Submitted by Alex Bittermann on
Dear Valued TUC Member,
As transparency is always extremely important for us, the purpose of this letter is to provide you with an expanded explanation behind the recently released 2017-2018 memberships, league fees and their associated costs.
As you might know, the price of field rentals in the City of Toronto continue to rise year over year. The TUC staff and Board of Directors are continually working hard to try to keep these fees manageable, and are also looking for additional cost effective venues to rent field time at. This said, you will no doubt notice some changes in your membership and league fees for 2017-2018.
In 2016 we were made aware that Razor Management Inc. (RMI) and Raizenne Inc. (RI) had received an annual property tax bill in the amount of $200,000 per each facility (Monarch Park Stadium and Central Tech Stadium). In addition, RMI/RI were also levied a three year back tax bill for Monarch Park Stadium, in the amount of $600,000. Mr. Raizenne (owner of RMI and RI) is currently appealing this decision by MPAC, while continuing to lobby the TDSB to provide him with a tax exemption status. As expected, all rental groups at Monarch Park Stadium and Central Tech Stadium are facing very substantial field rental increases beginning in 2017 and beyond. Due to the increased rental costs at all of our venues, we have had no choice but to raise league fees in 2017-2018. In some instances, the fee increases are substantial.
To help offset the extraordinary increase in field costs and prevent these league fees from being even higher, we have decided to use a portion of the Fields Fund contributions for this year to mitigate the overall impact to you, our valued member, as
the purpose of the Fields Fund is “to accumulate capital for future use to acquire, develop, maintain, improve, and otherwise support the Club’s ability to obtain playing fields”.
We do not anticipate substantial field cost increases again in 2018-2019, so this measure of using Fields Fund contributions would only be done in the 2017-2018 fiscal year (April to March).
We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
Thank you for your continued patronage.
If you require any further clarification, or have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Paul Buksner
Executive Director
Toronto Ultimate Club
P: 416-461-0662
E: ed@tuc.org