Benicia Sports Board
The Benicia Parks and Community Services Department maintains a wide variety of sports and recreation facilities for the sports organizations in Benicia. Staff works hard to ensure the best facilities possible. Our goal is to make each season the best it can be and with your help and cooperation, these goals can become a reality.
During the year, comments, requests, and questions may arise regarding facilities or scheduling. We want to make sure that each organization's needs are properly addressed as quickly and efficiently as possible. To achieve this we ask that only ONE person, preferably the president of the organization, act as a representative to communicate with our Department. To reduce the chance for redundancy and miscommunication between the City and your organization, correspondence will be had with the designated individual only. We then rely upon this individual to network any information to your membership. Please ask team managers, coaches, volunteers, and participants to contact the organization directly for information or to relay concerns, requests and questions.
FIELD ALLOCATIONS
Sports organizations that wish use to City facilities are required to send a representative to the Sports Board Meetings, which are held twice per year. The Board meeting in January is when field allocations for the Spring/Summer are accepted (facility use from Feb - June). The May Board is when field allocations for the Summer/Fall are accepted (facility use from July - Oct). Field allocations are completed twice per year and emailed to the President of the organization. The following priority policy is used when allocating sports fields/facilities:
- City of Benicia sponsored or co-sponsored activities
- Benicia Unified School District
- Locally based leagues (house leagues)
- Local Private schools
- Local independent or travelling teams with 75% or more residents (previous orgs will get priority). Rosters will be requested)
- Non-resident leagues and teams (priority based on seniority of program)
User groups are to use ONLY the dates and time assigned to them at each facility. Use of the facility outside of allocated times required advanced approval from the Department, and may require additional field reservations/permits. Once fields are allocated, they may not be "sub-let" to other organizations. Any organization using a field during another organizations allocated time must have prior approval from the City. The City Ordinance does not permit the use of City facilities for compensation:
12.28.040. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or charitable organization to engage in or to attempt to engage in any business, activity or act for financial compensation including bartering in or on any recreational facility or property owned, operated, or maintained by the city, including, but not limited to, any park, playground, recreational area or parking lot, without a permit issued by the city.
FIELD STATUS AND CLOSURES
The Parks and Community Services Department will be responsible for determining if a sports field is in playable condition and is the final authority as to the playability of a City facility under is jurisdiction. In the event of rain/wet conditions, the president of the organization that is allocated time at a facility will be emailed the status of the field by 3pm. It will then be the president's responsibility to notify coaches and official of the scheduling changes. The president of the organization (not the players or the coaches) should contact the City if they have any questions as to the playability of the facility. A document that outlines how the City assesses fields for closures is available in a link below.
All of the policies and protocols regarding field allocations and users is noted in the Sports and Facility User Manual below. Please be sure that you are familiar with this information if you are a current, or potential user group.