Executive findings and what remains unverified

This is the first Cherokee County installment. 25 events and 86 division records are conservatively attributed to the sole-county Cherokee label and a single Tahlequah facility per record. Source annual labels and actual dates range across 2013–2026. 2 otherwise Cherokee-only divisions belonging to a cross-county 2026 championship group are withheld. Another 6 multi-county Cherokee-referencing division records remain in the separately supplied venue watchlist. [S1]

A major new accountability issue is the separation of historical Phoenix Park sports activity from the government-to-government proposal announced in April–May 2024: the Cherokee Nation authorized negotiating a package up to $7 million to obtain Phoenix Park land for a crisis shelter and support expansion of Anthis-Brennan. That authorization was not a verified conveyance or audited payment. The City’s current pages describe turf baseball fields opened in February 2026 as replacing the former Phoenix Park baseball fields. [S4–S8]

The central research test is practical: which entity holds legal title, who schedules community and tournament play, who collects admissions and concessions, what written fee waivers apply, how were the turf fields funded and procured, and what measurable public benefit was produced? None of those questions is answered by a statewide tournament model alone.

Countywide metric register — historical financial model

Accounting for source completeness: 1 included division row(s) have no numeric TeamsEntered and 1 no numeric TotalMinimumGamesPlayed. Sums exclude missing source cells, which are not reclassified as observed zero or completed play. Distinct events and division counts include these listed rows. [S1]

Municipality, facility, and ownership attribution

All included source divisions display one municipality, Tahlequah. The city total is therefore identical to the county total, but analytical geographical attribution does not establish deed ownership, revenue ownership, tax treatment or operator identity. The municipal Recreation Department presently says it oversees the Anthis-Brennan facility and new fields; this is operational evidence, not a parcel-by-parcel legal title opinion. Historic Phoenix Park use and the later proposed Cherokee Nation conveyance must be separated by date. [S2–S6]

Ownership treatment: Tahlequah is shown as the provisional displayed municipality for historical source labels; no legal title is presumed. For Anthis-Brennan, City Recreation Department oversight is directly documented. For Phoenix Park, Cherokee Nation official sources identify a proposed transfer and municipal files call it city-owned in May 2024, but a completed deed, closing date, and tribal title are not verified here. School/private ownership is not assumed from a facility name. [S2,S4,S5]

Dedicated countywide economic-impact reconciliation

Source sums: DayImpact = $90,790; OvernightImpact = $111,843; TotalEconomicImpactPerEvent = $202,633. The check $90,790 + $111,843 = $202,633 passes for the selected source rows. The misleading source column name TotalEconomicImpactPerEvent is a value stored on each division row, not one already-deduplicated tournament estimate. Summation must therefore be across the selected division rows exactly once. [S1]

Municipality and county rows repeat the same accounting universe intentionally and must not be added together. Only the two facility rows are additive. Event counts across sites would require distinct-event reconciliation if any event used multiple included facilities; for this selected cohort the site event sets are disjoint. The underlying model may count visitor expenditures that also finance admission, dining or concessions; overlap is untested.

Economic formulas, scenario assumptions and actual CSV rate variations

Per-division day-trip formula: TeamsEntered × DayTripRate × DayStay = DayImpact. Per-division overnight formula: TeamsEntered × NightTripRate × OverNightStay = OvernightImpact. Combined division model: DayImpact + OvernightImpact = TotalEconomicImpactPerEvent. DayStay for long-running league source rows is not interchangeable with a generic one-day tournament assumption; overnight stays can be zero, one, two or more as the source specifies. Preserve the actual rates and stays rather than replacing them with statewide defaults. [S1]

Worked source-row example. For source division 26059-1 in Brawl in the Quah 5GG (Full Turf) NIT 3X Points (3/21/2026), the CSV records 7 team participations, a day-trip rate of $85, a day stay of 1, an overnight rate of $289 and 1 night(s). Thus 7 × $85 × 1 = $595, while 7 × $289 × 1 = $2,023; combined division-row model = $2,618. The example verifies spreadsheet arithmetic, not traveler surveys or verified occupancy.

The source day/overnight rates and stays are model inputs, not measurements of hotel bookings, household residence, local-versus-nonlocal participants, inflation adjustments or displacement. When a league record uses a multiweek day-stay count, the model can be disproportionately sensitive. No additional multiplier, tax-rate computation or hypothetical economic recirculation is inserted.

