Bellevue Center Mall Closes * May 31, 2008

My son Tom had the honor of pulling down every cage in the Bellevue Center Mall.

Tom and I on about our 4th trip of about 8 using the "Nashville Pro Hammond" truck.

(I knew being in the music business for so long would pay off sooner or later.) Nashville Baseball Training Academy closed our doors to the public on May 28th after 4 years in the Bellevue Center Mall. Three days later, and about eight trips with a truck, we finished packing things up and moving to our new location at 491 Allied Drive in Nashville. As you can see from the last picture...it's a lonely parking lot. Sadly, this parking lot has been lonely for quite a few years. The Bellevue Mall has been struggling from pretty much the day it was opened about 20 years ago. Macy's and Sears will be the only ones left open as the new owners come in to build another mall. I will miss this place.

The nice thing about a struggling mall is that they will try new ideas to get people in their doors. I guess that's why NBTA was given permission to start a batting cage/baseball training academy in a mall specifically designed for retail shopping. I assume the management and previous owners liked what we did since they allowed us to stay for so long. I know the other businesses were glad we decided to open up in the mall because I was visited by so many managers and owners of the stores and restaurants thanking us for bringing in so many kids and their families.
Looking back it's been great and looking forward, I was hoping for another outcome. One that included us in the new development of the new Bellevue Mall. Yes, it would have been nice to have been contacted by the new owners after all the meetings that they had with the residents of Bellevue. We were told (at least the way I remember) that every business in the mall would be contacted by them and given an opportunity to discuss the possibility of coming back when they rebuilt the mall. Well, I was never contacted and even after requesting to talk with their leasing department, I still haven't heard from them. I'm sure a training facility (even if we were also a retail shop) would not be in their plans since we are not a big name company. Never mind that most of the people from the areas of Nashville that they hope they will be serving...are coming to us. I wish people could look beyond what they think they know and think out of the box instead of always playing it safe by doing what everyone else does. I'm sure we'll have a great new mall with everything we need...but, will it turn out like the new mall down the road?

We have visited Nashville West mall and the Red Robin restaurant almost every weekend since it opened and have become friends with one of the RR (now transferred) managers. In less than a year he is seeing a huge drop off of customers compared to when they first opened. I do know some that work at Target and as most Targets go...they are busy and seem to be very profitable. It's probably not hard to figure out why they are profitable...they run the place pretty poorly. Like every Wal-Mart and now Target...they never have enough people working the floor or cash registers, yet, the public continues to support businesses that could care less about customer service as long as they don't have to pay that extra dollar. I don't get it. I would love to pay more (and i do) for good service. It's worth it!

Sorry...enough of that. I'm thankful to the mall management for letting me stay 'til the bitter end. I am also hopeful that the new mall owners will do well and bring Bellevue up a notch or two. I really want them to succeed because I have lived here for 23 years and hope to stay for many more. Most of you that view this blog live out of state and I'm sure you could care less about this mall..but if there are a few of you who live here in the Nashville area, PLEASE support this new mall! We know most of the Bellevuites won't.

Now on to what I should be writing...It was a blessing to almost get through spring baseball. My parents and players are a little worried that we aren't going to be in full swing during tournament and All-Star time, but we're going to try and get a few cages up as fast as we can. Our new facility will take time to build and get ready. I'll have a cage up this weekend to do a few lessons each day, but we wait for carpenters, electricians, carpet, and I'm sure a ton of other people to help us build a great new facility. It's a smaller space but we should be able to have as many cages as we did in the mall. Just no air conditioning! That's gonna be tough but I'm hoping I'll burn a little of this fat off this summer working in that heat!

Enough for now...I'll start posting as we start building out the new facility. Pray for us! We are excited about our new location and excited about having a new start. Right now, I'm excited that I am about ready to lay down my head for about 8 hours. I'm really, really, tired.