Youth teams deserve reasonable fees to use fields

Trent Harris

I am writing this letter out of frustration with the way the

Huntington Beach City Council and recreation department deals with

youth sports in our town. I have written a letter to every council

member and only Dave Sullivan responded.

I have lived in Huntington Beach for over 25 years and have been

involved in youth sports since I moved here. I have coached soccer

and was the president of the South Huntington Beach Fastpitch

Softball league for two years. I am still coaching a girls’

fast-pitch softball team that used to be based out of Huntington

Beach until we could no longer afford the use of fields.

When the concept of the sports complex came up several years ago,

most of us involved in the youth sports jumped on the chance to have

a great place for our kids to play ball. We all helped campaign for

the park and when it was passed, we were told that many of the

adults’ games would be moved to the new park so the youth groups

could have more time on the local parks. We were also told that the

sports complex was to be used for large soccer and softball

tournaments.

A few weeks ago, I went into City Hall to look into hosting an

Amateur Softball Assn. national qualifier at the new park in June.

These tournaments usually bring in between 65 to 80 teams and their

families from all over California. Most of these families would have

to stay in our town which would bring in tax dollars from hotel and

restaurant usage.

To my amazement, I found that it will cost us $1,540 a day to use

all of the softball fields for a full day of softball. If that wasn’t

a big enough shock, I also found out that the city intends to give an

exclusive contract to a vendor to run the snack bar so there would be

no way for us to earn any money to pay for the fields.

First off, as a resident of this city, I am very upset that the

city has gotten itself into such dire straights financially that it

is pricing the kids out of the use of the sports complex. As I take

my team all over Orange County, I find that many cities do not charge

the youth groups for the use of fields and the ones who do are very

reasonable about their fees.

Secondly, most youth sports depend heavily on these types of

events and the snack bar to raise the funds they need to run their

programs. Many youth programs host tournaments so that they can raise

the money they need and it pays off for the kids involved in that

program.

Finally, while I understand the concept of pay for use, I can’t

imagine why our city cannot adopt a policy where youth sports can use

the facilities for a reasonable price and then maybe give the city a

portion of the proceeds from allowing them to run their own snack

bar. This way, the kids could use the facility, make some money for

their program and still pay their way.

We live in a great place that many families would like to visit.

Our kids should be able to afford to use the fields our tax dollars

are paying for and we should be able to take advantage of our

location and weather to bring in families who will spend money in our

town.

I hope this letter will get some attention to an issue that needs

to be addressed and can be solved by people willing to work at it and

address the needs of youth sports in Huntington Beach.

* TRENT HARRIS is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)

965-7174.