trib sets table for chump park
tommyJim Norman has been waiting for this day for a long time. The Tampa Tribune ran a huge front page story about how the citizens of Tampa and especially our children have no place to play their games. You can almost picture the red-faced Norman on the phone demanding that the Tribune hurry and publish this story.
As soon as I saw the big above-the-fold headline, Sports Field Shortage Scuffs Youth Dreams, I knew how the story would go:
- Local ball fields are being overused.
- The helpless little kids are suffering badly because of the overuse.
- Therefore, we obviously need more sports fields.
- Jim Norman’s Championship Park just might be the fix we need!
Let’s read the article to find out.
TAMPA - During Little League season, 6-year-olds sometimes play tee-ball at 9 p.m.
Well, they started with the helpless little kids…
Mark Thornton has been director of the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department for 20 months. In that time, he said, “there hasn’t been a day I’ve come to work where we haven’t had complaints over space issues.”…
According to figures released in May, field capacities are stretched thin in most of Hillsborough. Youth baseball facilities are at 93 percent capacity, softball fields are beyond 100 percent, football fields are at 113 percent and soccer fields are at 153 percent capacity. That means people playing games at night, fields spilt [sic] in two to accommodate teams, and children playing at odd hours…
“There’s definitely a shortage of fields in the area, most importantly those available to adults,” said Chris Giebner, owner of Tampa Bay Club Sport, the area’s largest provider of social sports leagues, which include flag football, soccer, softball and kickball…
Overuse is as pressing an issue as overcrowding. Repair bills for chewed-up fields are becoming less palatable for local government officials as they ponder ways to save money.
So that’s the set-up. And here’s the money shot, thanks to that director of County Parks & Recreation, Mark Thornton:
Thornton said he hopes some relief eventually will come from Championship Park, a planned sports complex north of Plant City that would have 30 multipurpose fields.
The project’s $40 million cost would come from the Community Investment Tax. Commissioner Jim Norman, the project’s sponsor, has maintained the complex would bring in money from national tournaments and perhaps from a Major League Baseball team using the site for spring training…
Shocker.
For sprucing up, the piece is fertilized with a little bullsh*t:
The field-use figures don’t take into account the availability of space for practices.
“What I’ve seen over the 25 years I’ve been doing this is you’ll have a whole lot of kids sign up, but if they’re not getting the practice time they need, they’re bound to drop out over time,” Thornton said.
I’m certain that kids don’t just quit because they found something more appealing. It’s GOTTA be because they can’t practice, right? Please.
I got a couple questions.
Thornton says that “some” of the baseball and soccer fields are at 200% capacity, and that “a few” of the football fields “exceed that figure.” The ideal use is 80% to compensate for rainouts. But the article says:
…Youth baseball facilities are at 93 percent capacity, softball fields are beyond 100 percent, football fields are at 113 percent and soccer fields are at 153 percent capacity…
So that means just as some fields are overused, it appears that some are underutilized, especially the baseball fields. Why aren’t we sending users to the underused parks?
And has Thornton done anything to address the situation?
… Thornton is looking for additional ways to save money. For example: Umpires who work part-time for the county will be reclassified as contract workers, and responsibility for field maintenance will shift from the county to the independently operated leagues.
That’s a good start. What else?
Er… well… uh… Thornton has no other ideas - at least in this article.
Meanwhile, I wonder if high school football and baseball fields are being used to capacity. I wonder if nearby Pasco, Polk, and Pinellas have some parks we can borrow for those 9:00 games. But mostly I wonder about those underused fields in the county. Why aren’t they being used to capacity?
Mark Thornton has been on the job for less than 2 years. Has he exhausted all the possibilities? I refuse to believe he was hired 20 months ago to help make sure that Norman’s Folly is hammered through?
Tags: county, quality of life, sports
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July 31st, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Could the independent leagues build their own fields?
