Community Youth Leagues now getting charged to play on Long Island

ya know what I find egregious (and unfortunately I contribute to it) is all these yuppie sports leagues that some how got their hands on field permits to all the good fields around NYC at the best times. In turn they charge participants fees to play organized games while forcing the local kids to play on the fringes or not at all. Like I play up in riverbank park and i see all these neighborhood kids forced to play in small sections of the park and people yell when they get onto the pitch and interfere and all i can think is this park should be for the local community, and instead some jerks (like me) are coming in using the park from 6-10pm and these kids never get a chance because some corporation has the rights to the permits in perpetuity it seems.

I live in astoria and the big news is we are redoing the track in our local park and it will have a full soccer field in the middle, which you would think is great*... but in reality it'll mean some organization like zogsports will go get the field permits (if they didn't already) and lock up all the good times and all the local people who's local tax budget went into the renovations won't actually be the ones who benefit directly**


*actually its not a very popular idea. people don't like large swath of space that can only be used by 10-20 people at a time
** you could argue it helps indirectly with more people coming in and buying stuff, so the local business benefit which refills the tax pool
 
ya know what I find egregious (and unfortunately I contribute to it) is all these yuppie sports leagues that some how got their hands on field permits to all the good fields around NYC at the best times. In turn they charge participants fees to play organized games while forcing the local kids to play on the fringes or not at all. Like I play up in riverbank park and i see all these neighborhood kids forced to play in small sections of the park and people yell when they get onto the pitch and interfere and all i can think is this park should be for the local community, and instead some jerks (like me) are coming in using the park from 6-10pm and these kids never get a chance because some corporation has the rights to the permits in perpetuity it seems.

I live in astoria and the big news is we are redoing the track in our local park and it will have a full soccer field in the middle, which you would think is great*... but in reality it'll mean some organization like zogsports will go get the field permits (if they didn't already) and lock up all the good times and all the local people who's local tax budget went into the renovations won't actually be the ones who benefit directly**


*actually its not a very popular idea. people don't like large swath of space that can only be used by 10-20 people at a time
** you could argue it helps indirectly with more people coming in and buying stuff, so the local business benefit which refills the tax pool
I’ve always wondered how adult-for-profit leagues were able to get the permits in perpetuity. They should revert back to the pool after every year, or simply set aside field time for kids from 3-7 or 3-8 (or something like that) and older folks can then play until midnight.
 
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I’ve always wondered how adult-for-profit leagues were able to get the permits in perpetuity. They should revert back to the pool after every year, or simply set aside field time for kids from 3-7 or 3-8 (or something like that) and older folks can then play until midnight.

Absolutely, kids should get prime times. They arent able to play those late night games like adults can, but cash is king. Its really sad if this starts spreading.
 
Absolutely, kids should get prime times. They arent able to play those late night games like adults can, but cash is king. Its really sad if this starts spreading.
sure cash is king, but the permits cost like nothing for the whole season. It's literally first come first serve then a non-competitive renewal process for the holders. I know people who renew permits solely because they just don't want to give it back. They don't force people off the fields cause they aren't using it but they don't give the community a chance to get the permits either. Even if they returned it, the adult rec leagues would just snag them in a moments notice, then they are truly gone from the pool.

But what can you do? If you open it to competitive bids then the kids really will get priced out. So you gotta keep them dirt cheap or its not a public good.

The unfortunate reality is people don't need the fields for 20 thursdays in a row, but they would like 1 or 2. Even for a 1 day permits people don't know the hoops to jump through to get them, and forget about the 12yo kid who just wants to grab a ball and play on the spot. He's not putting up with bureaucracy.

These rec league's are really only limited by the availability of park space. They are voracious when it comes to getting a permit for space.
 
City and county fields ain’t free in Westchester and I don’t think they are in most places. This seems more like the removal of an incredible freebie than something that is a dick move by the county.

I’m sure they’ll still be much cheaper than market value for field time.
 
Kids sports are supposed to get preferential access to NYC field permits. As far as I can tell, the permit application process is pretty crooked. Gifts are exchanged. Tips on availability are given. Everybody knows "a guy".

I'm happy to see that some of those rec leagues are building their own facilities in the city now (e.g. Sunset Park).