If you have a kid in a Burleson uniform, you already know Chisenhall — you have spent a hundred Saturday mornings in that parking lot. If you do not, you probably drive past it without registering that it is one of the larger municipal sports complexes in this part of North Texas, and that there are ten miles of mountain bike trail behind it. Both facts matter if you are buying nearby.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Size | 65+ acres |
| Opened | September 11, 2010 |
| Baseball fields | 10 |
| Softball fields | 5 |
| Football field | 1 |
| Permanent parking spaces | 621 |
| Overflow parking | ~350 |
| Mountain bike singletrack | ~10 miles |
City of Burleson. The complex’s operator describes the 65+ acres as sitting within a larger 136-acre metropolitan park; that figure comes from the operator’s marketing rather than the city. Also on the property: a pavilion, picnic areas, a playground, restrooms and a walking trail.
This is my favorite piece of municipal trivia in Johnson County and almost nobody mentions it. All fifteen diamonds at Chisenhall carry the name of a horse breed:
Arabian · Appaloosa · Paint · Roan · Clydesdale · Shire · Quarter · Pasofino · Buckskin · Morgan · Palomino · Highland · Dartmoor · Hackney · Welsh
Which is a quietly perfect choice for a complex sitting in the middle of what used to be, and in places still is, horse country. Next time somebody tells you to meet them on Dartmoor, that is a softball field.
Here is the thing that actually changed how this complex works, and it is recent enough that a lot of people have not caught up.
Burleson Parks started looking at improvements in 2021, prompted by rainouts and accessibility complaints. Synthetic turf went into the capital plan in early 2022, and council made a decision that turned out to matter: rather than converting one field a year, do them in batches.
| Phase | Fields | Contract | Built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 March 2024 council | Appaloosa, Paint, Roan, Clydesdale, Shire, Quarter, Pasofino — 7 infields (Arabian already had turf) | $1,741,400 + $174,140 contingency | May–August 2024 |
| Phase 2 November 2024 council | Buckskin, Morgan, Palomino, Highland, Dartmoor, Hackney, Welsh — 7 infields | $1,556,300 + $155,630 contingency | Nov 2024–March 2025 |
Both contracts went to TGS Sports of Fort Worth. Combined budget across FY2023-24 and FY2024-25 was roughly $4.3 million. Phase 2 fields opened for play on March 7, 2025.
So as of spring 2025, every infield at Chisenhall is synthetic turf, with Bermuda outfields. In practical terms: dramatically fewer rainouts, which for a tournament complex is the whole ballgame, and better accessibility.
The city contracted Sports Facilities Management, LLC to operate the complex under a five-year agreement with two optional five-year renewals. The city pays an $18,500 monthly base management fee, escalating 2.5% annually beginning October 2026, plus a deferred incentive tied to facility revenue and a share of sponsorship revenue.
The agreement obligates the operator to book tournaments and events that maximize the economic impact on Burleson. It sets no numerical target, and the city has not published an economic impact study for the complex — so I am not going to quote you a number. What I can tell you is that bringing in professional facility management and putting turf on fifteen fields inside a year is a city positioning a complex for regional tournament business, not just Saturday rec league.
Behind the ball fields there is a genuinely substantial dirt singletrack system — roughly ten miles across about eleven named trails, city-managed, with two trailheads at the complex and six creek crossings. Segments include Goatman’s Island (about a mile), North Side, Field Loop, Southtown, Keep on Trucking, West Loop, Cactus Jack and Wrecked.
Trail names and mileages come from Trailforks, which is maintained by riders rather than by the city, so treat the exact numbers as approximate. The trails are real; the tenth decimal place is not.
I mention this specifically because it is the amenity buyers most often do not know about. A house near Chisenhall is not just near ball fields. It is near ten miles of dirt.
Burleson has a second complex, and people conflate them. Hidden Creek Sports Complex at 295 E. Hidden Creek Parkway is 24 acres with three 325-foot softball fields, restrooms and concessions. It opened in spring 1999 and it is where adult leagues play. If somebody says “the complex,” ask which one.
Worth knowing if you are buying near Chisenhall: the city has reported plans to relocate ball fields to the new Burleson Legacy Park off Hulen Street, whose Phase I includes three softball fields and which targets a late-summer 2027 opening. That does not empty Chisenhall — the fifteen fields there were just re-turfed at a cost of $4.3 million, and nobody spends that on something they are about to abandon. But the center of gravity for softball may shift west over the next few years, which changes traffic patterns on a Saturday.
I do not know, and I looked hard.
There is no city source, no historical commission record, no newspaper archive I could reach that explains where the name comes from. Some third-party listings render it as “Chisenhall Fields Dilmore Park,” and I could not source “Dilmore” either. Given how much of Burleson carries founding-family names — Renfro, Clark, Bufford, Ellison — it is a reasonable guess that Chisenhall is one too, but a reasonable guess is not a fact and I will not print it as one.
If you know, the Burleson Heritage Foundation would like to hear from you, and so would I.
Three honest observations.
Tournament weekends are real. A complex with fifteen turfed fields, 621 parking spaces and professional management exists to host multi-day events. If you buy on a street that feeds that parking lot, you will notice it several weekends a year. That is a feature for some families and a serious annoyance for others; the only wrong move is being surprised.
The trails are undervalued. Ten miles of singletrack inside city limits is not a common amenity and it is almost never in a listing description. If you ride, that is a real reason to look at this side of town.
Turf changed the schedule. Before 2024, rain shut this place down. Now it does not. Practically, that means more usage, more evenings, more weekends — a busier complex than the one the neighborhood next to it was built beside.
Buying near a sports complex? Ask me which streets feed the tournament parking and which do not. It is the kind of thing you only learn by working a market, and it never shows up in a listing.
Ask me before you offerFigures current as of August 2026. Populations, prices, city projects and business openings all move — if you are relying on a number here, ask me and I will check it.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.