The City Council is expected to lower field rental fees for youth sports leagues.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nine-year-old Evie Gaisford pitches during baseball practice at Oak Hills Ball Diamonds in Salt Lake City in March 2024. Youth leagues will be able to temporarily reduce field rental fees.
Little Leaguers in Salt Lake City may not have to pay so much to play ball after all.
City Council members on Tuesday will consider lowering field rental fees for youth sports leagues, a relief to groups that had argued that recent price hikes threatened their survival.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall said Monday that access to youth sports is one area where residents need help as the city focuses on families. The fee reduction will not only affect baseball, but youth sports in general.
“We all know that water rates are not going to go down in the western United States,” Mendenhall said. “These are some of the real reasons our park fees are increasing, but the value of supporting access to sports programs for families and children is absolutely worth the investment we make.”
The Mendenhall administration is asking Congress to reduce rental rates from $18 to $10 an hour. Council members plan to move quickly on the changes by suspending council rules and adopting lower rental rates at a formal meeting Tuesday night.
To better comply with state law, the city will eliminate rental discounts for nonprofits and charities in fiscal year 2023, impacting youth leagues’ ability to rent fields.
This year, leaders of two of Salt Lake City’s nonprofit youth baseball leagues forced their registration fees to rise to the point where the additional costs would cause the organizations to fold and few to participate or be able to participate. He said there was a risk of being exposed.
Continuing anxiety about the future
(Rick Egan | Salt Lake Tribune) The Foothill Youth Baseball Association plays games on these fields shown in March. Youth leagues are expected to see some relief from field rental fees.
August Wachter, president of the Foothill Youth Baseball Association, said the fee increase will now have to cover an expected $20,000 tab for the spring and fall seasons. Meanwhile, Rose Park Baseball President James Wolje said it will be difficult to cover the expected $13,000 price tag for this year’s spring season.
Mendenhall said the city could absorb the $57,000 annual cost of rent reductions in its general fund without raising fees elsewhere.
Her proposed budget for next fiscal year includes additional relief for youth leagues that are forced to pay higher fees. The mayor is asking City Council members to approve reimbursing the league for the difference between the new $10-an-hour rental rate and the amount it paid to rent the field over the past two years.
In an interview Monday, Wachter said reimbursements to compensate for losses in league games is a fair solution and he’s not dissatisfied with the overall fee reduction, but said the new fee structure could lead to future cost-cutting battles. He said he was concerned that this could lead to. Prices increase over time.
“It brings us back to where we were,” he said.
Wachter said he would prefer an entirely new structure similar to Salt Lake County, where the league would charge a fee per participant during the season and the county would do all the necessary maintenance and preparation of the fields.
Make it “family friendly”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Evie Gaisford, 9, stands at bat during baseball practice at Oak Hills Park in Salt Lake City in March 2024. The city is expected to lower field rental fees for youth leagues.
City Council President Victoria Petro said she is open to a new fee structure similar to the county’s, but with an entire budget season devoted to deferring maintenance, she wonders if the city will be able to fulfill its promise to put those resources into the budget. He said he had doubts. fields.
However, she expects the city’s proposed rate changes to be passed on Tuesday.
“Why do we charge exorbitant fees for the use of our fields, especially when we are negotiating below-market leases for large companies?” she says.
Petro said lowering rental rates to $10 an hour is a “good Band-Aid” to give youth sports leagues some respite. In the future, she hopes to make it easier for youth development leagues to offset the entire rental fee with volunteer time, from time spent coaching to time spent chalking the infield.
And each time the mayor submitted a proposal to the council to reimburse youth leagues for higher fees paid in the past, Petro predicted it would pass.
Forcing leagues to pay higher fees is not an option, she said, adding that access to youth sports makes the city a great place to live.
“This is why we’re family friendly. This is what keeps our kids healthy. This is what keeps our community bound,” she said. “This is a good investment for the city and we shouldn’t rely on recreational league revenue from youth for sustenance. That’s not a paradigm I can ever support.”
