Fees to league increasing for first time since 2015
In the same week the city of St. Cloud cut the ribbon on its newly-refurbished baseball field complex on 17th Street, it also agreed to a new rent agreement with its biggest user.
At Thursday’s City Council meeting, leaders unanimously approved a one-year facility use agreement with St. Cloud Little League. The original agreement at the plate would gradually increase the league’s payments over the next three years.
The league, one of the largest in the Southeast, had 829 members the city in spring 2025, with over half coming from outside city limits thanks to Kissimmee’s program currently sitting inactive.
Since 2015, the city has charged the league $5 per participant per season (spring and fall). With new proposed fees of $150 per team and $25 per non-resident player, the average cost per player will be $12.07, up over $7, and raise about $44,200. The SCLL player registration fee is set to be $170 per season, according to the city, which is comparable to other area leagues. Fees for players in the organization’s Challenger League, which is comprised of athletes with special needs who don’t pay league fees thanks to local sponsors and an Osceola County grant, were waived.
Under the proposed three-year agreement, the fees were to step up to $200 per team and $75 per non-resident player in 2028.
The city spends $392,000 annually on maintenance on the fields, which city Parks and Recreation Manager Stephanie Holtkamp said cannot come from the Parks budget per state statute.
The fee structure was the only part of an agreement between the city and the Little League not hammered out at a meeting prior to Thursday, Holtkamp said.
SCLL President Danielle Momenteller told the Council Thursday—at a meeting attended by dozens of Little League players and families— the stepped-rate increase will be as tough to field as a bad-hop grounder.
“We know the fee must increase, but absorbing a cost this large would force impossible choices, impacting families and the children,” she said. “Youth sports should remain an opportunity rather than a privilege. The three-year rate is scary for us … we’re worried about going under.”
League representative Ron Priester noted SCLL with have increased costs having the new fields, such as maintaining new pitching mounds.
Council Member Ken Gilbert—who coached and put five children through local sports leagues—said he did have to work to rationalize spending some city tax money to maintain the fields for the Little League.
“There isn’t a dollar amount that can represent the benefit to children,” Council member Ken Gilbert said. “But the rate increases have to exist to have the happy medium to say, ‘We want this stuff.’” Mayor Chris Robertson— who noted he played on the original fields as a child— agreed an increase was needed but wanted to work with parents to get an agreeable rate.
“It’s important part of our community, paying the (agreed) rate in Year One gets us some breathing room and gets the kids playing ball, while we understand what happens in Tallahassee,” he said, referencing a potential cut or elimination of property taxes at the state level.
