AYSO serving Los Altos since 1968!
Region 43 serving Los Altos since 1973!
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AYSO serving Los Altos since 1968! Region 43 serving Los Altos since 1973! |
Everyone Plays ® * Balanced Teams * Open Registration * Positive Coaching * Good Sportsmanship
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In our opinion, the field allocation system in place by the City of Los Altos and the Los Altos School district is not workable. Although it appears we have more actual participants from the 94022 zip code than any other youth sports group, we are not able to obtain access to any field in this zip code area for Spring. As a result of working this issue to date, we now offer the following observations and recommendations:
[1] Historical use field allocation should be abandoned:
We propose that the unwritten practice of allocating fields and priority of fields based on historical use be abandoned. Field allocation by the city and school district is similar in this regard. Recreation Department or School use takes priority, then youth sports groups, than other youth groups, followed by other community groups and finally adult groups with no affiliation. The problem is that there are too many youth groups vying for the few fields in our immediate area (roughly 94022 zip code). Currently, the spring fields are locked up by Los Altos Little League, Mountain View Los Altos Pony Baseball, and MVLA (CYSA) soccer club. Even so, other groups get in like BAWSL and Lacrosse when it is clear AYSO 43 has the most participants. It is for this same reason that Pop Warner and Flag football have been locked out of field use in the fall in this area.
An additional problem is AYSO Region 43 is the smallest land area group of all the local organizations using the fields. Therefore, without access to the few fields in the immediate area (roughly 94022 zip code area), we are locked out even though fields in Mountain View or South Los Altos may go underutilized. These are areas available to the other groups in addition to the local fields we compete for.
[2] Field allocation for youth should be based on local participant draw:
We propose that organizations with the largest absolute number of local residents (and/or the highest percentage of local participants) have first priority access to the local fields. We further propose that no group with a large percentage (over 50%) of local resident participation be locked out of field access completely. The idea is the percentage of total participants from a geographic area that are in an organization should reflect the relative percentage of fields made available to that organization. So if soccer and baseball attract the same number of youth players in a season, they should equally share the fields -- whether it be Spring or Fall. Or if a group has 700 players from the 94022 zip code (like AYSO Region 43 does) and no other group has near that many from such a concentrated area, that group should have priority for a certain percentage of the 94022 zip code area fields.
There are some considerations that may be needed as organization, school district, city, and zip-code boundaries do not line up. But in general, this should be workable using some system to priority allocate local fields for local users.
Additionally, new sports should not be locked out just because they are new and cannot make a definitive draw from the local area for their first use. Some minimal field space should be allocated to all sports --even if just one field for a few hours each week.
[3] Field Penalties for over-booking:
We propose that penalties and loss of field-use rights be instituted for groups that block reserve field time slots and then do not use them. While field fees from LASD and the City of Los Altos are the highest in the Bay Area, they are not high enough to cause groups to allocate their field use more judiciously. Therefore, youth groups tend to over-reserve just to hold onto the fields for potential use. We have witnessed 20% to 100% over-booking of field time slots. A mechanism to prevent over-booking and non-use of a reserved field needs to be instituted. Some other cities have a policy that if a field is reserved for a specific hour on a weekly basis and goes unused twice, you then lose your reservation for that field during that time period forever. Such a mechanism, while possibly difficult to police and enforce, would free up some field times and locations as over-reserving would be reduced. Consideration for rainout reschedules can be made but unutilized reservations on a per day per hour per field should be returned to the pool for reallocation by groups that need them.
[4] Youth Sports Field User Group:
We call for the development of a youth sports user group for the city of Los Altos, similar to what existed in the late 1980's, to address the shortage and condition of local playing facilities. This group would open the dialogue and understanding to allow fair and equitable field allocation among the youth sports groups. Parent run, local youth sports activities really need this common-ground group to address issues on a continuing basis, as well as to have a lobby with the field owners on common issues. Such a group can be used to provide a general mechanism for dialog on issues revolving around use of fields and other facilities by youth sports groups. Such a group would be instrumental in developing and administrating the field allocation mechanism (points 1-3 above) . Other issues within city boundaries that could be addressed in a common way are:
Contact rc@ayso43.org for more information.
Signed,
Board of Parents running AYSO Region 43, North Los Altos / Los Altos Hills