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With interest in recreational sports exploding, league and club operators say they are also struggling to get enough field time. The Parks Department permitted nearly 224,000 reservations for organized sports on public athletic fields last year, about 50% more than a decade ago, according to permit data analyzed by The City Reporter and data visualization site The Pudding.
The proliferation of recreational leagues and sports clinics has sometimes pitted older neighborhood teams against new entrants in a contest for field time.
“Before, no one wanted this park. It was in bad conditions,” says Hector Perez, who moved to East Williamsburg from Puerto Rico as a kid and plays softball in the 55-and-up Los Abuelos league at Sternberg Park. “And now, after the neighborhood’s been gentrified, everybody wants to play here. But we’ve been here the longest.”
Tarek Pertew, founder and CEO of NYC Footy, the largest adult recreational soccer league and for-profit permit holder in the city, says permitting “remains the single most frustrating aspect of this job.” He says his waitlist of potential teams continues to grow as new permits take a long time to secure.
“COVID changed everything,” Pertew says. “There was this very natural biological reaction for people that wanted a physical and mental outlet with a social backdrop.”
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