The small Keizer ballpark largely built by volunteers is about to become a $1 million-a-year enterprise promising to draw thousands to the city, fill hotel rooms and pump money into Keizer’s economy.

The Keizer City Council on Monday, Jan. 5, approved a deal to turn over management of the Keizer Little League Park almost immediately to a Florida company.

The contract with The Sports Facilities Companies “guarantees that the city will not lose money and that the revenues brought in by the facility will cover all expenses,” according to a report to the council by City Manager Adam Brown.

The final vote came in one of the longest council meetings in recent times as a split council initially voted to postpone any decision.

That would likely have sent a major tournament operator out of town for the year and disrupted local youth sports operations.

At the last hour, three councilors changed their minds, voting to approve the contract.

They acted after hearing about the imminent departure of the tournaments and estimates that a revived ball complex would bring in $10 million into Keizer’s economy.

The new operator projects revenues at the Little League park will skyrocket in just one year. 

In 2024, the city-owned park generated $109,000 from field fees, concessions and sponsorships.

Sports Facilities projects revenue will $825,000 in the first year and in five years be edging close to $1 million.

“We are very excited to partner with the city. The complex has incredible potential to serve the community,” said Jason Clement, founder and CEO of Sports Facilities.

The Keizer complex is one of the largest multi-field ball parks in Oregon. Situated not far from the Keizer freeway interchange, the site is considered ideal for tournaments.

Keizer youth teams will still use the fields for softball and baseball play, but the new operators expect to build field rentals rapidly. Out-of-the-area users will pay higher fees than local teams, according to the contract.

Under the arrangement, Sports Facilities will be in charge of the park day-to-day. That means maintaining the fields, repairing buildings and more, running concessions and marketing the complex for new users and for new sponsors.

Volunteers managed the park for years, until city officials in 2020 decided such an informal arrangement no longer worked. They contracted with For Love of The Game, a nonprofit set up by the Walker family, which owns the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes franchise.

The Walkers have agreed to step aside from their contract that was to have run for 10 years.

Now, the new company will get a cut of nearly every dollar brought in, according to the contract.

Its compensation starts with a monthly fee of $16,500 – nearly $200,000 a year. That money is to come from park revenue, not the city’s budget.

The company also will get 20% of sponsorships sold. In 2024, For Love of the Game reported $2,150 in such revenue. Sports Facilities calculates it will raise $56,250 in sponsorships such as field naming rights and those are projected to increase to $75,000 a year in five years.

And when the park turns a profit, Sports Facilities will get a share. The contract calls for the city to give the company 15% of any monthly profits, described as an incentive for the company to do well managing the Keizer complex.

But that profit sharing comes with a condition. Under the new arrangement, the city will put up $145,000 to cover initial park operating costs. About $25,000 would be used to buy needed equipment for concession and business operations, according to the company.

Brown said that $145,000 would be repaid by all of the initial profits first before the profit-sharing deal kicks in. Based on Sports Facilities projections, the city’s initial funding would be repaid within three years.

After that, Brown said, the city intends to use its share of profits to invest in improvements to the park.

The biggest source of money for the park will continue to be concessions and that is projected to grow substantially. 

In 2024, the park generated $58,333 in concessions. Sports Facilities expects that to climb to $429,0003 in its first year operating in Keizer.

Sports Facilities also expects the park to get rebates from local hotels, modest revenue from retail sales and nearly $100,000 in “gate fees.” Those would be admissions charged to those attending tournaments, not local team play, according to Billy Hilliard, Sports Facilities regional vice president.

Brown said in his report that the new management “is expected to provide additional transient lodging tax at our local hotels and additional commerce at our local businesses.”

The deal ordered by the city council last October nearly stalled Monday night.

Hilliard and Mike Higgins, Sports Facilities regional general manager, had arrived expecting to celebrate a done deal.

So did agents of Keizer Little League and McNary Youth Baseball.

But Councilor Lore Christopher led the charge to stop the deal, at least temporarily.

She won the support of Councilors Soraida Cross, Kyle Juran and Shaney Starr to defer a decision, instead calling for a special council work session. Mayor Cathy Clark and Councilors Marlene Parsons and Dan Kohler voted against delaying.

Christopher said she had too many questions to advance the change in management. She said the Sports Facilities’ proposal was not expected, saying she never envisioned the city would pay a $17,000 monthly fee to manage one 14-acre city park.

“I don’t want to listen to the staff report,” Christopher said. “I don’t think there are four votes for this contract.”

Christopher didn’t explain how she anticipated the votes of other councilors.

Brown warned that the council had perhaps two weeks to decide.

“After that, we’ve passed the time to be able to make this decision,” he said. “It’s too late in the season.”

Supporters seemed stunned by the council’s initial vote.

“I’m honestly very disappointed,” said Will Johnson, president of McNary Youth Baseball. He said delay would cause “irreparable harm.”

He reminded councilors they had asked many questions of Sports Facilities officials before voting Oct. 6 to negotiate a contract.

“Everyone was loving this,” Johnson said. “Everybody wanted to move forward.”

Shannon Moore, Keizer Little League president, said she backed Johnson’s remarks. She said the council’s action was “putting all of these organizations into a very difficult situation” with uncertainty for the approaching season over fees, schedules and more.

Todd Walling operates OG Sports, which organizes baseball and softball tournaments.

He said he had already taken steps to put on tournaments involving approximately 1,000 teams at the Keizer park. He told councilors he was being courted by another city for that business and he had advised officials there he would have an answer after the Keizer council meeting.

“I can’t continue to wait longer,” Walling said.

The loss of that business for Keizer appeared to be a factor in the council’s decision to go ahead.

Felicia Guptill, the youth councilor who acts but does not vote with the council, quizzed Walling late in the meeting. She asked him directly if he was pulling his tournaments if the council delayed the park deal.

“I’ve already been sending a text to a coworker” about such a move, he replied.

Getting the contract back on the rails took several procedural steps late in the night.

First came a vote to reconsider the earlier decision to postpone action, proposed by Cross, that passed with Christopher and Juran voting no.

Then the council took a second vote on whether to postpone action on the contract.

This time, the vote was 6-1 with Christopher alone in her opposition.

The last vote approved the contract. Christopher was the lone vote in opposition.