> Of course organized sports should be subsidized in the parks. Let's just
> subsidize them to the same proportion that they are of the total park usage.
> Organized sports are tiny fraction of the total park usage. It appears they
> have had a disproportionate amount of money spent on them.
the reason, I believe, the ballfields are not fully utilized is because the fee
to play their is prohibitive. I play in the st paul men's amateur league and
it just doesn't make sense to pay the $250 to $300 a game to play there when we
already have to pay $50 an umpire, not to mention baseballs and other necessary
equipment.
the difference between team sports like baseball and say windsurfing is to
windsurf, you need a windsurf board, if that is what they are called, and a
lake. The user provides it's own board, the lake was created by nature. it
costs next to nothing to provide the windsurfer, a place to windsurf, keeping
it simple. for a team of baseball players to play you need a field. these do
not appear by themselves. they need to be built. they are not cheap. you
need to prep the land, add dirt, the mound, the fencing, benches and then it
needs maintenance, something the windsurfer doesn't need.
the ballfields themselves could not have cost $15million. if they did, someone
robbed us blind. while it is a drain on services now, the fields should be
around much longer than 30 years. perhaps the city could sell some advertising
for the outfield fences? open concessions that maybe coke or pepsi would stock
for free as long as everything was served in coke cups? it is not uncommon for
ball fields to have advertising so it wouldn't look out of place. it wouldn't
be midway stadium but a couple of signs on the fence wouldn't hurt anything.
just an idea to help cover expenses.
john harris
webber-camden
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