A year after Coronado raised fees for key recreation programs and made other policy changes, city officials say they’ve seen significant revenue increases and growing public participation.
Thanks to the changes, the Recreation and Golf Services department saw a 39% increase in cost recovery for fiscal year 2025.
A year ago, the city of Coronado updated its fee schedule and policies, including cost recovery for the recreation department, program discounts for residents and seniors and revised tennis and pickleball court reservation fees.
At a Nov. 18 meeting, recreation staffers provided an update on the department budget, and a public hearing is scheduled at the next council meeting on Dec. 2.
In 2024, the recreation department completed a sweeping review of recreation fees and facility-use policies – its first comprehensive evaluation since they were established in 1998. City Council approved the study in September last year.
The revisions took effect on Jan. 1.
Success in first year
According to the staff report, the first year of implementation showed success with the aquatics center experiencing the most notable growth, generating more than $85,000 in additional rental revenue.
Tennis court reservations were up 39% going from roughly 8,400 hours on the court to around 11,700 hours, and pickleball court reservations increased 112%, going from just under 3,800 hours to over 8,000 hours compared to the previous year.
Overall cost recovery for recreation and golf programs also improved, increasing from 35% in 2023 to a budgeted 38% for fiscal year 2026. Tim Farmer, director of Recreation and Golf Services is more optimistic.
We anticipate we will easily reach our 40% (goal) at year end.
Director of Recreation and Golf Services Tim Farmer
“We anticipate we will easily reach our 40% (goal) at year end,” Farmer said at the Nov. 18 meeting.
The city offers over 1,500 recreation classes, events and other programs for the community. A tier system was created to charge lower fees for programs that provide strong community benefits, such as swim lessons for children, and higher fees for specialized programs, such as museum bus trips.
Farmer noted that participation in the summer programs alone grew 16% from around 3,800 enrollees in 2024 to approximately 4,500 in 2025.
However, Farmer also said the city saw a slight downturn of enrollment in high-cost programs such as the Coronado Junior Arts League, where the nonresident fee was $160 more than residents, so the city decided to create a fee cap.
For seniors and residents, there will continue to be program discounts of up to 25%, plus a new, $50 cap for nonresident registration.
Those fee levels were established to ensure “high program participation while still providing the residents the discounted rates as well as priority access to our programs,” Farmer explained.
Tennis and pickleball court reservations
Tennis and pickleball court reservations became a focused topic of discussion last year as the city decided to more than double the fees it will collect from tennis players in Coronado under a new revenue-sharing structure. This brought some concerns from the community.
However, despite the increased fees, tennis and pickleball court reservations saw a dramatic increase with tennis use up almost 40% and pickleball use up more than 100% compared to the previous year. The only numbers that dropped were nonresident booked courts, which dropped 12%.
“The fees have not impacted negatively the court reservations,” Farmer said. “In fact, it’s been a benefit to the overall use.”
Farmer said he wasn’t able to pinpoint why there were so many more court reservations even though the fees increased exponentially, but that he is happy to see the increased utilization.
According to the staff report, Coronado’s recreation fee structure will be reviewed every five years.
