ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – After nearly 19 months, the Johnny Downs Sports Complex in Alexandria is ball field ready just in time for the Dixie League World Series starting this weekend.

28 teams are traveling from 11 different states to compete in the tournament. It’s estimated that over 3,000 people will pack into the complex as four different world series tournaments will be played through Wednesday. The teams playing in the world series will be the first ones to play on the new fields.

In December of 2019, an EF3 tornado ripped through Alexandria and heavily damaged the Johnny Downs Sports Complex as it passed right over the facility. After the park sat quiet for over a year, the Alexandria City Council finally voted to approve a nearly seven million dollar renovation project to add turf, new lights, dugouts, scoreboards, press boxes and batting cages.

Dr. Keith “Skip” Fox, the President of Dixie League Softball in Alexandria, said, “I know it took a lot of work with all the rain we’ve had since January but when I first went out and did my walk through a couple of days ago, the first word that came out of my mouth was ‘amazing.’”

Construction crews were able to complete the four softball fields in time for the tournament, but the four baseball fields will not be finished until November. Games will still be able to be played while construction is going on at the baseball fields. Fox said he doesn’t believe it will affect any of the planned tournament games over the next week.

Below is a scheduled list of the dates and times for the Dixie League World Series games.

Alexandria will host four more world series tournaments in 2022 and seven more in 2023.

2021 Dixie SweeTees Traditional World Series Bracket

2021 Dixie SweeTees X-Play World Series Bracket