Lowell board adopts tournament fee schedule for city fields, sets $225 daily rate for natural turf

The Lowell City Parks & Recreation board approved a new tournament fee schedule for city fields, adopting a $225 per field per day fee for non‑synthetic (natural turf) fields and a $1,500 per field per day fee for synthetic/turf fields.

The vote follows months of discussion about how to define “tournament,” how to balance local youth access with outside users, and how to recover city costs for extra services such as trash pickup, custodial overtime and special lighting. Board members directed staff and the law department to draft ordinance language reflecting the schedule and to return with any remaining cost details for review.

The board’s action formalizes a multi‑part approach intended to keep fields available for Lowell residents while charging higher rates for organized, non‑local, revenue‑producing events. Board member Keith Rudy presented a proposed definition that the board discussed and used as the starting point: “the tournament's a series of games or contests with at least 3 competitors that make up a single unit of competition in an invitational event that charges a fee to participate,” he said. Rudy’s proposal also recommended language allowing the board to…