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‘We Should Be Able To Do Better’: Officials Flag Sharply Rising, High Costs of Youth Basketball Program
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Concerned about planned cost increases to New Canaan’s only youth basketball program—already the most expensive in the area, prohibitively so for many families—officials said Monday night they hope to address rising gym rental fees at Saxe Middle School, which have doubled in three years. In reviewing a financial breakdown from the New Canaan Basketball Association, officials with the town’s Youth Sports Committee said they were surprised by and concerned about rental fees at Saxe that have jumped from $16,000 in 2012 to $32,000 last year—and, as a result, pushed the 5-month program’s per-player cost from $780 (with uniforms) to what likely will be about $980 next year. “I am having difficulty with this,” committee member Sally Campbell said during the group’s meeting, held in Lapham Community Center. While field sports pay a $20 per-player fields usage fee to the town, basketball’s gym rental cost is more than 12 times that amount on a per-player basis. “I feel that our outdoor sports—lacrosse, soccer and so on—they have access to our fields, and a town resource, and they do not have to pay anything and this is a similar program and I think somehow we should be able to do better.