A plan needs to be put into place to allow foster Children, scholarship children and residence of the area to pay a fee that is equitable or adjusted so that it allows these children to play in organized sports within the Clearwater Area.

John Murphy
President Clearwater Little League

I have been fighting this cost ever since I became a board member of the board at Clearwater Little League five years ago. The first time I even heard about the fees was at registration at the Long Center. A mother was standing outside the registration area frantically crying on the phone to her husband about not being able to sign her daughter up for softball because of the fee.
That year the city reduced the Rec Card fee due to an arrangement with Pinellas county over the building of Joe DiMaggio park off Drew.
The next year the fee returned to the 190 fee per child cost. We fought it again and it was reduced to $160 per player.

The next season we tried the “adopt a player program”. Residents without kids but that lived in the City of Clearwater could take a child down and get a valid Rec card for that player using their City of Clearwater residence. The residence paid the city taxes and really did not use any of the parks department facilities, so why not do something nice for a child who wanted to play and get them a Rec card. The city changed its paperwork and told us that players could no longer play under that type of system. The city of Clearwater required that the residence show proof of guardianship to get a rec card for a child.

The next year we allowed kids to sign up and play, then paid the City for the rec card used for the season. This became un-sustainable for the league. The city started at an $8,800 bill for that season that was reduced by having the parents go out and buy the rec Cards that were good for the whole year. It still was a big pill for the league to financially swallow. What made it even more unbearable was when the city parks department charged us the $190 per child for the cards on the players without cards and then told us it was not good for the year, just the one season.

So kids who play in the Spring and had no rec card (which we paid for as a League) now had to pay another 190 to play the next season. Or should I say, we the League had to pay the city for the players to pay. In the Spring our fees are about $175 for registration and in the fall they are $55. That means to play ball at CLL for a year the cost is about $230 per year. Rec cards for Scholarship players who cannot afford to pay us the fees for registration cost the league $380 if we have to pay to the city for their rec Card.

It seems to me that we should not punish children who need and should be able to play ball.

All the other cities in the area do charge a rec card fee for un-incorporated area children, it is just broken down into seasons. Largo charges $45 per season, if you play three seasons its about $135. But broken into season is manageable for the parents of those children who only play one season a year.

I have requested that the City of Clearwater do the same, but have been told that parents in incorporated city's like Belleair must pay for a yearly rec Card.

The last three seasons we have required that players show proof of Rec cards before the signup for league play. CLL can no longer afford to pay the city for children who do not have valid rec cards. Last Fall season we had to pay the city of Clearwater $680 for rec Cards on kids who played in the fall. $360 was for one family that had two of their three children in our league. The rest were fees for $7.49 that paid for kids whose rec cards expired or where scholarship players.

Other Leagues have started in the area who rent the fields do not have to pay the rec Card fees to the city for children to play on city fields. They pay a flat rate per hour to rent the fields ($25). Many new travel ball teams have popped up that allow players from all areas to come to Clearwater to play baseball on City parks.

Maybe to offset the cost for the rec fees of children who live in the boundaries of Clearwater Little League, the city should charge the travel ball teams $50 per Hour to rent the fields, or maybe even make the players get required rec cards to play on the fields.

No matter how we look at it, something must be done. Countryside Little League players do not have to pay the $190 fee per child because they had some funding with Pinellas County to build their fields.