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Title:
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Review of Field Allocations and Tournaments
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Title
Review of Field Allocations and Tournaments
Description
This report provides information regarding Parks and Recreation Department field allocations, field reservations, and tournaments; and requests guidance from the City Council on whether to continue, modify or cancel field allocations and reservations, including the tournaments scheduled for City Parks fields, during a time of increased COVID-19 exposure in Phoenix.
Report
Summary
As a result of the City Council’s COVID-19 pandemic emergency declaration on April 2, 2020, the Parks and Recreation Department closed the use of certain park amenities including athletic fields.
On Sept. 2, 2020, with improved pandemic conditions indicated by the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) Community Spread Benchmark (Attachment A), the City Council approved partial restoration of Parks and Recreation services. Service restoration included reopening athletic fields and associated restrooms, allowing tournaments on City Parks fields with COVID-19 prevention plans in place by league directors and tournament organizers. Athletic field use also includes field allocations and reservations for local leagues, team practices and games.
Tournaments and leagues were required to follow new COVID-19 safety guidelines, which included:
Teams and organizations must follow CDC guidelines and Parks and Recreation restrictions.
Teams and organizations must commit to informing parents and coaches of those guidelines.
Spectators, officials, and coaches must wear a mask or face covering at all times.
Athletes not playing on the field are required to wear a mask or face covering and maintain six feet of physical distancing.
Physical distancing is encouraged among participants unless they are from the same household.
There will be six feet of space maintained between the sports field and spectator area.
City staff will implement modified allocation schedules, to include time for any necessary cleaning between use and to reduce the potential for crowding.
Each team or organization will agree to self-monitor their practices and games.
Each team or organization will agree to have an on-site compliance person who will work with on-site City staff.
Organizers are required to submit their own COVID safety plans to the Parks and Recreation Department, which are also distributed to their participants.
As shown in Attachment A, as of the Nov. 19, 2020 report on AZDHS Community Spread Benchmark indicated COVID-19 positivity rates in Phoenix at 10.2 percent, which is in the Substantial Risk category, as well as significant increases in cases per 100,000 since September.
Given the change in AZDHS COVID benchmarks, staff is seeking City Council guidance on continuation of field allocations, field reservations, and tournaments for youth and adult play.
For reference, there are currently 30 soccer and softball tournaments scheduled from December 2020 to February 2021. The major tournaments for this timeframe at Rose Mofford and Reach 11 complexes are detailed in Attachment B. Those tournaments consist of nearly 4,000 teams, of which nearly 1,900 are from outside of Arizona. (There are also many tournaments already scheduled for March and later.) Tournaments with out-of-state teams particularly involve lead time for logistics, lodging and travel by participants. Changes to the field allocation should be done with as much lead time as possible, while also recognizing the need to keep participants and the community safe during a pandemic.
Given the AZDHS benchmarks of Community Spread shown in Attachment A, staff recommends considering the following options beyond the status quo:
Maintain field allocations/reservations and tournaments as currently scheduled, while requiring stringent limitations to mitigate COVID spread, including not allowing spectators and allowing only in-state teams until AZDHS benchmarks return to Sept. 6, 2020 levels. Between December 2020 and February 2021, the in-state-only approach would affect 22 tournaments with approximately 1,900 out-of-state teams.
Cancel all field allocations/reservations effective Dec. 3, 2020 (30 tournaments/3,984 teams cancelled from December 2020 through February 2021 as well as many practices and league games) and allow no use until benchmarks return to the Sept. 6, 2020, level.
Staff will provide to the City Council a weekly update of AZDHS benchmarks in Attachment A.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Inger Erickson and the Parks and Recreation Department.