High School Budget Activity - Aaron Crouse, Marc Horwitz, & Geoff Roberts

Budget issues are amongst some of the greatest concerns in the athletic director’s dilemma.  Attempting to fund each sport while not having to cut equipment, travel, or even entire programs can be quite a daunting task.  In the athletic budget assignment, our group was challenged with creating an allocation of funds that could support a total of 17 men’s and women’s teams that needed to secure a total of $151,350 in order to meet minimum standards.  We were given a starting budget of $120,000 along with a donation of $20,000 from a former football player.  Fundraising opportunities were available for four teams offering $60 per every player on the team.  Our goal was to not cut any programs and to be able to provide for the basic needs plus some extra incentives for most teams.

We began by holding fundraisers for the top four in terms of participants.  Through this we accumulated a total of $15,300 ($4,500 from football, $3,900 from women’s track and field, $3600 from swim and dive, and $3,300 from men’s track and field).  Since all of the money in this assignment was going to be pooled into one general athletic fund rather than allocated to the individual teams that held the fundraisers, it made the most sense to fundraise using strength in numbers.  In a true athletic high school setting, most individual team fundraisers only go to supporting that specific team while an athletic or school booster club will handle any other extra funds.  After fundraisers, our total budget was increased to $155,300.

In order to fund every sport and provide extra benefits, we decided to impose a pay-to-participate fee of $100 for every student who was on an athletic team.  With a total of 459 athletes at the school, this created another $45,900 of available funds. We also decided to charge extra fees for hockey, skiing, and swimming because those sports required athletic facilities that were not present or maintained by the school.  It was decided that the school would cover half of the total cost for these outside venues and the other half would be picked up by the team.  In the end, hockey players were charged an additional $200 each (Ice Time was $10,000/2= $5,000…$5,000/25 players = $200), skiers were charged $20 extra (Season Lift Tickets were $1,000/2= $500...$500/24 skiers= $20), and swimmers added $40 to their cost (Pool Rental was $5,000/2= $2,500…$2,500/40 swimmers = $40).  Pay-to-participate and outside facility rental fees added a total of $53,000 to the budget.  These types of fees are becoming much more common in high school athletics.  As state and local tax funding is continuing to be cut, athletic programs have needed to find ways to keep programs up and running.  Overall, we feel this is a very fair tactic.  Athletes who do not participate in high school athletics will more than likely be paying more than $100 to play on travel, AAU, or even recreation league programs.  While most athletic facilities were present at the school, it is important to remember that even these require some maintenance and necessary utilities.  Even for the sports paying extra fees, these prices are still very reasonable.  Each of us (being hockey players) can promise that paying $500 for an entire season including practice and game ice each day is an incredible bargain.  For those who argue that less fortunate families may have trouble in paying these fees, most schools have a system set up where families can pay in an installment play and that any child eligible for a free or reduced lunch program is also offered the same type of deal for athletic participation.  While schools would like to avoid pay-to-participate fees, it is becoming an inevitable practice in many districts. 

After our initial budget, donation, fundraising, and pay-to-participate collection we had a budget total of $209,080.  After paying for each of the mandatory items (totaling $151,350) we were left with a surplus of $57,730 with which to improve our program (in a side note, we would like to add we allocated that entire $20,000 donation to purchasing the mandatory football dummies since the donor was a former football player). Our goal with this leftover cash was to try and help out as many teams as possible while also giving extra precedents to teams who helped fundraise.

We spent our remaining budget on resurfacing the men’s and women’s basketball court for $15,000 (more than likely volleyball also plays on this surface), purchasing new football helmets for $6,000, buying new track and field equipment for both the men’s and women’s teams for $13,000, sending both the men’s baseball and women’s softball teams to tournaments for $20,000, and purchasing new jerseys/suits for swimming and volleyball for $3,000.  In the end we had $730 left over to be attributed to future expenses.  The only items that did not get purchased from the list were new jerseys for men and women’s soccer, hockey jerseys, and the skiing training in Colorado (because we considered this to be an extra training camp not associated with the school).  We decided to take care of football, track and field, and swimming first and foremost because they helped in adding extra fundraising money that other teams did not.  In resurfacing the court, we were able to help out both basketball teams and volleyball in one expense.  We figured that jerseys and suits would be purchased on a rotating basis.  Most schools give teams new jerseys in rotating 3-year cycles so that each class at the high school receives new jerseys at least once during their careers.  No sports ended up being cut or short-changed and we were able to provide for the extra needs of our athletes without harming other sports or imposing unreasonable fees.

At no point was team conference standing considering when allocating our athletic budget.  Unlike in professional and collegiate sports, high school should not be about winning at all costs.  As long as a coach and program is developing successful student athletes and teaching proper sportsmanship and skills, results are not as important.  A high school athletic program should be about providing opportunities for students to engage in an extracurricular competitive environment.  Athletics should be seen as a privilege for those who succeed academically and help out within the community rather than a right given to purely gifted athletes.  A successful high school athletic program is able to develop student athletes by promoting high standards of academic excellence, character, and citizenship and we took this into a higher consideration than winning and team record when preparing our budget.