The proposed fee structure is based on a single week of training time.
The council would charge $258 per hour, per field/wicket, per week. This would form the total fee for the season, rather than being charged every week. From July 2025, the proposed fee would then increase to also charge $258 for each game or match.
Dozens of Tauranga clubs expressed their concerns at the LTP hearings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, leading to the commission chairwoman saying the council had the balance for the fee wrong.
Todd Morris, of the Ōtūmoetai Cadets Cricket Club, said the new fee was a “cash grab of low-hanging fruit”.
Charging senior teams would still impact the juniors, he said.
”If you kill the senior clubs, the junior clubs will soon follow.
”The Ōtūmoetai club did social good and the proposal should be put in the dustbin where it belongs,” Morris said.
The Ōtūmoetai Tennis Club faces a possible fee hike under the draft long-term plan. Photo/ John Borren
Western Bay of Plenty Softball Association president Paul Goodall said the proposed field fees would cost them an extra $45,000 a year.
He said the club would have to move from the softball diamonds in Ōtūmoetai to a more affordable location as it only had a $20,000 annual budget.
Tauranga City AFC chairperson Brendon McHugh said football was a grassroots sport and needed to be affordable. Higher council fees would need to be offset by increasing the costs for members.
”This will ultimately cause those who can pay to play.”
Jenny Turner of Touch Pāpāmoa said the club did not mind contributing to the upkeep of the fields, but the proposed fees were too high for a lot of people.
A new Pāpāmoa skatepark was free to use, but sports would have to pay for the fields. It was about getting a balance, Turner said.
Tauranga Lawn Tennis Club captain Michel Galloway said its lease fee would increase from $800 per year to $37,000 under the proposal.
Cost increases would cause immense stress on clubs and likely lead to closures, Galloway said.
The council was also proposing to increase the lease or licence to occupy cost for council buildings, which would also affect sports clubs that use these facilities. It is looking at a higher fee of $76 per sqm, plus $57 per sqm for operating costs.
For community organisations, the lease would be reduced to $33 per sqm.
Tauranga City AFC chairperson Brendon McHugh said football needed to be affordable. Photo / Alisha Evans
Matthew King, of the Ōtūmoetai Tennis Club, said he was concerned with this proposal.
The sport was user-pays and the council provided no funding – it just owned the land they used.
Membership fees for the club were already potentially too high for some people. Higher council costs would make the fees so high tennis would become an elite sport and membership would drop, King said.
”The fees would create a whole lot of pressure that we do not need.”
Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said the council clearly had the balance wrong for the fees, illustrated by the sports clubs in front of them.
