08/24/2025
New England Sports Center Community,
It is with a very heavy heart that I need to write this letter. I have tried my best over the past seven years to keep all of the legal issues outside of the business and continue to keep an environment that everyone feels safe and comfortable in. I have tried my best to not be the owner or boss, but a partner and help all organizations grow and all customers feel like this is their safe place to come and play, compete and grow. I have seen so many children grow up, go to high school and then college and then come back here. It is and has been a staple of the community for many many years.
Unfortunately, September 30th will be our last day open. We will be closing for good, and the building has been sold. It will be turning into a different company and will not remain a sports facility.
I truly understand how much this is going to affect so many people. All of you that walk here after school to play ball, parents knowing their children have somewhere safe to go until you get out of work to pick them up, all the organizations that use this as their second income or as their full time job, all the birthday parties and events and I can go on and on and on. I know how much this will affect thousands of people's lives and the entire surrounding community, but unfortunately it was not up to me.
Without going into much details, I started to manage the business in 2014 and then I bought it April 1st, 2018. That July on my honeymoon I found out about what had been going on with Dennis Reed, the previous owner of the business and still owner of the building with a past employee. That past employee was married to my general manager. I left my honeymoon to come back and talk with them and helped them through this and supported them every step of the way.
Once again unfortunately, they not only decided to press charges against Dennis Reed and also sue him civilly, but they also decided to sue SportsZone, which I was now the owner of. I came into the picture 10 years after the allegations but now had to deal with keeping the previous owner of the business and still owner of the real estate out of the building just to keep everyone safe. I lost my general manager and was being sued for a very large sum of money. That is why in 2019 I had to change the name from SportsZone to New England Sports Center to try and separate myself even more from the ongoing situation. It has been seven years of dealing with this and hundreds of thousands of dollars paid in attorney fees to keep the business open and continue to have everyone in here whether you are paying $10 for day pass or one of my largest clients. I have done literally all I can for seven years to protect everyone and keep this business open.
As of last Thursday Dennis Reed, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison, accepted a different offer so that it would not remain a sports facility and it will be turning into a different company, and I will be removing everything and shutting down September 30th.
I wanted to send this letter and give this information and background so that hopefully people can understand the situation. This is very much out of character for me to write something like this, to give this much information and to open up. Anyone that knows me who is receiving this will understand that and the people who do not know me I hope you understand that is how I ran my business. I didn't want to be known as the owner. I communicated with everyone as a partner and equal and tried to make everyone's experience the best it could be. So, I actually hope most people don't know who I am but always enjoyed coming to SportsZone and then New England Sports Center, because that means I did my job.
Thank you everyone for making the past 11 years the best of my life and for all of your patronage and support. Not only myself, but all of the New England Sports Center staff will miss you and miss coming to work every day to see you all.
My staff thanks you, I personally thank you, and I am sorry that after the 7 year battle I wasn't able to keep it a sports facility. I personally wish all of you the best going forward and thank you and God Bless.
Joe Goodwin
New England Sports Center
Owner
[email protected]
603 425 8842
