SLC Youth Baseball League could collapse due to soaring field rental fees

The Beehive State has nearly $1 billion in public funding waiting for Major League Baseball if it happens.

And in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains — just a flyball from the spot where Brigham Young is said to have declared “this is the right place” — a heavily discounted portion of Sunnyside Park is now in the state's The money will be used to help the flagship university build its desired stadium.

But in baseball-starved Salt Lake City, where money is flowing to higher levels of play, it's Little Leaguers who are at risk of being cut.

Nonprofit youth leagues have been plagued by rising field rental fees and increased registration fees to cover additional costs. The problem is simple, but the consequences are dire for the sport.

“If we had to pay $20,000 a year, our league wouldn't exist,” warned Foothill Youth Baseball Association President August Wachter. “Otherwise, we would have to raise prices significantly, families would not be able to afford to play, participation would drop, and the league would fail.”

Since 2015, field rental fees for nonprofit youth baseball leagues have increased from $2 per hour per field to $16 per hour, creating unsustainable conditions for the survival of the sport in Utah's capital. ing.

Wachter said he and his league, made up of players from T-ball to 12-year-olds, will feel even more pain this year when rental fees go up another $1 to $17 an hour. He expects to spend 20 grand between the spring and fall seasons.

Salt Lake City officials said they conducted a cost analysis in 2015 and increased rental rates based on the Consumer Price Index. The city was subsequently forced to significantly increase prices because it violates state law to offer field rental discounts to nonprofit organizations, according to the city's chief financial officer.

aging facility

But despite these fee increases, Wachter said teams are no longer able to play on aging diamonds.

“It’s really frustrating that the city has increased our rates so much and not reinvested any money into our complex,” Wachter said. “It's not fair. It's not fair. It hasn't really been a priority for the city, but it really needs to be.”

At the Oak Hills Ball Diamonds, Wachter said parents have to sit in old, rickety and cracked wooden bleachers. There are holes in the path around the field. The building is in disarray. The fields he rents at Sunnyside Park are no better.

Any extra fabric that nonprofit teams put into the city's coffers will not be allocated for dugouts. It goes into the general fund, but improving the field moves down the list of priorities.

Meanwhile, Wachter said he has spent more than $20,000 in the past year on things like bases, anchors to protect the bases, pitcher's mounds and scoreboard controllers.

“It definitely should be paid for by the city,” he said.

The Foothill Youth Baseball Association is not alone in feeling the pressure of soaring costs and aging facilities. Rose Park Baseball, a nonprofit league that has served the West Side for decades, is also committed to keeping the diamond at Riverside Park in ball-playing condition.

League President James Walje said the grass wasn't mowed enough to play on, the league was responsible for chalking the infield and volunteers had to prepare the soil, while facility fees were even higher. He said that it has become.

“For that kind of price, you'd think you'd be getting a fully functioning, well-maintained, play-ready ballpark, but that's just not the case,” Walje said.

Tom Miller, planning and design manager for the city's Department of Public Lands, said the agency's mission has long been to focus on maintaining operations, but in recent years it has expanded its scope to make major improvements to its facilities. He said it is expanding.

Miller said when the department shifted its focus, it found itself faced with an extensive list of needs.

He said it's not that the ball diamond isn't a priority for the city, but that staff are just beginning to chip away at the backlog.

“If it were up to us and we had all the money to do everything, we would have a perfect, shining example of any kind of asset,” he said. “Trails, baseball fields, pavilions, playgrounds, you name it.”

Rental fees threaten league survival

Both the Foothill Youth Baseball Association and Rose Park Baseball are at risk of going out of business under the current fee structure, the leagues say.

Wolje said that possibility is not far off. He will be challenged to cover his expected $13,000 rental fee for the spring season this year.

“If we have to pay the full fee, we're going to do everything we can to cover that fee so that it's effectively zero at the end of the year,” he said. “And that's really troublesome for next season, because if you go bankrupt it's difficult to start again for 2025.”

Walje said the additional expenses could bankrupt Rose Park Baseball.

Because of rising rental costs, the West Side League now charges T-ball participants $65 after raising registration fees by $10 last year. Fees for other departments have increased from $135 to $155, which doesn't even cover the additional cost of renting a field.

“I’m super small league,” Wolje said. “I couldn't raise enough money to just give it to my family. I don't think anyone would play.”

In the years that Elizabeth Yanez and her two sons have played in the Rose Park League, they have seen registration fees rise and participation levels decline.

She recalled that when her son Xavier started playing at Rose Park Baseball 10 years ago, he paid about $50 to register in the league. Now, she's paying more than three times that amount to keep 10-year-old Thomas on the field.

“It's stressful because you're like, 'Okay, I'm going to pay for the water bill, oh yeah, dinner for the week, can I pay for this?'” she says. “Because we really want the kids to play. And then on top of that, you have to buy equipment because it doesn't come with things like cleats, maybe baseball pants, bats. etc. It just affects everything around you.”

To the east, the Foothill Youth Baseball Association also increased registration fees to offset some of the new expenses.

Three years ago, the entry fee for Foothill's T-ball division was $50 per person. Now he's up to $90, but that's only because Wachter couldn't live up to his $100 bill. Meanwhile, fees in the upper division have jumped from $150 to $175 since Wachter joined the league's board last year.

These fee increases are driving up prices for parents, from working and middle-class families to more affluent families who want to enroll multiple children in the league.

“They probably have four or five kids who want to play baseball. They can't afford it,” Wachter said. “ridiculous.”

He said play prices will continue to rise unless the city lowers interest rates.

Mayor accepts options

Mary Beth Thompson, the city's chief financial officer, said she was unaware of any plans to help the league and was not aware of any time the city had previously lowered fees.

In fact, she said, the city is already charging less than what the fields can be rented for.

“In my 29 years here, we have never once charged actual fees for the services we provide,” she said.

Mayor Erin Mendenhall seems open to exploring youth baseball solutions and opportunities for kids. Making Utah's capital more family-friendly was a major theme of her State of the Union address this year.

“What we're talking about is a bigger subsidy than our current tax dollars to reduce the cost of young people participating in sports and the arts. I'm not opposed to these discussions. No,” she said.

The city offers a program that allows renters to take advantage of lower rates in exchange for manual labor at recreational facilities, but presidents of both leagues argue it provides little benefit.

Wachter said for the program to make a difference, he needs to donate more time than he can as a father, husband and business owner. Walje said the program would just put him back to square one.

“They doubled the price and offered us a 50% discount if we tried harder, which we do anyway and have always done,” Warje said. I did.

Wachter said he would like to see a fee structure similar to what Salt Lake County offers. The nonprofit league pays $10 per participant to rent the field for a season. And the county is preparing the ground for the match, he said.

President Foothill has asked the city to create a baseball account using a portion of the proceeds from the University of Utah's recently approved plan to lease an area of ​​Sunnyside Park at a discount for construction of a new stadium. Proposed. Part of the agreement calls for the U.S. to contribute more than $4 million to the city for park improvements.

Youth teams would pay into the account along with their rental fees, and the city would use the money to upgrade the field.

Wachter said thanks to a joint project between Salt Lake City and the Larry H. Gale Miller Family Foundation, the existing complex will be modernized and maintained, with field lighting similar to the fixtures recently installed at Riverside Park. I hope that it will be installed.

But those lights won't be of much use if there's no one to play under them, the Rose Park baseball president said.

“If things continue like this, all these fancy lights will be shining on the pigs on the ground who need a lot of love,” Wolje said. work. “

Both presidents agree that something needs to change. Whether this city's future big league slugger stays behind the plate depends on it.

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