PIT TOUCH and FLAG FOOTBALL in WINNIPEG MANITOBA - FOOTBALL!

177 Posts

Not sure if anyone noticed but the city doubled the charge for adult field rentals....ouch!

bastards!!

3720 Posts

This is true Cliff and has very significant implications for not only our touch football league but all recreational sports in Winnipeg. I believe field rental rates went up 105% from last year (you read that right there is no decimal point in there), an astronomical leap by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately registration rates will rise rather steeply to offset the costs that our league, and of course all others, cannot control.

Please thank your city councilors for making it more difficult for adults to continue their favorite pastimes and recreational activities. Remember to use your votes wisely to remove these people from positions of decision making.

Your very unimpressed PIT Crew

51 Posts

Any chance we can get a list of (or even a copy) of the vote they did to raise this, so we know which of these dumbasses are responsible? This is ridiculous. Hard enough paying for football for those of us who dont make a lot of money... :(

254 Posts

This is the worst news I have heard in a while, even worse that hearing Tim Tebow won't be going to the Jaguars next season. They tell people to stay active when you get older, but they want you to sacrifice your wallet to do so. How can they justify raising the fees THAT much?

2 Posts

I've complained to my Councillor, not that he will do anything since it's not a election year.

16 Posts

It is extremely short sighted thinking. Prevention has always been the best medicine. Keeping the adult population moving and active prevents obesity-related disease,cardiovascular events and promotes a healthy lifestyle. The extra dollars the city collects will never offset the extra health-care dollars that it would cost society in regards to inactivity in it's population. However, those health-care dollars come from a different pile ie. provincial funding. So it appears that the city has no stake in keeping it's adult (tax-paying) population healthy. I do see on a day to day basis the effects of an inactive and obese adult population. It definately should be addressed with your city councillor. Access to an active lifestyle should not be limited to the people who can afford it!

51 Posts

Is there anything that we can do that can get real results? Can we look to other adult leagues hit with this and make a stand? There's approx 1000 adults in this league, that has got to mean something as far as bringing pressure to bear on councillors.

As I said, even a small increase to registration is gonna hurt, I have to scrape to get the money as it is now (thank goodness for well timed GST checks!) I too have complained to my councillor, though as above, I doubt it will achieve anything. At the same time they are getting a fat raise in allowances to their wards to the tune of $40,000.

23 Posts

Guys ill be honest with you complaining to your city councillor won't do anything, they get paid either way they give you the yes I understand I'm sorry about this or what ever bs they feed you. As long as those complaints are being made to them they don't care.

Take this to the news, tv and news papers allow the city we live in know and their will be other adult sports groups that feel the same as we do. Make a public out cry and then these guys that we vote in that make choices to make it hard to do the healthy thing and right thing get pointed out and thrown in the spot light.

Us complaining on these forms won't go anywhere, us going to our counselors won't do anything. Its just how the system works.

Agree or disagree but I believe this is the only way we can put the heat on them and re think things or when election time does come it will be brought up again because it has been noted publicly. This mayor has a spending problem and needs to find way to make money back its wrong what he does because we are the ones that pay. And their is no benefit to us (aka roads are still a problem).

27 Posts

You know I think its time the league charges a fee for every team on top of registration whether it be $25, $50 or $100 to be put aside in account for the future purchase of some land. The benefits would be huge, one site for all games; give the league better control over maintenance of fields, ability to control cost and so. For example if they would have charged the winter indoor team the fee of $50 it would be almost a $7000 start.... And really what's 50 or 100 divided by 7 or 14 guys... Not much extra.

Food for thought

116 Posts

it appears this mayor and his coucilors serious want to change the way i am living my life!!!

I like to go downtown and drink, especially before events..... .this i will no longer do once he the new parking rules and rates are in effect. Feeding Meters until 9PM and doubling rates there as well?? really?? all our city needs is another reason NOT to go downtown, and i tend to believe this is a big deterent to spending time downtown that would otherwise be free after 5:30 or whatever it is..... what a joke!!! now this? now they are costing me more money to do something that is actually good for me????? besides the drinking after LOL!!

This is stupid already.

They should pay the Pit league to keep their fields in the shape they are in year after year. I do not see the city putting in any effort whatsoever besides making my life a bit more inconvienient and expensive. Real shame!!!

