Washington D.C. is viewed as a national leader for parks. In 2024, it was named by Trust for Public Land as having the best big-city park system in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year. Twenty-four percent of District land is reserved for parks, among the highest in the country. The District also outperforms most of the U.S. in park-equity metrics among different races and ethnicities.

And yet no challenge associated with D.C. youth sports access seems to create more passionate debate than public fields and permitting.

“Despite historic investments in our parks, including $494 million in DPR’s six-year capital improvement plan, population growth in D.C. has led to a demand for facilities that outpaces current infrastructure,” said Paul Kihn, the city’s deputy mayor for education. “Spaces suitable for highly competitive, regionally and nationally ranked athletics programs with capacity for large numbers of spectators are especially limited. Additionally, there is an increase in demand for athletic facilities from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., when the academic day is over and when after- school programming occurs.”

In November 2024, field challenges were on display at a D.C. Council hearing on permitting, reflecting similar concerns we heard in speaking with coaches, parents and sports administrators. Dozens of sports providers testified over five hours, raising complaints about the inability to access unused fields, lack of maintenance on fields, DPR and DCPS permitting policies, costs associated with security fees to rent fields, and other concerns.

“I’m here to beg you — we’re out of space,” said Jon Wadsworth, commissioner of the youth sports organization Sports on the Hill and soccer coach of 16- to 19-year-olds. “I get 90 minutes on half a field once a week. It’s a crashing derby with 25 young men on that space. Younger teams have five or six teams on a field. … In 20 years, I’ve never had a full-field scrimmage. We’re out of room.”

Wadsworth gets most frustrated when he sees unused fields, but stopped asking schools how much their fields cost because they were too expensive due to security fees. “After two or three times, security wouldn’t show up,” he said. “You’re at the whims of whatever a principal says (if a school provides a permit).”

Rodney Cephas, director of athletics and mentoring at Beacon House, said he spends $22,000 a year to play four football games at high school fields — with the high cost largely due to security and maintenance fees. “We do need security,” Cephas said. “But we have to find a way so no organization jeopardizes future programming because of the hefty bill that we’ve been paying.”

Northeast Track Club founder Matthew Kesting said he pays $800 per two-hour session at school tracks, with $500 of that going to security fees. “We have no idea if they’re securing us or the facility,” he said. “It’s really a job one person can do, but (multiple people) kind of stand around and I’m not sure what they’re doing. "We also understand that a very small percentage of the permit fees go to the school and that bothers us. We want them to receive some money from these permits. That’s often a barrier to entry. They see a big group that wants to run there, they get very little money in permit fees, and often permits are denied.”

Field rentals through DPR cost even more. DPR increased security costs by $17,000 per day for youth football games due to spectator violence, DPR Director Thennie Freeman said. That covers six additional guards at each location to work games from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Unfortunately, we have to (spend more) to protect our residents and visitors at these events,” said Freeman, noting that private leagues that rent fields can charge admission to recoup costs.

Field maintenance is also a significant challenge with the D.C. Department of General Services (DGS), which is responsible for managing public buildings and assets, including fields. Sports providers gave numerous examples of maintenance problems at fields: urgent safety issues with baseball netting, uncut grass, missing pieces of turf, broken lights for over a year, locked restrooms, and challenges communicating with DPR and DGS to address issues.

“What I’ve observed in 25 years as a resident is there is a woeful lack of maintenance,” said Anne Corbett, founder of Go Play, which handles scheduling for The Fields at RFK and advocates for high-quality fields on the east side of D.C. “We invest hundreds of millions of dollars in DPR and DCPS sites for capital projects with no practical plan in place for maintenance when they’re designed. When I engage DGS on this issue, there are no technical experts there who understand what the specifications are for maintenance.”

Planning based on available fields and the permitting process are also sources of frustration. “If you have a week’s notice, that’s generous for planning,” said Greg Andrulis, executive director of DC Soccer Club, the largest youth sports provider in the District. “It’s not finger pointing. DPR is getting 55 phone calls a day regarding field space.”

DC Soccer Club enjoys historic use at some fields, as certain organizations are given the same fields they had the prior year. This helps DC Soccer Club schedule its 400 teams on 45 to 50 fields.

Organizations with historic-use agreements also invest their own money into field renovations and maintenance. For example, Capitol City League said it maintains its five historic-use fields at an estimated cost of $16,000 per year. The league also spent $25,000 over four years on field renovations and repairs, plus $50,000 to resod the fields.

However, historic use can be a barrier to access fields for new programs, said Michael Worden, executive director of Player Progression Academy, a youth soccer and basketball club serving about 4,000 families in the DMV area, about half of whom he said live in D.C.

“DPR and DCPS guidelines were developed about 10 years ago when the landscape of youth sports was different, and it’s outgrown the current guidelines,” Worden said. “It creates gridlock and heavier reliance on historical use. I think there are merits to historical use, but without limits this creates problems. There are great territorial monopolies where certain organizations have rights to the fields and because of the guidelines never have to relinquish those fields. Usage should be aligned with community use rather than legacy.”

