Title
Discussion of Athletic Field Rental Fees for Alameda Youth Organizations.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Discussion of Athletic Field Rental Fees for Alameda Youth Organizations.
BACKGROUND
During the Recreation and Parks Commission discussion on the 2019 User Fee Schedule, one of the motions was a request for further information and discussion on the athletic field rental fees, specifically pertaining to Alameda non-profit youth organizations.
The athletic field use fees are currently $5 per hour for Alameda-based non-profit youth organizations. An Alameda organization is defined as 75% or more Alameda residents. This fee is charged to users of grass baseball/softball fields and multi-use rectangular fields and does not include the synthetic turf fields at Estuary Park. Sports include baseball, softball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, rugby, lacrosse and football. There are additional fees charged for field lights ($25 per hour), field prep for lining ($40 per game) and a tournament fee ($250 per day).
Prior to 2012, the athletic field rental fees were a flat $500 for one organization to book as many fields and hours that they requested plus an additional $5 per youth over 100 participants. This caused numerous scheduling issues and was an unfair system that created a higher cost per hour for smaller organizations. Larger organizations such as Alameda Soccer Club, Alameda Girls Softball Association and Alameda Little League were receiving the fields for less than $1.50 per hour and as low as $0.42 per hour while small leagues were paying over $5 per hour.
In 2012, the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department (ARPD) with Commission approval, changed the fee to $2 per hour after several discussions with the affected user groups. After implementation, ARPD staff met with user groups and explained that the rate per hour would continue to increase the fee each year by $1 per hour up to $10 per hour.
DISCUSSION
For the purposes of this discussion, the focus is on the fee charged to Alameda-based youth non-profit organizations.
ARPD has made a conscious effort to support and subsidize youth recreational sport programs in an effort to encourage all youth to try different sports. This is considered healthier and well-rounded as well as creating more opportunities for more kids. Staff previously recommended, as part of the Athletic Facility Allocation Policy, to separate recreational and competitive sports. This policy will come before the Commission again later this year. For competitive teams focused on youth that specialize in a sport, it’s appropriate for those to pay a higher premium on fees. Competitive teams are defined as travel/tournament teams which hold tryouts to be placed on the team roster and equal playing time is not guaranteed to each player. Recreational teams are defined as those that do not cut players and have written policies to guarantee equal playing to each team member. Given this value to strongly support youth recreational sports, staff recommends continuing to keep fees low and incrementally increase the field rental fee for recreational leagues/teams but to consider implementing a new and higher fee for competitive leagues/teams. This concept was initially proposed by one of the leagues as a way to offset and keep fees lower for recreational teams.
Over the last seven years, ARPD began incrementally increasing athletic field rental fees and subsequently slowly increasing the total revenue raised which offsets the field maintenance supply costs.
|
Fiscal Year |
Fee charged |
Total revenue |
|
2012/13 |
Flat $500 plus $5/youth above 100 players |
$17,800 |
|
2013/14 |
$2/hour |
$38,400 |
|
2014/15 |
$2/hour |
$49,000 |
|
2015/16 |
$2/hour |
$44,500 |
|
2016/17 |
$3/hour |
$83,000 |
|
2017/18 |
$4/hour |
$80,700 |
The total revenues vary somewhat because in some years the final spring revenues are collected after the start of the next fiscal year on July 1. This was the case for FY 2013/14 and FY 2017/18. It’s also important to note that these total revenues also include fees from Estuary Park synthetic turf field ($35/hour) and non-Alameda youth organizations ($30/hour). Both of these fees are set appropriately to the current market.
In addition, there is a field fee offset program that was put in place in 2012 and allows leagues to do needed work on the fields and receive an appropriate fee offset. The leagues are required to receive ARPD approval through an application process and fully fund all supply and work costs for the project.
ARPD staff budgets the total rental revenues to fund field supply expenditures in addition to staff time to manage and schedule the fields and administrative costs. This does not include staffing costs for field maintenance, which is funded by the General Fund Parks Maintenance budget. The total annual field supply cost is $50,000 at the current maintenance level. ARPD is working to increase the level of field maintenance provided. For example, fields should be on a regular seeding/fertilization program and currently most only are addressed once per year and when the appropriate standard is four times/year. Other baseball/softball fields have not had the infield dirt replenished since the last drought due to a lack of funds. The result is that fields deteriorate more quickly especially with the high usage here in Alameda.
The following table provides a comparison to other athletic facility fees charged by ARPD. It only includes the base rate and no other additional fees.
|
Facility Type |
Alameda Adult Resident/Organization |
Alameda Youth Organization |
|
Alameda Point Gym |
$45 per court |
$30 per court |
|
Bocce Ball Courts |
$12 per hour |
n/a |
|
Tennis and Pickleball Courts |
$10 per hour |
$8 per hour |
|
Pools |
$16 per hour (Emma Hood) $35 per hour (Encinal) |
$15 per hour (Emma Hood) $25 per hour (Encinal) |
It’s appropriate that adults pay more for facility usage as ARPD, similar to other municipal recreation programs, strongly supports youth activities. Some of these other athletic facilities also include lighting costs, such as the tennis courts, pools and gym, whereas the field users pay an additional fee of $25 per hour for lights.
This report is not including a cost per participant for each league because upon further analysis, the costs were not comparable since some include a combination of travel, tournament fees and uniforms and some don’t. In addition, some leagues have volunteer coaches/umpires/refs and some pay for them. Some teams practice once per week and others practice multiple times per week. Younger participants tend to practice less per week and older, more competitive teams practice more often. There were too many variable to do a fair comparison and analysis.
Lastly, ARPD is bound by the California Fair Play Act and must allocate its fields equally to girls and boys. With this in mind, a significant fee increase could negatively impact leagues that predominantly or fully serve girls, such as the Alameda Girls Softball Association. Staff will bring specific athletic field fee recommendations to the Commission in October 2019 as part of the annual User Fee Schedule discussion.
RECOMMENDATION
Discuss the Recreation and Parks Department athletic field rental fees with further consideration when the 2020 Annual User Fee Schedule is presented.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director