Scarborough sports leagues frustrated by rise in field fees.
Scarborough Stingers' Trevor Whitaker, right, slides in to home plate during a game against Mississauga in this file photo. Increased field costs due new permit fees recently announced by the City of Toronto will have an impact in the operation of a number of Scarborough sports leagues.
File photo/ALESSANDRO GAROFALO
Scarborough's boys and girls sports leagues are protesting the City of Toronto's decision to start charging user fees on outdoor sports fields.
The hourly charges - from $6 for a plain mown field up to $12, including tax, for one with lights and a fence - will make it harder to get children off the couch or off the street for exercise, and their timing is unfair, some league officials said this week.
City officials approved the changes last month as part of the budget process, and the leagues were lately told the previous policy - not charging a fee - was "not recovering a sufficient portion of the cost of delivering the service."
Sports groups for adults, older adults and private companies will all pay different and higher rates.
Jerry Miller, president of the Wexford-Agincourt Baseball League, said paying this cost for the 2012 season, about $9,000 for his 250 players, will lower enrolment.
"It's sudden; it's sharp," he said, adding the cost is not a large factor for most kids, "but for some it's clearly an issue. This is not North Toronto."
His league is "as economical as we can be," but may have to cut the number of hours it reserves to cover rainouts and practices, Miller said.
"There has been a tendency to book fields you don't really need," he acknowledged, "so clearly we need to be more conscious of that."
West Hill Baseball, which had to halt registrations to consider the fees, usually prints out brochures by this time of year to place in local schools.
"Thank goodness we didn't do it yet," said Mike Hull, its president, who figures the league must cover $18,000 up front just for players aged 10 to 13.
Hull said he's hoping efforts by the Scarborough Baseball Association, the umbrella for both the West Hill and Wexford leagues, will convince the city to delay the fees until next season or phase them in.
"Speaking on behalf of many community coaches, players and parents we are absolutely shocked to hear about this, especially as it comes without any communication or consultation from our elected officials," Philip Doi, coach of the Scarborough Stingers major mosquito team, added in a message this week.
"The increased costs will hurt all families. But it's the kids from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and single-parent families from all corners of our community who will suffer most."
There have been other cost-related complaints this year from community sports organizations in Scarborough, including from the Scarborough Tennis Federation, which is unhappy with the share its clubs must pay to resurface local courts.
The clubs for decades have paid half those costs through the federation's agreement with the city's Scarborough Racquet Sports Development Fund.
That is no longer feasible, STF president Dianne Weatherby said in a letter this year, since "paying 50 per cent could make the clubs 'cash poor,' and unable to pay for other necessary operating costs."
Weatherby has asked Scarborough councillors to lower the clubs' percentage to 20, "although it will still be a challenge for a number of clubs," and to give the federation a role in managing the fund.
"If the clubs are unable to come up with the money, they will have to delay repairing their courts which could eventually render their courts unsafe to play on," she wrote to Scarborough-Rouge River Councillor Chin Lee.
This week, Scarborough Community Council voted to ask for a report on options for the fund and STF involvement.