WHEELING — The annual “Beast of the East” tournament in the Ohio Valley is going to be less beastly this year with far fewer teams registered to participate.

Just 24 teams are set to take the field for the competition, which happens June 29 through July 2 at locations throughout the area. Last year’s tournament attracted 56 teams.

At its height, Beast of the East fielded 162 teams, according to co-director Bo McConaughey. The average number over the years then settled at about 125, he said.

A technical glitch was at the center of this year’s issues, McConaughey explained. He noted the company that owned the Best of the East’s website domain was hacked sometime in December. Typically teams begin registering for the tournament in December, with registrations picking up through January and ending in February.

“By January, teams started calling us asking us why we were not having a tournament this year,” McConaughey said. “They were getting a message when they tried to log in that it was an ‘Insecure site.'”

Among those not able to access registration were teams in the Beast of the East’s “Canada Connection,” he continued. Each year, typically there are at least 20 teams from Canada coming to the Ohio Valley to play baseball, but this year they were not able to register.

“They tell us they’re coming in next year,” he said.

Still, the lack of registrations in 2023 forced McConaughey to lower the registration fee for teams from $950 to as low as $350 “just to get teams to come in so we didn’t have to cancel.”

The lower participant number, however, didn’t stop Ohio County Commissioners from approving a $3,000 community grant for the “Beast of the East” this week.

As they were reviewing the request, County Solicitor Donald Tennant — who also serves as president of the American Legion Athletic Association for Post 1 — advised commissioners the number of teams participating in Beast of the East was down this year.

He explained eight teams had filed in each of the tournament’s three divisions — U-19, U-16 and U-14.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of competition out there,” Tennant continued. “There are sites available now that have multiple turfed fields.

“Teams have been apparently looking at those tournaments because it’s more convenient when you’re playing a game — especially when you get rain. When you get rain, you lose games because we don’t have enough turf fields.

“We’re getting more turf fields, but it has been a struggle for teams (in the past).”

Tennant reminded commissioners that in past years the tournament has been an economic boon to the area in terms of hotel usage, restaurant usage, and gasoline usage.

“I would say in its heyday it has been the number one driver of our hotel-motel tax,” Commissioner Randy Wharton said.

“It’s on hard times this year,” Tennant said. “Hopefully, it will come back stronger next year. It would be sad if we lost the tournament.”

McConaughey and Byrd Crawford founded the tournament in 1989 as a scholarship program in honor of longtime WLU coach and athletics director H. Edgar “Ed” Martin.

Tennant expounded on the issues surrounding the Beast of the East following the commission meeting.

“The worst thing for a team is to spend money and not be able to play,” he explained. “Over the recent years, many new multiple turf field venues have sprung up, which puts the Beast of the East in an adverse position to recruit the number of teams it once had… When playing a travel tournament in natural grass and dirt, it is subject to travel conditions that can cause cancellation by weather.

“Also, many multiple-aged travel organizations want all of their different age teams to play at the same multiple-field complex. At this point in the valley, you don’t have that type of facility.”

Tennant added that while there are new turf fields in the region, compensation for use is usually necessary and that “may be beyond the economic capacity of the tournament.”

The Post 1 team has reserved 12 game spots at the newly turfed field at Wheeling Park High School this summer at a cost of $100 per game, or $1,200.

Tennant said he understands there is cost for maintenance of the field each time it is used, and for that reason Post 1 doesn’t have an issue with the price.

“The American Legion Athletic Club has committed to play in the Beast of the East as long as it exists,” he said. “The 16-U and 19-U divisions will be competitive for us. It is still a good tournament for us.”

McConaughey expressed his gratitude to the Ohio County commissioners for the $3,000 grant.

“You don’t know how much that helps,” he said.

Even with the reduced number of teams, he said the cost for umpires will exceed $19,000.

Additionally, Beast of the East just spent $3,000 on baseballs, McConaughey added.