116 Posts

I've actually written about this to a couple people from the Free Press. Bartley Kives thinks there's a story here, but doesn't have the time to dig through it. He sent me to Ashley Prest, who writes about amateur sports (don't worry Jon and Scott; I made sure I identified myself as a mere player, NOT admin of the league).

If someone's inclined, I could post what I wrote to her. Otherwise, you can email Ashley Prest at Ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca.

I recommend it. If we're serious about this being stupid, we should speak up to whoever will hear us. Oh! We could be another Idle No More, as we try to keep adults from sitting around! :P

948 Posts

My intention is not to add more fuel to the fire, but it seems like adult sports in general is really not being recognized as a mechanism to counter some of the fundamental issues society is dealing with when it comes to obesity due to the lack of exercise. It seems our officials would rather us tax our medical system with health issues related to inactivity...

Here is a true story that only a few of our membership know about, but it seems it may be an appropriate time to reveal. The PIT league has always been very diligent when looking for worthy fields for our membership, and 3 years ago Jon and I approached a government official to inquire about usage of the old military fields (Route 90)that had been left in disarray while the various government and non government bodies disputed what the parcel of land would be used for. We said that we would be willing to take over the field maintenance in turn for usage. The individual liked our proposal, (who wouldn't if we save the government money) so that individual sent our proposal up the ladder for approval. They responded that although we were an established league they were simply not interested and would prefer not to allow it to be used for adult sport, which included saving the government money in such a concrete way.

Scott

2 Posts

I think the future of that property is still in limbo and will be for a very long time. I heard there is/are/were aboriginal groups wanting to turn it into a reserve. I don't know the true details of it though.

Basically, it's doomed to sit in an un-touchable state until a side is ready to make a move. But if the government was to sell/ rent a part of that property then it could raise quite a stink.

51 Posts

Yes that is true. I am not sure which group of natives it was, but they put up legal blocks to stop the gov (military specifically) from selling the land to developers, claiming it was native land and that an 'urban reserve' should be formed. This has been dragged out for years now, with no realistic end in sight, since the people of Tuxedo and the other richer areas in the vicinity put a block on the native block, blah blah blah, basically its a legality sh*tstorm in there.

I would be willing to pay a little more as Alzies suggested, for the Pit in a few years time to buy their own land somewhere. Then you could rent it out to the other adult leagues and make money, lowering our costs (take that soccer!!!) just remind the city that they forced us into this position.

Just saying.....

3720 Posts

I have tried to contact the city, the Health Minister, and Russ Wyatt (who oversees the budget and was also the person who kicked us off Sherbo Cove field) regarding the 106% increase in field rentals over the last two weeks. A city representative provided the canned response of "tough budgetary decisions had to be made..." When pressed for elaboration they did not respond. The Health Minister Jim Rondeau did not respond, Russ sent me back to the city representative.

Jon

36 Posts

Might not be a bad idea to check field availability outside City of Winnipeg boundaries (e.g. West and East St. Paul).

177 Posts

Nice try scatman....

51 Posts

Now's the time post comments on the WFP site. They vote on this today. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/City-hiking-rental-fee-for-athletic-fields-from-34-to-74-188879631.html

3720 Posts

The call to reduce rental fees on athletic fields fails by a vote of 5-11. Prices for fields have officially been increased 105% which will have a dramatic affect on league fees without a consequent betterment of fields. We will have more enforcement officers kicking people off fields however. This city sucks.

Jon

948 Posts

Shitty deal, the increase was approved and the platform that was used: Field usage officers needed to be hired to patrol our city fields for unpaid usage!!!! Really.... Kids or Adults who want to go out and have a pickup game is the reason that these increases need to occur??? The increase that has been indicated is NOT for field improvements, but rather the field police.

This truly is discouraging.

http://metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/528533/proposed-fee-hike-for-winnipeg-athletic-fee-lambasted-at-council/

Scott

3720 Posts

Here is a list of Councillors who voted for the athletic field increase. Use your votes to vote them out if they are in your ward.

Browaty, Fielding, Havixbeck, Nordman, Pagtakhan, Sharma, Smith, Steen, Vandal, Wyatt, Katz

The PIT Crew

3720 Posts

Here is the latest: anyone wanting a $45,000 a year government job to patrol fields for "rogue" users?

