BUDA Annual Town Hall recap

Around sixty members came out to Central Square last Tuesday for the annual Town Hall — thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke up, and stayed for folding chairs and pizza.

The big topic, as always: fields. Permit costs across Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville rose again this year, and indoor turf for winter programming is up nearly 20% over two seasons. The board walked through the numbers behind the sliding scale and why the pay-it-forward tiers matter more every year. Short version: the model is healthy, but only because roughly a quarter of registrants choose tiers above full price. Thank you for that.

On the program side, the most-discussed proposal was adding a third SCL weeknight to ease field crowding, versus holding two nights and capping division sizes. Straw poll leaned toward holding at two nights for 2026 and revisiting with real waitlist data — which is what the board voted to do.

Youth came up repeatedly: eight towns now run BUDA youth programs, and the bottleneck is coaches, not kids. If you have ever thought about coaching, this is your sign.

Full minutes are posted in the documents section. The next open board meeting is in February; agenda requests to board@buda.org.