Little League Fears Crumbling Snack Bar Will Sink Season

Parents and children are hoping the city will step in to remodel the sinking structure

A Southern California Little League is hoping their young athletes can keep playing, even though a significant source of their revenue is sinking.

Situated atop a landfill, the snack bar at the Elysian Park baseball fields is sinking sideways and while recent rains did not appear to cause further damage, league officials are worried the structure may not last through the season.

Coaches and parents said even though officials have been responsive to their concerns, fixing the structure has been on the city's backburner for years.

Calls for comment to the City of Los Angeles were not returned by the time of publication.

The snack bar in central Los Angeles is leaning well past a foot now, and the boards are visibly cracking. The president of the Northeast Los Angeles Little League, Sergio Villasenor, said he has been tracking the lean for years. Villasenor told NBC4 that it’s not just shifting after the rain.

"Sometimes when we’re out here late, you can hear the cracking," Villasenor said.

Sales from the slanting snack bar help fund the Little League, and the proceeds pay for the umpires so the organization can hold games. Without that revenue, 300 to 400 children would have to find a new field to play ball, parents said.

"This is our home field so by us losing this field we need to go through a lot of obstacles," said Gus Pelayo, baseball coach at Cathedral High School.

The coaches hope the snack bar will stay open until at least June so that they can finish the season. In the long run, they hope the city will step up to the plate.

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