Formula tests and source-column-level reproducibility

Controls cross-check calculated entry fees, admissions, concession gross, official assignment slots, umpire costs, USSSA sanction categories and division-level visitor-spending formulas where the relevant source inputs exist. Any mismatches are documented in the downloadable validation CSV instead of silently corrected. These tests address arithmetic agreement only, not the authenticity or actual collection of money. [S1]

Columns retained: TournamentID, EventDivisionID, EventUrl, County, Municipality, Facility, EventInformation, StartDate, MinGameGuarantee, EntryFeePerTeam, TeamsEntered, TotalTeamEntryFee, DailyFans, DailyAdmissionFee, TotalEventDays, TotalEventGate, TotalEventConcession, TotalMinimumGamesPlayed, UmpiresPerGame, TotalEventUmpires, UmpirePayPerGame, TotalEventUmpireFees, TotalUSSSASanctionFees, DayTripRate, NightTripRate, DayStay, OverNightStay, DayImpact, OvernightImpact, TotalEconomicImpactPerEvent, TotalEventNet.

The league-season model and cancellation test

The source includes 4 league-titled events representing 16 division rows with $220,700 modeled gate and $55,175 gross modeled visitor spending. Because league records may encode 25-, 30- or 39-day assumptions, comparisons to a one-weekend tournament require separate exposure or attendance evidence. Source assumptions must not be mistaken for repeated paid admissions. [S1]

The dataset also contains 1 division row(s) from 1 event(s) with cancellation-type titles. These carry $100 modeled gate and $85 modeled visitor spending. A title such as “Cancelled” alone does not prove zero play, refund, rescheduling or ticket sales; the alternative baseline after omitting all those titled events would be $301,200 gate and $202,548 visitor spending. This is a sensitivity scenario, not an audited adjustment.

In 2026, the new turf complex operates under a different infrastructure and public-finance setting than Phoenix Park historical source entries from 2013–2018. Any multi-year return-on-investment study must distinguish pre-investment and post-investment periods, actual event fulfillment, incremental visitors and the baseline use of fields before construction.

Longitudinal county record — date, event and source season

The historical source covers 9 calendar start-year groups. The newest 2026 labeled rows are compared with the City’s published February 2026 facility-opening narrative, but event listings alone do not prove actual games, attendance or utilization. [S1,S6,S8]

2024 Phoenix Park / Cherokee Nation negotiations — what the primary record says

Do not conflate financing and modeled economics. The $7 million is a publicly described proposed governmental contribution to a capital arrangement. The historical gate, entry, concession and visitor-spending models are separate analytical constructs; they cannot be interpreted as collections funding the project, returns on the investment or tax receipts. The ultimate funding stack, legal restrictions, Cherokee Nation naming/use rights, donated value and grant compliance require the complete final agreements and accounting documents.

2026 facility economics and public-access questions

The City’s official Cherokee Fields listing states $300 per day per baseball field and a $300 event deposit for current rentals; its softball listing also states $300 per field per day and a $300 event deposit. These are posted current charges, not historical realized rent and not necessarily proof of mandatory charges for every league, school, tournament or governmental partner. [S6,S7]

For a community-level benefits analysis, obtain the approved and amended field-use schedules; fee-waiver authority; historical rental income by fund; concession and admissions contract terms; City maintenance, turf replacement and utilities budgets; actual paid hotel-night data; local league scholarships and priority scheduling; disability access; and participation by nonresident athletes. Sports investment may deliver important nonfinancial benefits; a credible ledger measures both expenditures and equitable community access rather than assuming an automatic positive or negative outcome.

The City’s Parks/Recreation public pages identify Tahlequah Sports League and a City recreation team as current contacts. No affiliation, contractual status, compensation or revenue entitlement beyond what the City publicly states is inferred here. [S2,S3]

Unresolved cross-county event attribution — separate watchlist

Core rule: The dataset contains 88 sole-Cherokee county-label divisions. Two divisions from the 2026 multi-county event key 26200 are excluded because other divisions from the same event identify Tulsa or multiple counties. Thus 86 sole-county source divisions are included. Separately, 6 multi-county-identified Cherokee-referencing rows are excluded. The combined watchlist is 8 rows over 4 source event-key groups. [S1]

These cross-county event records are preserved for later primary-facility verification, not assigned to whichever municipality is named first. A contemporaneous event schedule, venue allocation, gate report or confirmed host facility is required. The same event’s participant totals must not be counted in multiple county dashboards without a consistent allocation method.

Separate county, municipal, and tribal financial oversight

An audit opinion concerns the reporting basis and scope of the engagement. A control finding indicates a recommended correction, not proof of theft. The 2024 county and city reports are historical documents; later remedial steps and later audit findings would require separate primary verification. Both reported findings and management responses belong in any later follow-up, without selective quotation.

