Cornhole tournament approved for City Hall Plaza

CornholeBHM, a social cornhole league, will use Homewood City Hall Plaza for a tournament this fall.

The Homewood City Council unanimously approved this request at its July 26 council meeting. 

John Pietrantoni, with the help of his wife and two sons, has run CornholeBHM for a year and has hosted four seasons so far. He said CornholeBHM has created buzz for businesses in the past and can do the same for businesses next to the plaza like SoHo Social. 

“We typically start playing at six o’clock,” he said. “[Players] get there at about five o’clock to start warming up. ... These venues like SoHo [Social] and Zoe’s [Kitchen], they’re going to benefit because [people] are going to eat. So they’re going to eat before and after, is what I see.”

Each cornhole season lasts six weeks and ends with a championship tournament. City Hall Plaza will host the upcoming season from Sept. 27-Nov. 2.

Pietrantoni told council members that City Hall Plaza is unlike any of the eight locations they have used because of the amount of space that they are able to work with, giving them the ability to have as many as 16 teams playing at one time. “You have the perfect location for lots of reasons,” he said.

Cornhole appeals to every age group, he said. People from the ages of 18-75 enjoy playing the game, and there is no athleticism required to play the game. 

“What we see are husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, college friends, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons — we see all kinds of pairings, and it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

Pietrantoni also said he enjoys being able to teach his sons the different parts of running a business including taxation, how to open a business, how to operate an LLC and how to talk to people. 

Teams can register online at cornholebhm.com or they can register in person the same day tournaments begin. The cost to play is $50 and includes a CornholeBHM t-shirt.

The agreement with the city will be valid until the end of this year, and then Homewood City Council will discuss the future of CornholeBHM operating on City Hall Plaza.

Council President Alex Wyatt suggested the city charge CornholeBHM a rental fee of $100 given that it is a private entity operating on city property.

“I would argue that the city is getting a benefit from them being there with the restaurants and everything, but I believe there was a discussion about making [the rental fee] $100 for the entire season.”  

Pietroni’s wife, Nancy, told council members that there have been preliminary discussions with SoHo Social about a potential partnership in the future but decided to wait to move forward until the council approved the permit to operate on the plaza.

“We don’t charge them anything right now,” she said. “To us, it would be a mutual benefit to all of the restaurants in the area.”

In other business Monday, the Homewood City Council: 

Approved variance for Robertson Banking sign on 2611 18th St. S 

Approved variance for St. Vincent’s Urgent Care to have two internally-illuminated wall signs at 1944 28th Ave. S 

Approved variance to the sSign oOrdinance and permission to work in the right of way at Gatsby Court and North Shadesview Terrace