Eastlake Little League feuds with city officials on new Inglewood field fees
Following the official opening of artificial turf fields at Inglewood Middle School on Oct. 5, opposition has surfaced over the $65 per hour field rental fees. The primary source of pushback has come from Eastlake Little League, a youth baseball and softball organization based in Sammamish.
Eastlake Little League uses the Inglewood sports fields to support its 400 to 500 young players each year, and the addition of field rental fees has created a financial strain, according to its organizers. Eastlake Little League previously paid no fees to use the old baseball field at Inglewood.
Founded in 1997, Eastlake Little League is one of Sammamish’s only baseball and softball programs that offers non-competitive opportunities for children ages 4 to 16. Their 12U all-star team competed in the Little League World Series in 2013 and 2021. The league previously helped to maintain the fields at Inglewood, investing around $60,000 over the past decade to ensure they remained in good condition, according to Justin Stiles, president of Eastlake Little League.
Under the new rate structure, their annual budget of $34,000 would face an additional $80,000 to $100,000 increase to use those fields, which means they may have to raise registration fees by hundreds of dollars.
“We either charge kids $800 to play local community rec baseball and softball, or continue to use fields that are not safe or made to play baseball or softball,” Stiles said. “We would be losing new players that want to try it out because the cost would be too much. What parent wants to pay $800 for a new sport for their kid when they can do something else for $300?”
During a coffee chat with city council members on Nov. 2, representatives from Eastlake Little League spoke out against the rising costs. They proposed that leagues whose participants live within the school boundary of Inglewood Middle School get discounted rates, given Lake Washington School District owns the fields.
“It will be near impossible to continue to operate our league successfully without those fields,” Stiles said. “I don’t see our league lasting more than another three to five years.”
The proposal puts the City of Sammamish in a bind, since Eastlake Little League is essentially asking the City to give certain groups preferential treatment over others. It could also drain the City’s maintenance budget for the Inglewood sports fields. Currently, the City is responsible for covering 50% of the $86,000 maintenance costs per year, and that is paid for by the $65 per hour rental fee.
In an email response to the Sammamish Independent, the City said it is committed to ensuring fair access to the fields, without indicating whether they would accept Eastlake Little League’s request for a discount.
“Staff just recently met in person with Mr. Stiles — like we would do with any constituent — to see if we could brainstorm solutions,” said Angie Millar, the City’s communications manager. “As public stewards, the City’s responsibility is to ensure that access is equitable for all residents.”
