The fee for kids to play organized football at the Southwest Recreation Complex this fall will be 25 times higher than just two years ago.

That's a tall crossbeam to clear for the Southwest Athletic Club, a football league for West Seattle and White Center kids ages 7 to 14. About 230 kids participate, including two girls. The club runs a concession stand at the recreation complex to make money to pay for uniforms and equipment for many of the low-income players as well as fees for the facilities.

"We figured there's a possibility it (user fee) could go up a little," said Dawn Longo, president of the Southwest Athletic Club. After all, the fee more than doubled last year, going from less than $200 to $575.

Longo became suspicious when Seattle Parks and Recreation officials put her off, she said, when she asked how much the field fees would be this year.

"August 1 we go on the field," she said. "Usually the fee is paid by March."

The young gridders play at Southwest Recreation Complex from August to October for practices and four regular season games. If they're good enough, there can be post-season playoffs.

Seattle Parks and Recreation manages the Southwest Recreation Complex as well as the other three district recreation complexes in Seattle. However the facilities are owned by Seattle Public Schools. Denny Middle School is next door to the Southwest Recreation Complex and Chief Sealth High School is right across Thistle Street.

The school district charges $500 to use the field and that fee has not increased, said Peter Daniels, Seattle Public Schools spokesman. He pointed out that the school district spent $300,000 on the recreation complex.

Faced with budget shortfalls of its own, Seattle Public Schools stopped paying the power bill for electricity to light the playfields at night. The school district had been paying about $27,000 annually to light up the Southwest Recreation Complex and the three other similar facilities around the city. Now that cost will be passed on to field users such as the Southwest Athletic Club.

Seattle Public Schools charges a light fee of $20 per hour. The Southwest Athletic Club is budgeted for 50 hours of field lighting from August through October, Potter said.

"We don't even use the lights," Longo said. Southwest Athletic Club teams schedule their practices for 5 to 7 p.m., she said.

Besides lighting, another expense for organizations using the Southwest Recreation Complex is manpower.

Seattle Public Schools requires that Seattle Parks and Recreation have an employee on duty whenever the recreation complex is open. That's an average cost of $17 an hour, Potter said. If Seattle Public Schools hired people to run the recreation complex, it would likely cost more than that, Daniels said.

To defray some of that cost, Seattle Parks and Recreation charges youth sports organizations $2 per hour for use of the field for practices and $4 an hour for games.

The Southwest Athletic Club has been around since 1953. It's already in financial difficulties because some of its tried and true fund-raising techniques no longer work.

For example, the club ran a bingo hall in White Center for about 30 years until legalization of gambling on and off the reservation diverted bingo players to casinos. The group's bingo hall closed a few years ago.

The club operated a seasonal fireworks stand for a few years but that was eliminated after King County imposed new restrictions on fireworks.

The main fund-raising activity now is the concession stand the club runs during games at the Southwest Recreation Complex. Volunteers bake cookies, brownies and other munchables to sell.

"I can't imagine why they want to put an athletic association at risk," Longo said.

She is concerned too about the effect this could have on the kids. It could be an opportunity to show them how the club overcomes an unexpected challenge. She hopes the challenge doesn't best the club however.

Seattle Parks and Recreation acknowledged it did not provide the Southwest Athletic Club adequate advanced notice of the fee increase, Potter said. The department also regretted the curt tone of its communications with the club, she said.

The parks department scheduled a meeting July 6 to try and convince the school district to drop the requirement there be a Seattle Parks and Recreation employee on duty at all times. Potter said youth athletic leagues always have adult supervision anyway. Another option could be to assign volunteers to oversee activities at the complex, she said.

Officials from the parks department plan to meet July 6 with school district officials to discuss ways to lower fees, Potter said.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932-0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com