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Parents and league leaders urge council to rethink proposed fee study hikes for youth sports
Summary
A proposed fee study that would raise youth sports field rental fees from $2/hour to as much as $19/hour prompted lengthy public comment from coaches, league presidents and parents who warned the change would price children out of rec sports.
The City of Orange’s draft cost-allocation and fee study, presented by Matrix Consulting, showed the city under-recovering about $2.9 million across roughly 700 fee line items. For community services — including youth sports field rentals — the consultant said current cost recovery is low and recommended several options including phased implementation and an annual escalator.
The consultant noted the study used a ‘reasonable average’ time-and-burden approach to compute fully burdened service costs, and identified community services as the largest deficit area. The draft schedule circulated to council included a resident youth field hourly rate that drew the strongest public reaction: some documents showed an increase from $2/hour to a proposed $19/hour (with potential 50% subsidies for approved City youth leagues), an increase residents described as “obscene.”
More than 60 speakers — volunteer coaches, league presidents (Olive Pony, North Sunrise, South Sunrise, and others), parents and advocates — described the likely impacts: sharply higher registration fees, loss of low-income participation, reduced volunteer-run maintenance, and greater reliance on private travel teams. League leaders provided specific impact figures (for example, projected per-player registration hikes and the percentage of families on hardship assistance) and proposed alternatives, such as tiered or phased increases, targeted subsidies, scholarship mechanisms, and collaborative maintenance agreements.
Council members responded to the public testimony by asking staff for more targeted analysis and comparison to neighboring cities. Several council members (including Gillinghammer, Barrios, Gutierrez and Bilodeau) expressed support for a phased approach, targeted subsidies for swim lessons and youth sports, and additional outreach to leagues; Council directed staff to return with a standalone budget study session focused on fees, stakeholder input, and phased options rather than adopting an abrupt change.
Next steps: Staff will prepare a focused study-session report with phased scenarios, comparisons to peer cities, options for targeted subsidies and exemption criteria for volunteer-run nonprofit leagues, and a plan for broader community outreach before any fee adoption.
