Baseball leagues across Calgary are crying foul on the city’s move to increase fees for ball fields.
“We got notified on the 18th of January that our permit rates will be increasing by a substantial 60 per cent,” said Shawn Botterill, president of the Centennial Little League Baseball Association. He said while he understands fees are necessary, he questions the size and timing of the increase.
“We’re understanding that rates need to increase with respect to being able for the city to maintain the field.
“Our issue is the timing of the increase does us no good.”
Botterill said Centennial isn’t the only little league in the city facing substantial increases per kid.
“We’ll be able to get through this in some manner, but others are looking at cutting their offerings or limiting their offerings to some extent,” he said.
Class D fields and ball diamonds are operated by the City of Calgary’s parks department, and are usually near community associations or open spaces that aren’t on school property. Class E fields are maintained by school boards and are on school property.
Adult fees for both fields are going up by around two per cent, to $22.99 and $4.85 per hour for Class D and E fields respectively.
Fees for minors jumped by 60 per cent, to $4 and $2 respectively.
The fee increase was approved by city council in November’s budget deliberations.
Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said the fees for kids’ use have been low for a while and the changes were to respond to other concerns.
“This was approved in part because these have been so low for a long, long time that sport groups were hoarding fields because they could afford to,” the former Olympian said.
She said she’s heard from a few groups about their concerns about the timing of the notice.
For Botterill and Centennial Little League, budgets for the upcoming spring season are already set and registration for some divisions close as soon as Tuesday, leaving the league out of pocket.
“We have no ability to recoup this and the substantial increases are going to cost us an additional $20,000 this year, we project,” he said.
Standing in the Sandstone baseball diamond which Centennial helped raise around $150,000 for improvements like dugout roofs, fence caps, turf and improved foul poles, Botterill said the irony of increased user fees isn’t lost on him.
“We have to pay more for the space we made better – yes, the irony there is very rich.”
Mian said she’s trying to help prevent long-term damages to the finances of the sports non-profit organizations.
“Right now I’m working with them and also the parks department to see if there’s something we can do about the deferral of fees or the scaffolding of when those fees are due, so that it’s not a strain on these nonprofit organizations,” the Ward 3 councillor said.
The Calgary Minor Soccer Association (CMSA) said the jump in fees is the largest it has ever seen.
“We are in an affordability crisis, and this will have the most significant impact to our member clubs that service low-income/under-represented groups, who do not have the capability to absorb this cost on their own,” CMSA executive director Carlo Bruneau said in a statement.
Botterill is looking to corporate sponsors to make up the difference.
Without seeing the details of how those deferred or scaffolded payments might play out, Botterill said the little league is unable to plan its finances.
“We all put our budgets in place and the city knows our process for budgeting and we can make responsible choices with respect to that,” he said.
As a former amateur athlete herself, Mian said she knows the work that goes into sports non-profits, their goals of getting kids active, and that they all have different schedules for when a notice for fee increases might be ideal.
“But I think we can do absolutely a better job of providing that that notice.”
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