County officials and tennis fans on Saturday marked the grand opening of Montgomery TennisPlex at South Germantown Recreation Park.
The 9-acre facility incorporates indoor hard courts under two all-season, air-conditioned fabric-covered bubbles; four outdoor hard courts with lights; and a clubhouse.
The Upcounty facility gained the backing of the Washington Kastles.
Montgomery TennisPlex is a public-private partnership among Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; Montgomery Parks; and Jack Schore Tennis LLC, an organization named for co-founder and Hall of Fame coach Jack Schore.
Under the agreement, the TennisPlex will pay $2.3 million in rent over the course of 20 years, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission told Patch in April.
During a groundbreaking earlier this year, Schore estimated the project would cost $3.5 million.
Here are scenes from Saturday's groundbreaking, provided by TennisPlex officials.
(Fran Asbeck, boyds resident since 1970)
Its a tremendous waste of space. Go by there any day of the week and you will see 40 vacant soccer fields. Saturday is about the only day that you will see athletes. They could have easily fit in baseball and football fields for leagues that have to scrape for a place to play.