Free sports field allocation policy template

1. Purpose and scope

This policy sets out how [League or club name] divides the practice field time it holds for the [season] season among its teams and divisions. The board approves it before the schedule is built and publishes it to every family.

It covers practice time on fields and on [batting cages, bullpens or other practice areas]. Game fields are scheduled by [league or scheduler].

Where a field permit, the field owner's rules, a municipal allocation policy, a league or [governing body] sets a rule, that rule comes first.

2. Who is responsible

• The board approves this policy and any change to it.
• The field coordinator, [name or role], lists the fields, publishes each team's share and the pick order, runs the turns and keeps the record.
• Each team's coach or manager picks for the team when its turn opens.

3. The fields we divide

Practice time is counted in field-hours: one field for one hour.

Before teams pick, the field coordinator lists every field and block in Appendix B: the site and field, its size or type, whether it has lights, the day, the start, the length, the date range, and anything the block is reserved for.

Prime time is [define it, for example weeknights from (time) to (time) and weekend mornings]. All other time is non-prime.

These come off the top before teams pick: [games, tournaments, evaluations, clinics, field maintenance, time other programs hold]. What remains is the practice pool this policy divides.

Guidance: Use the times your permit or agreement allows, not the hours the field is open. List any blocks the field owner, a school or another program holds, so nobody picks them.

4. Which teams can use which fields

Each division practices only on the fields listed for it in Appendix A. A field is listed for a division when its [size, base paths, pitching distance, mound or fences] suit that division's play.

Divisions that can use the same fields pick in the same sign-up. A division with fields of its own picks separately.

Guidance: Check your league's rulebook for field dimensions by age before you fill in Appendix A.

5. Each team's share

Each team's share of the practice pool is set by one method. Choose one and delete the others:

• Equal blocks. Every team gets [number] practices of [length] a week.
• Equal within a division. Every team in a division gets the same field-hours a week. The hours for each division are in Appendix A.
• Weighted by division. Each division has a weight in Appendix A, and field-hours follow the weights.
• Base plus extra. Every team gets at least [number] field-hours a week, rounded up to whole blocks. The remaining time is shared [by the weights in Appendix A / by request, decided by (role)].

Guidance: If you weight by division, write the reason for each weight here. The weights are the policy.

Prime and non-prime time. Choose one:

• Separate shares. Each team's share is set separately for prime and non-prime time.
• Picked in turns, with a cap. Prime and non-prime time are picked in the same turns, and each team may hold up to [number] prime blocks a week. A team at that limit picks non-prime time.

Guidance: An equal count is not equal value: a lit evening block is worth more than an afternoon on a wet field. How prime time is shared settles most of the difference.

Shares are counted in whole blocks. When a share doesn't divide into whole blocks, [it rounds down / a team may go over its share by up to one block]. A minimum under Base plus extra always rounds up.

If the fields a division can use can't cover every team's full share, [every team in that division gives up the same proportion / (your rule)]. Under Base plus extra, the extra time is cut first, and a minimum is cut only when no extra time is left.

The field coordinator publishes each team's share, and the arithmetic behind it, before teams pick.

6. Lights and early-season dark

Fields with lights: [fields]. Fields without lights can't be used after [time, or sunset] until [date].

Unlit evening blocks are listed with the weeks they can be used, not as season-long blocks.

Lit evening blocks. Choose one:

• To older divisions. Lit evening blocks go only to [divisions], which practice later, and count toward their prime time under section 5. Younger divisions take daylight blocks.
• Shared as prime time. Lit evening blocks are prime time and are shared under section 5.

When an unlit evening block can be used later in the season. Choose one:

• Kept. The team that holds that weekly time keeps it for the weeks it can be used.
• Back to the pool. The weeks it can now be used return to the pool and are offered in pick order.

7. Partial fields, cages and bullpens

These fields may be split into parts: [field, and its parts, for example infield and outfield, or two halves]. These divisions may practice on part of a field: [divisions].

• Time on part of a field counts as part of a field-hour: [the share each part counts as, for example half].
• Booking the whole field makes every part unavailable at that time, and booking any part makes the whole field unavailable.
• Which activities may run on two parts of one field at the same time is a safety rule, set by [role]: [rule].
• [Batting cages, bullpens or other practice areas] are picked [in their own blocks of (minutes) / with the field they belong to].
• Two teams practicing together on one field is one booking that appears on both teams' schedules. It counts toward [each team's share in full / half of each team's share].

8. Weather, field closures and makeups

[Name or role, or the field owner] decides when a field is closed, by [time] on the day, and posts it on [channel]. Coaches do not open or close fields themselves.

Teams follow the field owner's rules on wet fields, field preparation and closing times.

A rained-out practice. Choose one:

• Lost. A rained-out practice is not made up.
• Makeup pool, in order. Open blocks go into a makeup pool, and rained-out teams pick from it in [the season's pick order / order of practices lost].
• Swaps. Coaches may swap blocks through the field coordinator, who records each swap.

Makeup time is never offered first come, first served.

When a game moves onto a practice block, [how the practice is moved or made up].

9. Pick order and turns

The pick order is set by [division / program / in-season teams first / a rotation from last season / a draw held in public on (date)] and published before any team picks. Ties are broken by [rule], decided before anyone knows who it helps.

Guidance: Whether travel or recreational teams pick first is a decision for the board. Write the reason down with the order.

• Each team takes one block per round. Each later round runs [in reverse order / in the same order].
• Rounds continue until every team has its share or no block it can use is left. A team that has its share stops picking.
• When its turn opens, a team chooses from the blocks still open on the fields it can use. No team picks before its turn.
• Each turn lasts [length of time].
• If a team misses its turn, the next team's turn opens. The team that missed [stays eligible and picks from what is left when it returns / moves to the end of the round].

10. Changes after the schedule is published

• Swaps between teams need the field coordinator's approval and are recorded with the date.
• Time a team gives back returns to the pool and is offered [in pick order / to (who)].
• If the field owner cancels or takes back a block, [how replacement time is offered].

11. Publishing and records

• Before teams pick, the [league or club] publishes this policy, Appendices A and B, each team's share and the pick order on [website or channel].
• The field coordinator keeps a record of every pick, swap, closure and makeup, with the date.
• The finished schedule goes to coaches and families by [date], through [channel].

12. Questions and appeals

• Questions about the schedule go to [the field coordinator's contact].
• An appeal goes in writing to [board role] within [number] days of the schedule being published. The board answers within [number] days.

13. Review

The board reviews this policy every year by [date], using the season's record, including closures and makeups, and what coaches and families raised.

Appendix A: Divisions, fields and hours

Appendix B: Fields and permitted time