Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / amysuem
As the city of Lee’s Summit, Mo. grew over the years, the youth-sports associations and the parks and recreation department have kept pace. As a result, more than 15,000 youth athletes are now playing softball, baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, and basketball, with all of the teams in need of game and practice areas. Finding, funding, acquiring, and developing game facilities solves only half the problem. The other half of the problem is doing the same for practice facilities. This is a tough balancing act as four different associations operate in partnership with the parks department.
To add to the challenge, in 2011 the local school district determined it would no longer continue with a 20-plus-year reciprocal agreement for the use of facilities and grounds. The justification was based on economic issues within the district that created a need to produce revenue from the facilities. This further exacerbated the problem by eliminating a vast resource for low- or no-cost facilities for game and practice space.
The issue of game space was dealt with by careful planning of athletic programs and allocation of available space within the park system, but the financial burden and lack of practice space were still significant problems. In having associations determine the need for current and future practice space, a plan was developed to maximize the use of their limited open space to meet these challenges. The football and soccer associations needed open turf space for practices while the baseball and softball associations needed infield practice, batting cages, and outfield practice areas. The associations agreed to share in the development expense for these new facilities.