Thursday, May 2, 2024
In an effort to attract more amateur sporting events to Gatesville, the Gatesville City Council has approved a recommendation for city Parks & Recreation Director Seth Phillips to waive the collection of gate fees for baseball and softball tournaments.
The city will instead charge a smaller field use fee of $125 per field.
City Manager Scott Albert explained this is a two-year pilot project to determine response to the gate fee waiver.
A memo to the council noted that several other cities, including Taylor, Harker Heights, Stephenville, Killeen, and Waco, already use this incentive.
"We've got some exciting interest in our city - people are looking to host tournaments here," Phillips said. "We want to host them because it stimulates tourism and is good for the economy."
Phillips explained the waiver of gate fees will decrease city revenues by about $5,345.
The memo to the council stated, "If we waive the option for the city to collect the gate fees, the USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association) Baseball has verbally agreed to host seven tournaments during the fall and spring seasons, and we believe Small Town Select Tournaments will continue to host seven or eight tournaments."
The memo stated that city staff are also planning to pursue the idea of hosting Texas Teen-Age district and state tournaments."
Phillips pointed to a study done for Greensburg, Indiana, which has a population of 11,000 and the impact of hosting youth baseball tournaments.
If 50 teams participate with an average of 13 players, and family travels with the team, there is a significant boost to the local economy in terms of potential lodging, dining, shopping, and fuel purchases.
Phillips said on a recent Saturday, 3,007 people entered the Gatesville Sports Complex during a tournament.
He said USSSA hosts both statewide and national tournaments.
"I believe people will come from further away to visit our city," Phillips said. "Right now, we host about eight Small Town Select tournaments, and we want to host 6-8 USSSA tournaments. This will benefit hotels, restaurants and stores and we should see an increase in sales taxes and hotel/motel taxes that will offset the loss of gate fees."
Councilman Greg Casey asked if hosting additional tournaments would interfere with local youth leagues.
"We have limited fields, so it will impact practice times and it will be an extra burden on my department," Phillips said. "It takes a lot of time to host events, plus clean-up. We may need some money for overtime. With increased revenue, it will more than offset those costs."
Mayor Pro Tem Meredith Rainer asked if the tournaments bring in more money for the city, whether those funds can be put back into supporting the parks and recreation system.
"Absolutely," City Manager Albert said. "We can use HOT (hotel occupancy tax) funds to finance lights (at fields) as well."
The council approved the recommendation for a two-year trial run.
