● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
The landmark $160 million commitment by the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee back in 2017 channeled an advance by the International Olympic Committee into youth sports programs through the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.
This “Youth Sports Partnership” money was designed to lower or eliminate costs of youth to be able to participate in all sorts of sports programming, starting with swimming and expanding to recreation centers across Los Angeles and to specific-sport programs, including adaptive programs for the physically challenged.
The City’s “Play LA” program got off to a slow start, limited to swimming in the first couple of years and then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, taking down most of the next year of the program. But the project has been rebuilt, with more activity and growth. The expenditures so far:
● 2018: $0.91 million
● 2019: $1.09 million
● 2020: $2.48 million
● 2021-22: $ 7.65 million
● 2022-23: $13.22 million
● 2023-24: $14.81 million + $4.45 million pending
That’s only $44.62 million of the $160 million used across the first seven years of the program. But the city’s Recreation & Parks is making up for lost time, asking for $30.54 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year. According to the Recreation and Parks (RAP) department plan, submitted last Thursday:
● “The requested amount of $30,535,849 will be used for RAP’s 2024-25 fiscal year, to be apportioned as follows:
● “a. $20,697,820 to support recreational leagues and classes at 90 prequalified sites and available eligible participants at the City’s 35 non-prequalified sites. Eligible participants are those who self attest in meeting the Low Income Limit established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for three-member families in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, California HUD Metro Fair Market Rent Area ($90,850 as of June 1, 2023.)
“This includes Legacy Signature programs such as Golf, Judo, Marathon Training, Skateboarding, Tae Kwon Do, Tennis, and Track and Field. It also includes a soccer development pilot program detailed in the YSP Project Plan narrative.
● “b. $1,614,053 to support Aquatics Swim Classes at RAP’s 37 prequalified aquatic sites and available to eligible participants at the City’s remaining 16 nonprequalified aquatic sites (Attachment 7) as well as the surfing program.
● “c. $7,050,476 to support Signature Youth Programs in aquatics, sports & fitness, and adaptive sports.
● “d. $1,173,500 to support Safe Sport, marketing for non-adaptive sports, marketing for adaptive sports, printing, and media buys.”
The various programs differ at each of the 125 Rec Centers, but include badminton, boxing, cheer, dance, dodgeball, fitness and exercise, golf, gymnastics, kickball, lacrosse, martial arts (judo and tae kwon do), rugby, skating and skateboarding, tennis and track & field. There are leagues in baseball, basketball, flag football, soccer, softball and volleyball, and clinics also in field hockey and roller hockey in addition to the league sports.
There is also a huge, continuing swimming program, including teams in swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo. There are smaller programs in kayaking and surfing.
Among the “Signature” programs are instruction in archery, boxing, climbing, equestrian, fencing, karate, table tennis and triathlon.
The Recreation and Parks Department tracks participation in the programs and reports that the effort has increased city-wide:
“Using FY2018-19 as our baseline, RAP had 148,274 youth participant enrollments in YSP programs at recreation and aquatic sites during that fiscal year. RAP’s projection for FY2024-25 is 217,769 youth participant enrollments, an increase of 47% over the baseline.”
That would be a substantial increase over the 2022-23 total of 176,596 participants; no report was available for the recently-completed 2023-24 fiscal year.
The original funding plan from LA28 to the Recreation and Parks Department was for $6.4 million in the first half of 2020 and then $19.2 million annually from 2020-21 through 2027-28. The projection at the end of the 2024-25 program year was that $60.1 million would be left for the final three years of the program.
Even with the request for $30.54 million for 2024-25, the LA28 funding commitment will still have $84.84 million remaining, still well behind the original funding schedule.
~ Rich Perelman
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