Carroll County Shooting Sports Park
Huntingdon, Tennessee
Carroll County is located halfway between Memphis and Nashville in the heart of West Tennessee’s rich agriculture and hunting region. The county is home to strong high school and middle school sports shooting programs and a collegiate level program at Bethel University. County government leaders saw the potential to build a first class shooting sports park to support these programs, create new opportunities for sports shooting competitions and also host corporate events for outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
Carroll County leaders worked with the Huntingdon Industrial Development Board to secure the property in Industrial Park North for the 72-acre Carroll County Shooting Sports Park (CCSSP) Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Carroll Bank & Trust as trustee for the local Wright Charitable Trust, the Tennessee National Guard and many other community partners supported the park. County leaders also created the Carroll County Sports Shooting Board and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to provide oversight to park activities and receive ongoing donations. This public-private partnership provided leadership to manage the facility, expertise to host successful events and a mechanism to access funding and resources.
In April of 2013, the CCSSP shooting park opened with four trap fields, four skeet fields, a five-stand shotgun station, sporting clays, archery, rifle and pistol ranges and a 2,500-square-foot club house and pro shop.
The park attracted multiple corporate outings and league shooting events, including West Tennessee, State and National Regional Tournaments. The South East Regional Championship Scholastic Pistol Competition also moved to the facility, annually bringing in teams from Bethel University, Eastern Kentucky University, Texas A&M, University Corps of Cadets, Southeastern Illinois College, Michigan State University and the University of Kentucky. In May of 2015, CCSSP hosted the Tennessee State Championship Scholastic Pistol Program and a state record 119 athletes participated.
Carroll County leaders realized that additional improvements could both enhance the visitor experience and increase the number and size of tournaments hosted at CCSSP.
Carroll County used a $50,000 TNECD Tourism Enhancement Grant in 2016 to add shooting and visitor amenities at CCSSP. The grant allowed Carroll County to install new pavilions and make improvements to several range locations, construct an award stand near the club house, build a second Cowboy Town pistol shooting range, add additional pistol shooting stations to accommodate larger pistol competitions, and construct a new Chamber Welcome House to provide visitors and shooters with seating, shelter and refreshments.
The facility improvements to the CCSSP have increased the number of tournaments and corporate shooting events on site. A great example of this is the 2017 Tennessee Farm Bureau Shooting Hunger event that brought in 250 shooters and 400 total attendees from Tennessee to Nebraska, helping raise money to provide 200,000 meals for hungry Tennesseans and far exceeding its first year event goal.
Economic Impact
The Carroll County Shooting Sports Park is now one of the premier shooting venues in the Southeastern U.S. The improvements provided by the TNECD Tourism Enhancement Grant allowed the Carroll County Shooting Sports Park to host larger tournaments and events that produced an immediate positive economic impact. In 2017, the number of visitors to the park increased by 42 percent and the economic impact of the Shooting Park grew by 51 percent from 2016 totals. Project results in 2017 include:
| Total 2017 Economic Impact |
$400,500 (Carroll County Chamber Direct and Indirect Totals for January – December 2017) |
| Total 2017 Events | 13 |
| Total 2017 Direct Revenue |
$200,250 (Carroll County Chamber Totals for January – December 2017) |
| Total Accomodation Revenues |
$17,000 (170 Participants - Staying Overnight for 1 Hotel Night at @$100.00 per night) |
| Total Daily Participant Expenditures |
$133,250 (5330 Participants Not Staying Overnight @$25.00 per day) |
| Total Facility Event Revenues |
$50,000 (5,500 Participants – Per day expenditures for rentals, catering, shooting supplies, etc @ $9.09) |
Project Funding
| Carroll County |
$10,000 (initial start-up and annual appropriations) |
| Huntingdon Industrial Development Board |
$300,000 (in-kind property donation for the park) |
| Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency |
$750,000 (shooting range development grant) |
| Wright Charitable Trust |
$200,000 (matching funds for TWRA grant) |
| Carroll County Sports Shooting Board/Donations |
$100,000 (general development funding) |
| National Guard |
$1,000,000 (in-kind grading and site preparation) |
| Carroll County Highway Department |
$10,000 (in-kind grading, roadway materials) |
| TNECD Tourism Grant |
$50,000 (pavilions, shooting ranges, award stand, chamber facility) |
| TOTAL CCSSP FUNDING |
$2,420,000 (Local governments, foundations, corporate contributions, in-kind and grant funding) |
Project Leadership and Partners
Carroll County – Mayor – Project Contact
Carroll County Chamber of Commerce
Huntingdon Industrial Development Board
Carroll County Sports Shooting Board
Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency
Carroll County Bank & Trust
Tennessee National Guard
Carroll County Highway Department
Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development
Tennessee Department of Tourist Development
For project contact visit the Carroll County website at http://www.carrollcountytn.gov/.
TNECD and TDTD Tourism Enhancement Grant Program
Tourism is one of the largest industries and most important economic drivers in Tennessee. The Tennessee Tourism Enhancement Grant was developed to help communities improve their tourism assets and increase tourism-related economic impact through the Governor’s Rural Task Force and Tennessee Rural Economic Opportunity Act of 2016.
For more information visit the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.