Little League, fastpitch softball players cry foul over Richland’s new field fees

Richland’s plan to update its contracts with baseball and softball fields is getting pushback from youth groups who say they may be forced to pay thousands more to play ball.

New user agreements that debuted late last year could affect the families of more than 1,000 local youngsters who play on Little League and girls fastpitch softball teams, league managers say.

The city began negotiating the new user agreements with Little League, softball and other field users late in the year.

Its goal is to provide equitable use of its facilities and to maintain them in a ready-to-play state for both local users and tournaments that bring out-of-town visitors to the community.

The agreements include higher fees, utility bills and land leases for the private buildings that leagues have built for concessions, storage and other uses.

Joe Schiessl, the city’s parks and recreation director, said it’s been years since the city updated the agreements to use city-owned sports facilities.

“There has been a change in cost,” he said.

The Richland City Council has fielded complaints about the changes in recent weeks as league managers pepper it with questions at public meetings.

It will discuss requests to reconsider the changes at a March 26 workshop session. Public comments are typically not accepted at workshops, only at regular sessions.

So far, two of five youth sports organizations — Richland National Little League and Richland Lacrosse Club — have signed agreements.

Three others have not — Greater Richland Little League, Tri Cities Girls Fastpitch Softball Association and Columbia Basin BMX.

The two Little Leagues divide Richland geographically at Swift Boulevard. Greater Richland serves Little Leaguers in the city’s northern end and West Richland. Richland National serves those in southern Richland and western Kennewick.

New contracts more detailed

Richland National Little League signed a user agreement earlier this month, said Scott Revell, president.

Revell called the 24-page highly detailed document a mixed blessing.

On one hand, the league will pay more to use the three formal fields at Badger Mountain and an informal one its volunteers built. It has to lease the land under its clubhouse, pay electric costs and $5 an hour per field.

On the other hand, the contract brings greater stability by spelling out who is responsible for what. Among its many features, the contract requires Little League to notify parents in writing of concussion dangers.

League fees top out at $195 for 12-year-olds, the oldest in the Little League system. That could rise, but Richland National hopes to mitigate the increases by trimming business expenses.

It could revisit how it raises money too.

“We’re comfortable with it,” Revell said.

Revell praised the city for tackling the league’s long list of maintenance issues. He said it will get more in the long run.

Credits have been a key sticking point in most negotiations.

Richland National holds tryouts this past weekend and expects to register 444 kids.

It co-hosts the state 12-and-under tournament with greater Richland Little League this summer, for the first time since 2007. Badger Mountain Park is ready.

“We have the best fields in the Tri-Cities, hands down,” Revell said.

Lower-income neighborhoods

Judd Higgins, president of Greater Richland Little League, said the proposed deal will impose about $7,000 in new fees to use two fields at Jefferson Park in central Richland.

The league also uses four fields at Bombing Range Sports Complex in West Richland, which is a separate city and not affected by the changed fee system.

Higgins said Greater Richland fees top out at $120. That could rise by $20 after credits the league receives for projects it does at the fields expire in five years.

Greater Richland held tryouts Thursday. It expects to register 350 players, about half from Richland. Many live in the city’s lower-income central city neighborhoods, closer to Jefferson Park than Bombing Range.

Little League International welcomes all players regardless of ability to pay. Youngsters whose families can’t afford league fees receive scholarships.

“We just try to keep our rates as low as possible,” he said.

Jefferson Park fields

It could move to West Richland, but Higgins is reluctant to abandon Jefferson.

The league formed there in 1952, when it leased the property from GE Parks and Recreation, six years before the city of Richland incorporated and acquired the land.

The league helped build Jefferson’s fields. It maintained them until the city took over in 2016.

In 2008, it leveraged a grant funded by hotel and motel taxes to install a bathroom, concession stand and other amenities at Jefferson Park.

“We could potentially move up to West Richland, but Little League started in this town in 1952 at that Jefferson Park. There is a historic relevance to those fields,” he said.

Girls fastpitch teams

The Tri-Cities Girls Fastpitch Softball Association too is resisting the new terms.

The association served 760 players ages 6 to 18 last year and is based at Columbia Playfields, near Richland High School.

Columbia offers five “game ready” softball fields, including four with lights.

The proposed agreement overlooks the association’s vast contributions to the playfield, the restroom and concession building, lighting, scoreboards, canopies, storage, heat pumps, an equipment building and more, according to a letter by Renee La Plante, president.

It calculates its investment at $740,000, though much of that was paid for by hotel and motel tax-backed grants.

La Plante fears the new agreement will wipe away the association’s credits for improvement and potentially force it to raise user fees.

It paid the city $7.,000 last year. The new agreement raises that to $23,500.

The softball association would have to raise its fees and is considering giving up the concessions building, one of its primary fundraisers. The proposal doesn’t serve anyone’s interests, she said.

Tournaments affected

Jim Adrian serves on the fastpitch softball board and also organizes tournaments in Richland. In the past, there was no fee for college tournaments because millions of dollars worth of visitor spending was generated for the local economy.

Last year, he learned a college tournament slated for February would be charged $1,850.

The tournament was canceled for snow, but Adrian said the city risks driving off lucrative tournaments.

“The bottom line is we’re bringing in millions and millions of dollars. And now they want to charge us,” he said.

This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 5:18 PM.