Good Evening Mayor, City Councillors, Citizens of Burlington
My name is Sarah Merritt- Kellogg; I am one of the founders of, and current President of
BWRSL. We have been established as a non-profit women’s soccer club since 1994. Our current membership is at 794. We have an executive of 8 members who are all volunteers with no paid employees. All our volunteers have a vested interest in our organization. We have 4 divisions, 3 rec and one competitive division that plays in the Ontario Women’s Soccer League and travels in Ontario. All our rec divisions play in Burlington and we had in total 30 rec teams, and 2 competitive travel teams. We also have several master teams that played in and are training and planning on going forward in the master series in New Zealand representing
Burlington and BWRSL.
I am here before you tonight to express my concerns and unhappiness with the current report by Parks and Rec regarding alignment of grass field rates increases for 2016 and the future phase in plan. I do not support this report and would like to see alternatives instead implemented prior to just raising fees.
First off I would like to say I was surprised this report was going forward, as a user group I have not been engaged in this process for a number of years, and the last time this was openly discussed with BWRSL we objected and voiced our concerns (2012 and 2013). Well BWRSL did not have a representation in the Playfield Meeting Nov 2014, we did in the spring of 2015 and this was not brought to our attention. This last Playfield user meeting was scheduled for Nov
17, 2015, we had representation available, however with no explanation a few weeks ago it was suddenly changed to Nov 3 we were not able to attend, nor participate in this process due to the fact that the meeting was changed and notice was not adequate. Well BWRSL was offered to meet the last week of October to review Parks and Recreations recommendations, I was not able to attend or able to just drop my schedule and make changes due to lack of notice. BWRSL volunteers also have work schedules and can’t just with little notice make ourselves available.
Well City staff claim to have been engaged many times with more than 20 user groups I have not seen this or any input or suggestions listed from other user groups. Why is open disclosure not provided? I do not see one of our issues mentioned, acknowledged, resolved or addressed in this report. While I have voiced my concerns over the years to Parks and Rec- Denise and
Ann, not once have they come back to me or BWRSL with solutions or suggestions and that is why I am here before you tonight to object. I am not only objecting for the members of BWRSL I am also objecting to the process and obviously to the recommendations of fees rate increase on grass fields as BWRSL has already set our budget for the upcoming 2016 season and that does not include any field rate increases.

The City is asking us to pay more again, yet the city is providing less and less to us and the value of this service is poor. Grass fields are not well maintained, are not great to play on, lit fields are often plagued with issues of lights not working or the field not being unlocked. Delaying users again and again to accessing their field during the time they paid for. The city does not have staff available to easily remedy this, we have to call in and wait – and often it is in excess of 20 minutes or more, meaning games get delayed, shorten, or cancelled because we can’t play past our permit time and if you don’t play the majority of a game games get cancelled.
Currently the city struggles to maintain and provide services for artificial fields- nets are always a disaster at Norton, and not much better at Orchard. Our teams had to carry a ladder and tape in order for games to be played because nets had holes in them due to improper maintenance.
This is unacceptable. Parks and Rec don`t understand their customer`s needs or the sports they run. The user has to drag nets into place and other nets off. BWRSL has to clear off the public, pick up the garbage in order to use the field. We go to other communities and this is done ahead of time and not by the users. BWRSL has had to incur extra costs (Paying for a permit 30 minutes sooner than needed just to ensure the field is ready for a 9pm game. Why – because the city does not maintain the fields, does not have the nets in place and leave it up to the user group to figure it out.
A couple years ago, Parks and Rec rolled out the program where all class A lit fields would be removed on a rotational basis to give the field a rest and work to be done to improve it. Thus far, it’s only seen by BWRSL as a way to force the users off the grass fields and pay to use the artificial turf fields as I have not seen one grass field improvement. Tansley is an example – removed from the inventory – when it came back on line it was in no better condition than when it was taken off – and today it’s still a poor lit field that has pot holes, and is generally in poor repair. So, thus far BWRSL has seen no value in this process, however has clearly seen our field costs grow because we are forced to use artificial fields. BWRSL 50 thousand dollars this year for fields – and it`s too much. We have had increases related to fields for several years now, and it needs to stop.
Before the city should increase rates/fees the city needs to take responsibility for ensuring the maintenance of fields and providing users with fair and adequate services that we deserve. We expect the city to take accountability for the repairs they commit too, and not just ignore them, hence not completing the repairs.
Staff on site of lit fields, Lining of all play fields (Done in all other municipalities). Currently the users are paying for this, and BYSC, BWRSL, BSL are the primary payers of these fees, while others benefit from this they, do not contribute. Maintain the fields; including nets on all the soccer fields not just the artificial lit ones. (Currently BYSC pays for nets on all the fields)

BWRSL would like to see a comprehensive program to maintain and improve grass fields and have it implemented before being asked to pay more for sub-quality fields.
How much does it cost to maintain a soccer field or any sports field vs the cost of the park?
How much revenue does the City bring in for field rentals and break it down to how much is grass and how much is artificial turf? How much of this revenue goes to RPM towards maintaining our fields? I have asked Denise since 2012 all these questions, numerous times and thus far I cannot get a reasonable answer. I have been told this information is not available, I can`t tell you that information at this time as not everyone has paid in full for their field usage.
(The last one is rather alarming because if you have not paid in full prior to the time your season is done, the City should have compelled payment or pull the permits.) No one should be getting free use when the rest of us pay. Nor should you be getting future permits. Staff need to understand what sports groups need in a field, and know the fields in the community so that when we inquire about a field staff can advise us what amenities are there ( IE: lights, bathroom, parking) We should be working together not against one another.
Another issue BWRSL see`s with this report is the reduction of subsidy`s. Well it seems minimal
BWRSL`s concern is as follows.
Field rates for grass go up (we already pay too much for artificial) our members fees go up directly rated to permit increases. Youth subsidy goes down, so youth costs go up. Households have so many dollars to spend and when youth sports regardless of what it is, goes up, parents pay it and then reduce their activities/costs or seeks to play in a community where the sport is offered cheaper. This directly impacts BWRSL in a negative way. Women still generally come last in household spending for themselves and that includes sports. So they go without, go to another community that offers it cheaper, find another activity, or sometimes the person comes back to the club asking for a price reduction. In the end BWRSL is negatively affected.
Our bottom line is affected and so is our membership. While this may seem trivial to some, if it happens year after year, it eventually has a greater impact on adult women`s sports. The only time we get these players back is if another municipality offers the sport less or the same and have worse facilities or field conditions than what we currently have. In the surrounding area this is not the case, so our members will seek out other places to play because it`s cheaper and the conditions are better.
I have taken the time to put together other municipality’s rates for fields and lights for councils review to see that we are paying more. Secondly I would like to say, that well I understand everything goes up, BWRSL objection is tied directly to the fact that services are poor or nonexistent, there are no staff on site, we pay to line the fields and put up nets, so how can you justify an increase when there is no value in the service you provide Staff don`t know the needs

of the user group and the user-groups are expected to do all the work—turn on and off the lights, drag the nets into place, fix the nets, deal with people and garbage on the fields without a permit and call and wait around if the field is not unlocked or the lights are a problem.
Furthermore when done using the field we have to turn off the lights and deal with the public being angry because they want them on to use the field; leaving the user group on the hook if someone damages the property. If there was a private option out there, BWRSL would certainly consider renting fields elsewhere before continuing to pay for fields at the prices the
City is charging when the services and quality are not there. In the end – what is BWRSL paying for?
Again, thanks very much for all your time, I appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Sarah Merritt-Kellogg
President BWRSL