PHOENIX — The Phoenix City Council has canceled all field reservations in the city’s parks until the virus spread slows down.
In a 7-2 vote Wednesday afternoon, the council canceled at least 30 sports tournaments that were supposed to be played over the coming months.
In total, nearly 4,000 teams, almost half from out of state, would have been coming to the city to compete.
The city told 12 News it can’t be calculated how much revenue they’ll lose from the teams not playing.
But the lost money does add up. Deposits on the Reach 11 Sports Complex would have totaled $10,000 for the upcoming tournaments, not to mention the additional revenue for things like the field, lights, painted lines and more.
For example, Phoenix’s Parks and Recreation Department said the 500-team soccer tournament held last weekend that used two of the city’s complexes was charged nearly $30,000.
For last year, the department said their four sports complexes brought in $840,000 in revenue from field reservations and tournaments.
As Megan Trummel with Visit Phoenix said, people also don’t usually show up and just play sports.
“It absolutely does affect us from a tourism standpoint,” Trummel said.
As an example, 12 News looked at an upcoming “stay to play” soccer tournament in February 2021.
The cheapest room rate we found with fees and the 2-night minimum came out to $349.
If just the minimum players and coach make the trip and two people stay per room, the grand total for just the hotel stay would be $2,094 per team.
For just the one tournament with the 128 out of state teams they had this year, it would be almost $270,000 for just the hotel spending.
But, those that make the trip will also need to eat while they’re here, rent cars if they fly, put gas in those cars, and they just might stop at a local attraction.
“It’s almost impossible to quantify at this point,” Trummel said.
The decision by Phoenix City Council to cancel the field reservations until the virus slows down was out of concern for COVID-19 spread at sporting events.
Maricopa County Public Health said they’ve identified more than 200 COVID-19 cases linked to youth and club sports since October.
They added that they believe that number is significantly underestimated given what’s known about how the virus spreads in athletic settings.
The city of Phoenix will not be reserving fields again until the community spread of the virus is back to a “moderate” level which was last seen in early October.
COVID-19 News and Updates
Subscribe to the 12 News YouTube channel to receive notifications on the latest videos about the latest information on the coronavirus.