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/01/29/live-city-hall

The PIT Crew

1 Post

I can't believe how ridiculous this is.

51 Posts

Reading more details of this it gets worse and worse. There is no law against us using the fields without paying for them, all it does is ensure we get the field and can boot others off (which I can't recall ever happening) I say we get together with other leagues, ultimate, soccer and the like, and use the fields anyways. There are far too many of us for what sounds like a single enforcement officer to move, AND since other groups use public space for far less productive things (idle no more, occupy wall street, BS like that)

I would like to see the enforcement officer try to remove us. This is ridiculous and I definetly agree with moving the league off of winnipeg property to either private fields or outside the city (adrenaline adventures and the like)

3720 Posts

Coincidence that Russ Wyatt announces $200,000 for Buhler Park upgrades and also votes to increase recreational sports field usage? http://metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/527353/cash-for-winter-upgrades-completes-vision-of-buhler-park-in-east-winnipeg/

Russ Wyatt was a driving force behind the white elephant that is Buhler Park and years ago told the PIT league that we were not welcome to play in Transcona unless we played out of Buhler Park.

Conflict of interest?

5 Posts

Would love to know how many times a group has had to forcible be removed from a city field without paying in advance for the booking. The "need" for enforcement officials makes it sound it happens constantly. I've played in various leagues around the city for going on 10 years and not once have I come across any incidents or conflicts regarding field usage.

With an increase of $36.00 per booking does that mean team fees for season would increase by $324.00? $18.00 x 18 games???

Seriously, $45,000 per year to patrol city fields...... is that joke or a serious number?

3720 Posts

Fees might go higher than that, with playoffs some teams would run upwards of 22 games. On average teams would play 20 games per year.

This increase will be an extremely costly hit to registration fees. Vote out your councilor if they supported athletic field rental increases.

The PIT Crew

51 Posts

So, I know this seems extreme, but so does a $350 increase in fees (I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't afford that)

The following is a serious suggestion. Why not use the fields without the cities prior permission? I am dead serious. There is NO law that we are breaking, since there is no law forbidding access to a public field, only a bylaw in place to allow EXCLUSIVE access to a park, that is sealed PROPERLY by the city. Secondly, we have the right to peaceful assembly under the charter, so they can't stop us from gathering in a spot to peacefully play a football game, IN PROTEST to them raising their fees. Idle no more, Occupy Wall Street, and the student protests in Quebec are the examples we should follow, minus the violence of course.

They should have to show proof that these 'rogue' elements are damaging their fields, and in which case why is the money not being used to repair said fields? Their reasoning is flawed from the beginning, and it honestly should not be taken lying down.

Just saying....

3720 Posts

We have been in contact with the director from MODS and we are hoping to unite some of the larger adult recreational sports leagues to demonstrate strength in numbers. We will provide additional information when it becomes available.

The PIT Crew

5 Posts

Someone from MODS mentioned they pay $9400.00 in field rentals over the course of the outdoor season(s). Not sure if that's per month or over the whole year. I'd imagine the PIT pays double or triple that amount.

Something has to been done here...... whatever we decide to do.. count me in.

116 Posts

So would this mean, that if some kids from the community decided to play a pickup game of any sport, and the "field cop" came by....... would they be forced to stop their athletic tyranny? would there be a penalty for not complying? LOL

I just do get why these stupid city politicians are against things that are actually good for this city....... you know...... like our health.

Just insane already. These guys are seriously clueless.

948 Posts

The City of Winnipeg also wants the PIT league to pre-book for the entire year, meaning we should know how many prospective teams are going to be in the league before we even commence registration. How can we predict this??? Also, games that are not played due to weather conditions like flooded fields or lightning are also the PIT league's tab? It seems like they are in cash grab mode and would rather charge us nearly $80.00 per slot even if it means a higher motivation in pushing games through despite dangerous conditions. Does anyone else have issue with someone breaking an ankle on a saturated field, or worse, someone's death due to lightning strikes because we can't afford to cancel games...

The PIT Crew

51 Posts

Like Andyd said, whatever we do about this, and please we HAVE to do something about this, I'm in.

And yes, it does sound like if I want to take my nieces to the park to kick the soccer ball around, this frackin Nazi can come and boot us off, though as I said, what law is he enforcing?