Neil Hays – Love Hatbox, Coweta & Ardmore 30 Historical USSSA Events and the Three-County Facility Audit

1. Research purpose: a three-county facility record

This installment examines historical USSSA event listings attributed in the Hidden Valley research dataset to Neil Hays. Across the 2015, 2016 and 2017 USSSA seasons, the records identify events at Love Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Coweta Sports Complex in Coweta, and Ardmore Regional Park in Ardmore. The question is not whether an individual acted improperly. It is what the surviving public listing actually documents about event activity, how those entries relate to public sports facilities, and which contemporaneous financial and operating records would be needed to move from an estimate to a verified conclusion.

The live Baseball Heaven director directory lists Neil Hays as a dataset record without a previously published dedicated research landing page and displays USSSA director ID 4583732. The archive was checked against earlier daily titles to avoid repeating a daily profile; that check does not guarantee every non-indexed private draft is known.

2. Controlling research file, definitions and independent reconciliation

The controlling source is AIUSSSA - HVIOG 9-20-2026(8).csv (September 20, 2026 dataset version), the latest full Hidden Valley source available for this audit. The extraction filtered the exact TournamentDirector value Neil Hays; the older statewide director inventory is used only as a secondary reconciliation. 66 division-level records collapse into 30 distinct season-plus-base-event identifiers and 30 distinct source event URLs. No division record was counted as a separate event.

The 2015–2017 labels refer to USSSA seasons; several events tagged to 2016 begin in the fall of calendar year 2015, and several tagged to 2017 begin during calendar 2016. The earliest listed start is April 4, 2015; the latest is May 26, 2017. The season labels, rather than calendar-date grouping, control the annual financial reconciliation below.

USSSA season-by-season audited totals

*Officials means modeled assignments (game equivalents × listed umpires per game), not a count of individual human officials.

3. Sport and event-type split

28 softball event listings (63 division records, 370 team entries, $44,696 in calculated entry fees) are associated with Love Hatbox Field. Two baseball event listings (three division records, four team entries, $844 in calculated entry fees) are associated with Coweta and Ardmore. The dataset lists one Love Hatbox Youth League record group with three divisions, 13 team entries, a 34-day source calendar and $0 in advertised USSSA team-entry fees. A $0 source fee does not establish a free local league or absence of local dues.

The 34-day league record materially changes an uncapped admissions model. For that reason, Day 32 excludes that league record from its main gate/concession scenarios rather than pretending that 34 days of ticket sales occurred. It remains included in the historical 30 events, 374 team entries, 1,118 minimum games and 2,030 estimated assignments.

4. Facility, address and jurisdiction audit

All three historical venue names have geographic evidence. The exact street address, ownership, operating authority and financial rights must nonetheless be assessed separately; a dataset address or municipal park designation alone does not identify which party collected tournament revenue.

Love Hatbox — Muskogee / Muskogee County

The source lists Love Hatbox Field, 3601 Arline Ave, Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401. Current field directories confirm Love Hatbox at 3601 Arline Avenue, and a design firm describes city-led master planning for the complex. This supports a public-facility context, but does not identify the payee or organizer for individual 2015–2017 USSSA events. The site should be researched through city and operator agreements for those specific seasons.

Coweta Sports Complex — Coweta / Wagoner County

The source lists 35079 E. 151st St. S., Coweta, Oklahoma 74429, matching the City's facilities listing for the sports-complex location. It has one source event under Neil Hays. Current municipal facility listings do not independently prove a 2017 event rental, receipt or sanctioning arrangement.

Ardmore Regional Park — Ardmore / Carter County

The source lists 3045 Softball Complex Rd., Ardmore, Oklahoma 73401. Ardmore's official Regional Park page identifies a city park with softball complexes but gives a general park address of 2704 N. Rockford Rd. These may refer to different entrances or park areas; the 3045 field-specific address remains unverified, and must not be presented as an independently verified municipal street address.

5. Complete source-linked historical 30-event register

The following table is generated from 30 event groups after consolidating all relevant divisions; the name, listed days and source URLs are reproduced from the research file. USSSA event and season links are historical URLs carried in the dataset; the current USSSA pages are dynamic, and selected direct historical event pages could not be independently rendered during this review. A link is a research trail, not independent proof of completed games or paid admissions.

One 2015 event start listing (Swing into Fall, September 12, 2015) has a source URL containing a divisionID parameter rather than an eventID; it is identified by its own season-plus-base-event record key. Other source URLs were copied without reconstruction. Dates are listed starts, not confirmation that games were played.

6. Fees, minimum games and officiating calculation rules

For each division row, advertised team entry fees = TeamsEntered × EntryFeePerTeam. Summing all 66 row results produces $45,540. This is scheduled gross advertised fee activity, not verified cash receipts. Historical rosters, discounts, refunds, cancellations, tax treatment and collection beneficiaries have not been established.

The dataset supplies 1,118 TotalMinimumGamesPlayed equivalents and 2,030 TotalEventUmpires assignments. The displayed minimum-game guarantees vary by division, including a long-duration league. These totals represent source-model demand rather than an actual count of game results or individual officials. No umpire-pay or rental-expense amount is treated as a verified expenditure.

