer pitch on the park’s south side.
This is part of the City of Great Bend’s 10-year quality of life master plan.
Among the new business information items were: A look at the Rec’s baseball and softball tournament schedules: an upcoming parents’ guide for youth sports; and bids for three new automated external defibrillator (AED) units to be placed at the Wellness Center, the City Auditorium and the Activity Center.
As an action item, commissioners passed its annual resolution for GAAP waiver.
