Too much pay to play | The Salt Lake Tribune

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It's great that Salt Lake City is changing the way athletic fields are reserved ("Salt Lake City seeking fee increases for its recreation fields," Tribune, March 18).

It seems irrational that fields were allowed to be reserved by the week. The new hour-long reservation blocks will allow more teams and youth to use city fields.

The issues that many residents in Rose Park have with the proposed policy are with the fee increase for nonprofit youth leagues and considering the existing leagues that have had a preference of reserving fields.

We encourage the City Council to provide preference to neighborhood nonprofit youth leagues when reserving fields. For Salt Lake's west side, increasing fees takes away what leagues can invest in equipment, increases the costs to parents and reduces the chance of children playing, which then increases the chance of children spending more time on the street or in front of a TV.

Let's hope that the City Council reconsiders parts of the proposed policy to allow for neighborhood leagues to continue being a part of youth sports that are affordable to all children.

Brad Bartholomew Rose Park Community Council chair

Rose Park