Can a City limit access of a public facility to a select few?

[Jeffngail1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?IL
In the past years it has been common practice for some little league baseball teams to use a small city park field for extra practices. It has always been first come first serve. Now the city has put a lock on the field. HOWEVER, one of the Board of Trustee's has a son on a team that is NOT associated w/ the city. (A "club" Team) This Team has a key to the lock and may use it as they please. When asked we were told it was locked because they "treated" the field. (I'm assuming the Grass) However, the very next day the club team used it for practice and promptly locked it when they were finished. It is now pretty clear that it is locked so that it is ready for this one team to use as they please. Isn't this discriminating against the other teams, and the public who simply want to use it the way they have been able to in the past?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?IL
In the past years it has been common practice for some little league baseball teams to use a small city park field for extra practices. It has always been first come first serve. Now the city has put a lock on the field. HOWEVER, one of the Board of Trustee's has a son on a team that is NOT associated w/ the city. (A "club" Team) This Team has a key to the lock and may use it as they please. When asked we were told it was locked because they "treated" the field. (I'm assuming the Grass) However, the very next day the club team used it for practice and promptly locked it when they were finished. It is now pretty clear that it is locked so that it is ready for this one team to use as they please. Isn't this discriminating against the other teams, and the public who simply want to use it the way they have been able to in the past?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

**A: seems like politics or the old boy network.

 

[Jeffngail1]

Update! Please help fight the bullies!

Yes, definitely Politics. Today we called the city, who said "not just ANYBODY" can use the field, you need to be a team or a league. We informed her that this WAS for a team practice, she said we needed to contact the "director of parks and recreation" (in a town of about 1,300 people and 1 park LOL) Guess who the director is....the dad and assistant coach of the club team! Nice! SO we contact him and he says all scheduling has to be done by the League's Scheduler, who doesn't have anything to do with the park and only schedules practices and games for the park the league uses!
If they don't want the field (that is located in the center of the public city park) to stay open at all times, fine, but shouldn't any city resident who pays taxes be able to reserve it for reasonable purposes? Where can I look up laws about access to public facilities?