Deal finally approved between city and soccer group for Fields for Kids
Stability for another 10 years for the group renting soccer fields from La Crosse.
Thursday night, the La Crosse city council approved a new lease arrangement with Rush Wisconsin West for Field for Kids in the marsh.
The 10-year agreement was hammered out after months of negotiations and is a much more specific arrangement than the two sides were operating under before.
The new agreement allows Rush to charge for parking and concessions for certain events and to lease out the fields to third parties.
Until now, the fields had been leased for a $1 a year since 1997.
The new agreement has the soccer group paying $4,000 for the first year of the 10-year lease.
It will pay $5,000 in year two and $7,000 a year after that.
The agreement also forgives $42,000 the city claimed it was owed for Rush illegally charging for parking — something it can do now under some circumstances in the new lease.