July 31st, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Oh, not this, not now. Does he know the citizenry is pissed off and this is his last best chance to get his stupid sports complex through the gauntlet? Or is he emboldened by the rampant corruption and figures the county is his oyster so what the hell?
If this inane waste of money goes through…ah, skip the hyperbole. Hillsborough taxpayers will get that they accept.
What a damn shame.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:08 am
I haven’t been on a baseball field around here for about 20 years but I am not sure how it can be at 200% of capacity. Wouldn’t that mean multiple games happening at the same time on the same field?
August 1st, 2007 at 6:40 am
I smelled Norman when I saw the headline. Ever the Disney villain, he. It’s a shameless piece of journalistic hype (read ‘tripe’). I mean, 200% capacity??!! Get outta here!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:31 am
[...] Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog abouthelptampagift shopadvertise « trib sets table for chump park [...]
August 1st, 2007 at 12:30 pm
“…the complex would bring in money from national tournaments and perhaps from a Major League Baseball team using the site for spring training”
Because there’s been a line of teams beating down the door to train in Plant City since the Reds moved out over a decade ago.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Do not use the fields for childrens recreation then we do not need a Director of Parks and Recreation THEN we would really save money. I moved here from a more progressive state that had city sports for children 6 and up they had try outs but every child who WANTED to play was picked by the coach.Try outs were on Saturday. Traing was 5 or 6 o’clock during the week,games were played on Saturday. They had times for different games all through SATURDAY,morning,afternoon,and evening. Let children be children,it only lasts a short time,I JUST CAN NOT STAND SOME PARENTS AT GAMES AND THEIR YELLING AT THE OFFICALS,they need to yell at the director of sports for taking away their sports and all their little friends they make during this exciting experience that they will always remember.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:45 pm
The reporter should have challenged Thornton’s shameless use of 6-year-old T-ballplayers to shill for Norman’s pet project.
The only way most of our 6-year-olds could get to Championship Park is by an excruciatingly long car ride (”Are we there yet?”) to the far northeast corner of the county — much closer to Lakeland and Zephyrhills than Tampa. And there won’t be any T-ball in this park.
This park is not for our county’s children, it’s for elite out-of-town athletes. It’s also for the developers salivating at the chance to pave over the rural area’s citrus groves and strawberry fields with hotels, restaurants and other amenities for the sports aficionados who are supposed to be drawn like flies from across the nation to this boondoggle in Hillsborough’s hinterlands.
If our 6-year-olds need more T-ballfields, let’s build them where our kids live. We should be spending our tax dollars on things that benefit this county’s residents — not Jim Norman’s sports buddies and developer cronies.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Let me just get this straight… Tampa’s fields are full and building a speciality sports complex in Plant City is going to help…?
Tournaments get played at Legends field. Big football games get played at big venues. Norman, on the other hand, needs something to help a developer buddy out that way (that’s the usual justification for road expansions or projects-at-nowhere-destinations) and the complex fits the bill…
Of course, use “left wing extremists” at Sticks of Fire should just be dismissed… After all, we’re the public and the HCBOCC has only listen to the public discourse if it’s discourse they personally agree with.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Yes Pinellas has even less fields than Hillsborough. I have played soccer games starting at 9:30 at night. In Pinellas we need the Toytown area sports complex.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
[...] Tribune has said that there is a shortage of sports fields for the children of Hillsborough County. Jim Norman wants to fix that with a place called “Championship [...]
July 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am
several good points have been made.
norman certainly has to have friends out there that he is helping. in cases like this there is almost always some type of kick back involved. like he needs any more money or perks.
any major names that would come to the central florida area have already been secured. do you honestly beleive that any team that are linked with Disney’s Wide World of Sports will give that up and come to plant city?
will the coplex really be used? it will no longer be convienent for the residents of the community. many are already hard pressed for time with work schedule, getting dinner for the family and still getting to the events in a timely manner.
the money certainly can be used to expand the existing parks. in expanding the exsisting parks it will not only serve the sports involved but many other aspects of the community.