Last year, the city of Petal’s budget received $10,000 from the Petal Sports Association to assist with projects and activities associated with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
This year, as a result of adding football and the number of increased basketball registrations under a partnership between Petal Youth Sports Association and Petal Sports Association, that number has doubled to approximately $20,000. And although those funds won’t chance the Parks and Recreation Department’s current budget, it will help in future budgets and improvements.
“We can say, ‘Hey, we brought in this much now,’ so maybe we can do some more improvements,” department director Brian Hall said. “They guesstimate between not just that, but everything that brings revenue into the city – that’s what they base the year’s budget off of.
“So if something happens to bring in a little bit more, then next year it gives me a little bit more of a leg to stand on. We can say we brought in so many more thousands of dollars than what we thought we were going to bring in, and we can maybe use that toward whatever projects we have going on.”
As a result of the partnership, all the city-sponsored sports activities or now listed on the Petal Sports Association’s website at www.petalsportsassociation.com to make finding information easier for residents. The site features access to registration, an events calendar, field information, a master schedule and a feedback option.
“With it all being on one website now, I think a lot of (increased interest) has to do with the ease of it,” Hall said. “Plus, everybody gets the messages from one site when registration is open for all the different sports.
“So I think that helps, because you have a lot of kids that’ll play numerous sports now that might not have before, because your football player may not have known when baseball registration started. Same as basketball – basketball has about 283 (players) now, and I want to say the most it’s ever had was 180.”
