New Tennis Courts Cap Off Fannin County High School's $31.9 Million Athletic Complex

Fannin County High School's new tennis courts are open, and with them the school district has finished the last piece of a $31.9 million athletic complex that has been under construction since 2024. The Fannin County School District updated its ESPLOST facilities page on September 22 to announce the courts' completion, closing out a project built on nearly 26 acres behind the high school.

The complex was paid for entirely with ESPLOST dollars, the education sales tax voters approved through SPLOST VI in November 2023. No property taxes were raised to build it. The Board of Education approved a guaranteed maximum price of $31,946,469 for the project at its July 11, 2024 meeting, and the district's chief operations officer, Darren Danner, has walked the community through its progress in monthly updates ever since.

The complex was dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony over the summer, attended by Superintendent Shannon Dillard, Board Chair Bobby Bearden, Principal Dr. Scott Ramsey and Danner. Board Chair Bobby Bearden has said he expects the facility to serve the district for 40 to 50 years.

What's actually out there

Beyond the tennis courts, the site includes turf baseball and softball fields, the first on-campus home fields for those sports, which had previously been played off campus. Each field has its own press box, scoreboard and concession stand, and together the two fields can hold about 1,000 spectators.

The complex also added a weight room built for 160 athletes to train at once, a hitting facility with space for 11 athletes across baseball, softball, golf and tennis, a dedicated volleyball court, and roughly 85 additional parking spaces at the high school.

Getting there took longer than expected in a few spots. A stretch of wet weather this spring slowed the final paving of the tennis courts, pushing that last piece of work past the original summer timeline while the rest of the complex, including the ball fields, weight room and hitting facility, was ready for the ribbon-cutting in July.

The project traces back to a community survey the district ran in January 2022, which the school system has said shaped the plan for what to build. The district has posted monthly construction updates on its athletic facilities page going back to September 2024, when the project broke ground.

The district has not said when a formal recognition or event is planned specifically for the tennis courts, if any. For now, the courts are open and the complex the Board of Education approved two years ago is complete.

For more on how ESPLOST dollars are being spent around the district, visit the Blue Ridge Georgia Community Website, join the conversation in our Community Forum, and check out more education stories and government and politics coverage from around Fannin County.

Header photo: Thomson200 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)