The Morgan Hill City Council agreed to waive more than $120,000 worth of fees coming due to the city from the Outdoor Sports Center’s operating organization, in hopes of attracting a new operator for the complex.
In advance of the Oct. 4 meeting, the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance—which has operated the 38-acre soccer fields complex for the city for about the last nine years—asked the city to reduce its annual contracted fees from $60,000 this year and $70,000 next year, to $45,000 each year.
But in an unexpected move, after a brief discussion, the council agreed to remove the fees completely as long as there are no surprises in an upcoming audit of MHYSA and OSC operations. Council members reasoned that the money is better spent on keeping the sports fields maintained and attractive for a potential new operator, which the city is currently in the process of finding.
The sports alliance has faced some financial difficulties in running the Outdoor Sports Center in recent years, due to lost revenue from annual event organizers who decided to take their tournaments elsewhere, and an unexpected, expensive repair of a well pump that serves the property on Condit Road, according to alliance Director Jeff Dixon.
Because of this, the organization has had trouble making annual payments to the city. The center is currently delinquent in its quarterly payments to the city by $22,500, according to city staff.
Morgan Hill Community Services Director Chris Ghione said the next audit, which is due in the coming months, is likely to show improvement in the sports center’s bookkeeping and tracking of expenses and revenues.
Councilmember Rich Constantine proposed waiving the alliance’s scheduled payments to the city altogether for the next two years, after he was assured by city staff that the funds would be well-spent on maintaining the facility’s grass fields and other upkeep.
“I’m mostly concerned about the field condition,” Constantine said. “If they can put that money (into facility maintenance) and show us, I’m willing to forgive the payment altogether.”
Mayor Pro Tem Larry Carr added a request for the alliance to return to city staff with more details about the cost of maintenance at the center.
The five-member council unanimously agreed to waive the fees for at least the current year, and possibly next year pending the results of the upcoming audit. The alliance’s current contract with the city expires after next year.
“We were always going to maintain the facility to the best of our abilities,” Dixon said after the meeting. “What this gives us the opportunity to do is, maybe look at some creative things in addition to maintaining (the fields)—even enhancing it because we have more funds to do with it.”
The city has already begun a “Request For Proposals” process to seek a new operator for the Outdoor Sports Center—preferably one that is committed to serving the right balance of local and regional uses of the sports fields, and has some extra funds to invest in upgrading the facility and promoting it as a major revenue generator. The alliance is not prohibited from competing in that process to remain as operator of the center.
The sports center has long been a popular site for weekend soccer tournaments that bring teams from throughout the state. The alliance has added other non-traditional uses to the facility over the last nine years, including dog agility competitions, circuses, a barbecue festival and other sports such as lacrosse, cricket and flag football.
Also earlier this year, the council approved $1.4 million from the city’s parks maintenance fund to replace the artificial turf on two of the OSC’s fields—one for football and one for soccer. The turf on the fields, cited by city staff as a “flagship” of the OSC, is about 10 years old and deteriorating. City officials hope this facelift will also help attract competitive bids from prospective new operators.
