ORANGE BEACH – The establishment of a schedule of fees for the Orange Beach Sportsplex field and equipment rentals was approved at the March 18 city council meeting.

The city's sportsplex, located at 4389 William Silvers Parkway, has nine baseball/softball fields, two football/soccer fields, one multi-purpose field as well as a three-court sand volleyball area, as detailed in the city's website.

"The Sportsplex is regularly used for youth sports, Orange Beach Middle/High School athletics and tournaments in the area," the website reads. "The Sportsplex is also a popular site for adult sports activities and tournaments with players from throughout the southeast."

Ford Handley, the city's administrator and financial director, said the city has tried to amend citywide rates at places like the sportsplex and the Coastal Arts Center. He said there's no "major changes" in costs from what is currently being charged.

"We went around and basically looked at what other sportsplexes are charging and modified that," Handley said. "We're not the highest but we're not the lowest. We're not out there to make money on any of our facilities."

He mentioned how the rate resolution is being put in place "to provide great services" for the Orange Beach residents and visitors who use the sportsplex, art center and other city buildings.

Currently, the Orange Beach city website does not detail a schedule of fees for field or equipment rentals at the sportsplex. It does, however, list what the cost of field rent is dependent on.

The factors for an organization to rent out a field or fields include but are not limited to the time of year the request is made, the city an organization or team will be staying in while playing at the sportsplex and the amount of time/days required for use of the fields.

It does list certain items that are not allowed during tournaments such as personal coolers, alcoholic beverages, generators, pop-up tents with stakes longer than eight inches, golf carts, skateboards, scooters and bicycles.

Some of these items, such as coolers, large tents and golf carts are available for rent from the sportsplex, as detailed in the resolution document in the council agenda.

The resolution document states the rental fees will be required for the use of "fields and supplementary equipment items." The document also details the amounts for rental fees.

Use of the baseball/softball fields will be $300 per field, per day. The stadium for baseball/softball will be $2,000 per day.

Soccer/Multipurpose stadium access will be $500 for the field only and $1,500 with paint, each per day. The sand volleyball courts are set to be $100 per court, per day.

For add-on rentals (per day), one chair is set for $3, tables $10 each, a 10'x10' tent will be $100, a 16'x16' tent will be $200, ATV and golf cart rentals will be $30 each, barricades are to be $50 for a set of 10, cooler rentals for $20 each and field conditioner will be available for $650 per pallet.

This resolution immediately went into effect after it received unanimous council approval at the March 18 meeting.