7. Gate and concessions: fully disclosed alternative scenarios

No event-specific 2015–2017 gate policy, ticket counts, concession settlement or receipts were independently authenticated. Therefore, the following figures are illustrative sensitivity scenarios, not historical revenue claims. They cover only 29 nonleague source events / 361 team-event entries. The 13-entry, 34-day league event is excluded from every model. A charged day is limited by the source-listed calendar and a stated cap.

Worked two-day-capped example: 656 modeled team-days × 2 spectators × $5 admission = $6,560 modeled gate. Concessions: 656 × 2 × $4 = $5,248 modeled gross concession sales; 25% contribution margin = $1,312 modeled net concessions. The $7,872 combined gate-plus-net-concession illustration is not profit and is not attributed to any party. Do not add it to the $45,540 advertised entry fees and label the result actual event income; beneficiaries, costs and receipts are unknown.

*The final column deliberately combines unlike hypothetical components only as a visible sensitivity subtotal. It excludes facilities, lighting, officials, insurance, permits, refunds, concessions labor beyond the assumed 75% direct costs, and all other charges. It is not audited surplus, organizational revenue, net income, taxable income or a person’s compensation.

8. League and calendar distortion audit

The Love Hatbox Youth League entry spans May 1 to July 14, 2016 in the source, while TotalEventDays records 34. Its three divisions list 13 team entries, $0 in advertised USSSA team fees, 88 minimum-game equivalents and 122 official assignments. Treating 34 as 34 days of charged attendance would produce unsupported exposure assumptions. In the nonleague register, the source-listed days range from 1 to 4; even there, scheduled days do not establish admission collection or full-calendar completion.

The research does not convert the dataset's DailyFans, TotalEventGate, TotalEventConcession, TotalEventIncome or TotalEventNet columns into factual revenue. Those fields reflect modeled assumptions and are not a second stream of verified financial evidence. No fee/gate/concession total is double-counted in the public snapshot.

9. Public-facility oversight questions, not accusations

1. Which city department or entity held the operating agreement for Love Hatbox softball fields in each 2015–2017 season?
2. Were the specific USSSA events licensed, rented, co-sponsored or independently operated, and by which signatories?
3. Can municipal and organizer records identify which party collected team registration fees for each listed event?
4. Do original event pages or archived brochures establish historical posted team prices, waivers, refunds or discounts?
5. Were gate admissions charged at any listed venue, on what days, at what price and with what exemptions?
6. Which party, if any, owned the concessions rights and kept audited concessions receipts?
7. Do facility agreements allocate ticket, concession or tournament proceeds to field maintenance or capital accounts?
8. What field rental, lighting, grounds, insurance, security, waste removal and staffing expenses were billed?
9. What scorebooks, brackets, cancellation logs and weather notices support games actually played?
10. Do umpire assignments and payment records correspond to the modeled 2,030 official assignments?
11. How should the 34-day Love Hatbox Youth League entry be classified for public financial research?
12. What relationship, if any, connects the three venue listings in Muskogee, Coweta and Ardmore under one historical director attribution?
13. Does Coweta have a 2017 permit or event agreement for the May 13–14 tournament?
14. Can Ardmore verify whether 3045 Softball Complex Road was a specific softball entrance distinct from the park's 2704 N. Rockford address?
15. What documents, if any, were required to be provided to city parks departments after third-party tournaments?
16. What are the historical public-access, insurance and youth-safety conditions for private event organizers at each venue?
17. Who is authorized to correct the event or director attribution if archived sources disclose an inconsistency?

10. Verification matrix and outstanding records

11. Source register and reproducibility

Evidence categories: dataset-documented means present in the controlling historical research file; externally corroborated means a separate source substantiates a particular facility or location fact; unverified means the specific event or financial claim has not been substantiated. Contemporaneous 2015–2017 city agreements were not obtained for this article. All source links should be tested again when publishing and archived where permissible.

Controlling dataset: AIUSSSA - HVIOG 9-20-2026(8).csv, a locally provided research file, September 20, 2026 version. The package accompanying this article includes a 66-row audit, a 30-event event ledger and a 2015–2017 annual reconciliation to make the arithmetic reproducible. The local source filename is not claimed to be a publicly accessible URL.

12. Corrections, right of response and document invitation

Baseball Heaven welcomes corrections or contemporaneous documents from Neil Hays, event organizers, USSSA, City of Muskogee and Love Hatbox personnel, Coweta officials, Ardmore officials, coaches, officials, participants and families. Useful responses include dated event announcements, approved facility-use agreements, original team counts, scorebooks, refunds, admissions policies and settlement records. Identify the event name/date and attach a verifiable source; substantive corrections will be recorded with the article rather than silently replacing historical figures.

Correspondence and documentary corrections can be sent to Kenneth@BCMSports.net, the public contact address displayed by Baseball Heaven. The goal is factual reconciliation, not an assertion about any director’s integrity or personal finances.