Go Play, which contracts with Events DC to manage The Fields at RFK, created a permitting process in which 60% of field time is allocated to amateur sports organizations, 20% goes to community open play and 20% goes to special events, tournaments and other Events DC activities. The Fields at RFK issues permits by prioritizing youth sports (70% of permits) over adults (30%), as well as programs with participants from the zip codes surrounding the facility.

DPR and DCPS Permit Processes

Generally, permits are issued on a first-come, first-served basis. But to manage high demand for seasonal permits, DPR establishes four permit windows and prioritizes seasonal permitting requests in the following order. DCPS uses permit windows as well. Both agencies outline a similar priority order, with top priority given to their own activities.

DPR- or DCPS-sponsored activities
D.C. nonprofit partners recognized in a written agreement (DCPS does not specify that its partners with a written agreement must be nonprofits)
Athletic programs organized by DCPS, D.C. Public Charter Schools or the DCSAA for competitive league play (DPR notes this does not include intramurals)
Youth nonprofit organizations, including schools, principally serving D.C. residents
Adult nonprofit organizations principally serving D.C. residents
Other D.C. organizations, groups or individuals requesting private use.

Note: “Principally serving” requires 75% of participants to be D.C. residents.

Source: D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, District of Columbia Public Schools

Solutions

Explore policy changes to access more fields

In November 2024, D.C. Council member Charles Allen (Ward 6) introduced legislation designed to make it easier for youth sports leagues to secure permits for games and practices on city-owned fields. The Department of Parks and Recreation Field Priority Access Amendment Act proposes two approaches:

Standardize youth sports leagues under one umbrella and give them priority booking to access public fields in the early evenings and on weekends. The bill would reorder the priority for permitted use of recreational spaces, placing certified community-based youth sports organizations ahead of other nonprofit and private groups. To ensure that leagues are prioritized to serve D.C. youth, those that qualify for prioritized booking could not “cut” kids from participating and must offer ways to waive or lessen fees for families to participate. The goal would be prioritizing leagues that are most inclusive of all kids in the community.
Make DCPS outdoor fields more readily available rather than leaving them empty and unused behind a locked gate. The current permitting process is inefficient given the need for approval by multiple entities such as DCPS security, DCPS maintenance, DGS and school principals. Under the bill, DCPS must ensure its fields are still first and foremost available for school athletics use. “There are simply not many spaces available to build new fields, so we must increase access to the ones we already have,” Allen said.

Additionally, the bill would require DPR to provide lighting and maintenance support for these field uses and prohibit public schools from passing on associated staffing or security costs to the certified youth sports organizations.

Incentivize schools so they’re more willing to permit their space

It’s important to remember that schools want flexibility for their spaces, don’t always know when their spaces are available, and may have concerns about how their facilities are used by the general public. Schools need assurances they will receive permitting revenue for use of their fields or gyms.

The city could encourage principals to annually submit their field schedule, so the public knows when fields are unavailable, and release other dates to the public. It won’t be easy. There needs to be a greater benefit for schools, such as a larger share of the permit fees going directly to the permitted school. Additional revenue could support school sports or other extracurriculars.

Create a sports trade industry association to advocate for better access to facilities

Given the challenges to access facilities and programs, Go Play is building a coalition of local sports organizations for athletes of every age and skill level. The association aims to push for better facilities, smarter policies and more opportunities for D.C. residents to play.

“As an example, during COVID, we could get permission to go back to a restaurant and bar at 25% capacity to have a drink thanks to efforts by the D.C. restaurant association, but I couldn’t give a permit to someone to play soccer,” Corbett said. “The public safety issue of playing outside was unaddressed for many months. What needs to happen within the industry and the government is better dialogue of the role of sports and recreation for all residents.”

Create and fund long-term maintenance plans for fields

Investments in fields would benefit the public by including sustainable plans for enough funding and staff capacity to maintain them. Maintenance plans could include general repairs, lighting aeration, mowing, fertilizing, watering, seeding, weed and pest control and turf replacement.

“When we invest in a field, what’s the maintenance plan and the cost for that in the next 10 years?” said Katrina Owens, DC SCORES executive director. “We have amazing facilities in the city. How do we actually ensure we have the money to prioritize that? I don’t know that we’ve taken enough time doing that. It’s a massive undertaking for DGS. They’re fixing air conditioning in schools and also need to do maintenance on fields.”

Build a comprehensive sports permitting system

This is the ultimate dream and the hardest one to crack. Agencies may be unwilling to give up authority, legitimately fearing problems that could arise by having their spaces permitted without their knowledge or control.

The benefit of a comprehensive system is giving customers a one-stop shop for every public field, no matter who operates it. All of the rules could be the same. Any effort to create greater coherence could start in the mayor’s office, so that there’s a position of power overseeing what’s likely a very challenging project.

Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. Jon can be reached at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.