Practice Fields and Indoor Practice

The youth league I was involved with for many years solved thier practice problem this way. We approached the schools with the offer to upgrade the fields with clay and other items. The schools then signed a contract with our league giving our teams control of the fields for practice. Other league teams could use the facility only if we were not. In our area LL, PONY, soccer etc really scramble for practice spots The other leagues would howl about how unfair this was, but when given the chance they never came through with the requested upgrades. So it was no accident that our league of 900 (baseball only) had all the fields. The other key was to have a contact that the principals could call if any problems arose. The local LL were so busy fighting each other and having poor business practices (so they never had any money for field development) that they couldn't develop the key relationships with the schools. It took a strong committment by the board to make this work. Our board entered each season with money in the bank The registration fees were the same as LL but it included individual& team picture,individual trophy for each player and 2 paid umpires for each game. When I left the Board we had a reserve fund in the high 5 figures (when I joined it was almost broke).