By Linda Ip
Players and officials of a Centretown little league association hope the City of Ottawa will strike a proposal to increase diamond fees in 1999.
The city had proposed the increase last October, but it deferred the increase until the 1998 budget. The current hourly rate for renting a lit field is $1.70. The proposal would raise the fee to $2 in the 1999 season.
“We all recognize it’s a big issue,” says Joan Haire, president of the Glebe Little League Association. “If the fees increase, we’re still looking to provide the same level of service to the kids.”
Lucian Blair, the city’s chief communications officer, says the city has to increase all its user fees, like skating rinks, in order to recude its deficit. The increases will vary from area to area. Although people have complained that increasing diamond fees will be detrimental, Blair stresses that the increase won’t be drastic.
“You have to look at it in perspective,” says Blair. “The increase would mean 90 cents per team to $2. We’re not talking hundreds of dollars here, we’re not even talking tens of dollars.”
But Haire says the increase will add up.
“That’s an hourly rate and it will make a difference when you consider how many hours we rent in a season,” she says.
The next little league season runs from the end of April to the end of June. The kids play twice a week and practise once a week. There are about 400 players in the association, which covers the Glebe and surrounding Centretown area.
Lynda Rivington, the association’s registrar, says there’ll be “a domino effect” if the proposal is passed.
“We feel that no child should be turned away from little league just because they can’t afford baseball,” she says. “We do subsidize some children, but increasing the [diamond] fees means we’ll have to decrease that amount.”
Every little league association sets its own fees. The current fee for nine to 12 year old Glebe players is $95. Players who are 11 or 12 with the East Ottawa-Vanier association pay $65. The fees pay for diamond rentals, equipment, insurance, uniforms and paying umpires.
“Baseball isn’t an expensive sport like hockey,” says Haire. “But you want your kids to be safe and they need decent equipment.”
Haire’s 13-year-old son Malcolm has played with the association for five years. He says there’s no reason for the increase.
“I think it’s really dumb,” he says. “We won’t have enough money for better equipment or more playing time.”
Haire says she’s worried about the implications for little league.
“Baseball is an activity that kids can still participate in after little league,” she says. “It keeps them out of malls and is an investment for the future.”