Skyrocketing fees leave sports groups stunned
Youth sports associations in the area are being hit with sticker shock
“Because of the amount it’s gone up, people have stopped playing.” PAUL ROBERTSON VICE-PRESIDENT, FLAMBOROUGH FIRE BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
He’d filed the request for gym permits with the public school board in June. Then, as he’s always done, the vice-president of the Flamborough Fire Basketball Association went online early in September to check on their status.
“I almost broke a cellphone,” Paul Robertson says.
The Hamilton District School Board website said his fees had gone up from $3,506.55 last year to $20,373.74 for the coming season. He checked again. It wasn’t a typo. He was stunned. Costs to rent the Waterdown District High School gym weeknights from 6 to 9:30 p.m. had gone up 83 per cent overnight. He texted the woman who helps him run the organization with the news. She immediately texted back, “We’re f---ed.”
They aren’t alone. Various youth sports associations have been hit with sticker shock this fall as they’ve received the same news Robertson did. The SmashRaiders volleyball club say their total went from $9,000 to $18,000. Stoney Creek Storm basketball say theirs went from $10,600 to $27,000. The Ancaster Magic basketball club says they’ve seen a jump from $16,351 to more than $63,000. The Dundas Dynamo basketball club says fees leapt from about $12,000 to $50,000. There are others.
This is terribly unfortunate but it’s not our fault, the chair of the board’s finance and facilities committee says. The sudden cancellation of an $850,000 grant from the provincial government that helped offset costs is behind this.
“We had actually received the second-highest amount in the province,” Dawn Danko says.
In the past, rental fees would be set — different rates for different gyms with different features — and then subsidies of up to 75 per cent would be offered to bring down the costs to the user groups. When that fund was cancelled in May, most of that financial aid disappeared.
There is a separate provincial Use Of Schools grant still in place for before- and afterschools programs and free programming in low socio-economic areas. Once those were covered, close to $310,000 was left over. That amount was divided among the 84 various organizations that rent from the board. But it didn’t go far with each.
The board will be sending a letter to the Ministry of Education explaining how this cut is affecting kids. And it will now be debating dipping into a reserve fund to contribute an additional $100,000 into subsidies.
Even with that, the result is hitting local youth sports organizations hard.
Robertson says if this increase was to be passed onto the kids, it would mean an extra $600 per rep player which would push their cost to nearly $1,500 per season. Ancaster Magic copresident Jason Daleo says costs have now gone from $450 four years ago to over $1,000 now.
“Because of the amount it’s gone up, people have stopped playing,” he says.
Dynamo president Steve Baker thought he was going to have to fold the organization he started 25 years ago. He’s survived by scheduling different age groups into gyms at the same time.
To try to navigate around this, numerous sports organizations have been moving their rentals to smaller, cheaper elementary school gyms and scrambling to grab gym time at Catholic schools where fees haven’t shot up. Five years or so ago, that board implemented small price increases but by comparison, it’s still a great deal.
So how can the Catholic board keep fees down as the public board’s skyrocket?
Danko says it didn’t have the same grant and then didn’t lose it.
“We have historically really placed priority on supporting local community groups in the use of schools,” says Catholic board chair Pat Daly. “To whatever extent possible, they should be available.”
That’s a view you’ll hear a lot from the user groups. Schools are public facilities paid for by the taxpayer whose taxes also pay for maintenance, they say. They should therefore be available for community use at reasonable prices. The gym is already there, the lights are already on, the heat is already running, and the custodian is in the school.
Marks Stevens of SmashRaiders says his group puts up the volleyball nets before games. Daleo says his players bring their own balls. Robertson says when he goes to a school to use a gym he often sweeps the floor, raises the basket and keeps things clean when he leaves.
“How do you justify $60 or $70 (an hour) for that space?” Baker asks.
That raises a broader question many are asking. Why should the school board be charging much more than the cost of the custodian’s time?
Danko says renting the gyms leads to wear and tear which reduces the lifespan of the facility. Lines must be painted more often, floors eventually have to be replaced, and so on. The money collected goes into a reserve fund to cover those eventual costs.
Not everyone’s buying that explanation.
“That’s hogwash to me,” Daleo says.
He says his group might be on the floor for 15 hours a week but students at school are on for 40 hours a week. Even at $20 to $25 an hour, his players would be paying their share. At $85 an hour, he wonders if they’re not also covering the cost of regular school use.
Complaints and concerns or not, these increased fees are now the reality.
The Flamborough Fire now have no rental time at public high schools. They still use two local elementary schools but those are too small for high school-aged players, meaning those players will have no home games this season.
Daleo’s association used to host 10 to 12 tournaments a year. Now, they can’t afford to host even one in the Ancaster High School gym — where the Magic bought and paid for the scoreboard several years ago at a cost of $5,000 — because the organization would lose about $1,000.
And Stoney Creek Storm president Dan Lane says costs are making it tough to find new players. Especially those who may be intrigued and want to sample the sport but aren’t quite committed yet.
“It’s hard for me to go to Grade 3 students and say, ‘Give basketball a try,’” he says, “‘at a cost of $750 to $800 a year.’”