Organizations, DA jurisdiction, and official court-case outcomes

Organizations. The City of Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, municipal Recreation Department, Tahlequah Sports League, tournament directors and facility users hold potentially different roles. Public webpages establish certain current municipal contacts and governmental-authority decisions, but do not establish exclusive financial rights or that any entity engaged in wrongdoing. [S2,S3,S4]

District Attorney District 27 serves Cherokee, Adair, Sequoyah and Wagoner counties, according to Oklahoma’s District Attorneys Council. The DA’s duty is legal prosecution within appropriate jurisdiction; it does not automatically include approving every municipal sports contract, auditing every nonprofit, or controlling tribal land and tribal court proceedings. Cherokee Nation maintains its own judiciary, and federal/state/tribal allocations can depend on specific facts and governing law. [S15,S16]

Official cases / outcomes: The Cherokee County Court Clerk identifies an official process for accessing case records. This research did not verify any specific court case number, filing, judgment, dismissal or criminal outcome involving the Phoenix Park/Anthis-Brennan transfer, related tournament operations or the named project participants. The absence of a documented case here is not a court-system certification that no case exists. Do not attach unrelated lawsuits or newspaper allegations to this project. If a case is later found, quote its official docket number, court, filing date and disposition before drawing any conclusion. [S17]

Proposed Oklahoma Open Records requests, dates and preservation

Status as of November 5, 2026: The following is a prepared research request plan only. No open-records request was submitted during this installment, and no agency response is claimed. The City provides an online records request form. The Oklahoma Department of Libraries provides the state Open Records Act index. Tribal records access follows separate tribal law and procedures; do not presume a state statute applies to all tribal documents. [S18,S19]

Ask for searchable electronic records and an itemized fee estimate before a significant search. Request staged productions by category; permit reasonable redaction of legally protected data. Preserve request/reference number, submission date, response date, agency explanation and linked responsive files in the statewide tracker only when actual correspondence is received.

Collaboration opportunities and the public-benefit scorecard

Cherokee County’s place-based research reveals a documented two-government partnership proposal rather than only a collection of game listings. Public-benefit evaluation should report both what was invested and who gained reliable access. Where no comparable verified performance records are available, mark a measure not established rather than zero or failed. [S4–S8]

Consider an intergovernmental annual public-use and finance summary, uniform competitive reservation criteria, timely release of grants/contract reports, accessible field booking, measurement of local youth participation and transparent facilities maintenance reserves. Such improvements are forward-looking recommendations, not allegations about current practices.

Right of response, corrections and quality safeguards

Before asserting a new disputed fact concerning an identifiable public official, tournament director, school, tribe, nonprofit or vendor, invite the organization to submit dated supporting records, corrections and an explanatory statement. A reasonable review can distinguish an unpublished proposal, a signed agreement, actual payment, a verified audit conclusion and a mere spreadsheet scenario. No response request or external records request was sent as part of this research draft.

Correct only on evidence: preserve raw original row ID, copy source statement verbatim in research workpapers, identify new primary document, record its date, mark revision history, recompute all reconciliations, and keep previous numeric values in an archive. The public should be able to identify whether a revision changed source classification, venue attribution, source data, scenario formula or editorial interpretation.

Editorial safeguards: 2024 financial contributions are not 2026 receipts; no person is presumed personally paid from modeled gate; an audit finding about unrelated federal grant reporting is not a youth-sports wrongdoing finding; a lawsuit is not a judgment; and a city or tribal jurisdictional address is not itself evidence of title or unlawful conduct.

Official source register, source-file provenance and reproducibility

Authoritative working data: AIUSSSA - HVIOG 9-20-2026(7).csv; 20,305 source division rows; SHA-256 c8687be7b0543922e41563a2329cf131339486f5fb4f373bb69af3366f8b0256. The byte-identical dated master has the same fingerprint as the prior Day 20 source file. Filter source County = Cherokee as a whole label, identify cross-county event IDs by TournamentID prefix, exclude cross-county event-group records, and group by sole-facility source labels. Save a watchlist of all Cherokee-referencing but unresolved division rows. No external dataset totals substitute for these selected county-source sums. [S1]

The complete supporting package includes the event ledger, county/municipality/facility reconciliation, unresolved venue register, rate/stay combinations, formula tests and numbered public-source register. Each download can be independently recalculated. Historical 2013–2026 source entries and contemporary 2024–2026 governmental documents have distinct dates and evidentiary meanings.