The intent of collaborating with both private and other public entities was to allow for increased delivery of recreational services by limiting the duplication of services and a seamless presentation of services to the end user.  By doing so, economies of scale were reached resulting in cost savings through out all organizations involved.

Recreation has always been a big part of life in Park City.  The City officially got into the recreation business in the mid 1970's.  A limited number of programs were offered to the area’s 4,000 residents.  Nearly all these residents lived in the City limits.  The area immediately adjacent to Park City is known as Snyderville Basin and consisted mostly of ranches and open space. 

In the early 1980's, Park City was growing and people wanted to play!  The City recognized that this trend would continue and began to prepare for the future. The first Parks Master Plan was developed and implemented resulting in the creation of the City’s first public park.

Adult recreation was the original focus of the Recreation Department with softball and basketball being the main sports.  In the middle 1980's, as the Park City area was experiencing a large amount of growth, two shifts took place that laid the ground work for collaboration between various entities.  The first was an increased demand for youth recreation.  As more families moved to the area, the need to provide recreational opportunities for the youth population grew.  The second shift came in the increased development of the Snyderville Basin.  This growth resulted in an increase of non-city residents participating in recreational programs and utilizing facilities in Park City.  As a result, the City and the County agreed to create the Western Summit County Youth Sports Program (WSCY).