Baseball gate fees funding football team??

If all gate fees go into the general fund for sports, it should be not a problem, but if it just for football than the school administrator should be informed. I know that when my son was in H.S. playing baseball they did parking lot duty for football games and were paid out of football gate fees to offset transportation fees.

Not sure how the fees are dispersed , but parents and fans are charged a fee to attend games here in Hillsborough but kids and coaches get a school bus to and from certain away games depending on how far they travel . Other times kids drive or ride with parents or friends . Pretty sure all money is spent on baseball activities . Still cheaper than a pro game though , lol .

With the way the economy is I wouldnt be surprised if high schools start charging money if kids wanted to play/participate in certain after school activities.

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Originally posted by #22's dad:
With the way the economy is I wouldnt be surprised if high schools start charging money if kids wanted to play/participate in certain after school activities.

Start!!! Start??? In Massachusetts some schools charge up to almost $1,000 per season for football and hockey. Some are charging up to $500 for baseball.

Charging admission to Varisity sports is the norm in our area and not unusual for JV events.

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My issue is that the director is the football coach and he had told a player that these funds will be helping the football team with transportation funds.

Did you witness this conversation between the coach and player? I find it hard to believe a coach would be discussing financial business with a player. I'll guess somewhere along the way there has been general discussion on the cost of the football team that has filtered third hand to the public. When the baseball team started charging admission a sarcastic parent probably said it's to support the football team. Then a sarcastic assumption became a story.

I've been around high school sports as a parent for seven years. I was on the area youth sports board for fourteen years. I've heard a lot of erroneous stories of "inside" information. People like to think they have a scoop and spread it around.

I remember a saying from many years ago ... Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see. The other half is an illusion.

Usually if you do not hear it from the "horses mouth". it ain't true

At our school, there is a fee to play baseball. $400. Plus various fundraising activities. I'm pretty sure all that money goes directly to baseball. For all sports, there is a gate fee. Varsity, JV and 9th grade. That money (for all sports) goes into a general school fund and is distributed as the principal sees fit. It doesn't even necessarily go back to a sports program, but could go towards other academic or school clubs. Athletics do get some back, but it is totally up to the principal.

The problem in our county is that the county does not give any money to the schools for athletics - other than for the upkeep of the fields. No money for uniforms, transportation, balls, gear, anything. Whatever the team wants to do is generated through fees and fundraising. I wish for the days when you just played sports and didn't have to pay.

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Originally posted by Tom Dorminy:
Not sure how the fees are dispersed , but parents and fans are charged a fee to attend games here in Hillsborough but kids and coaches get a school bus to and from certain away games depending on how far they travel . Other times kids drive or ride with parents or friends . Pretty sure all money is spent on baseball activities . Still cheaper than a pro game though , lol .

I'm surprised to hear that kids can drive themselves to games. Or even go with a parent. At son's HS all players must ride bus to and from games. Exceptions are made but with a written note to coach, and then only with parent.

Last year the kids had a game the morning after the senior prom. In our area most kids go from prom to a weekend at the beach. Players had to report to school to catch the team bus. They could not go straight to the game from the shore house even though it was closer to the game. One senior missed the bus and had to sit out the game.

Sorry to get off track!

This year our school district cut all transportation. Last year we paid a trans. fee. We as parents become a district "Volunteer" by being fingerprinted cleared by DOJ and TB tested. In addition provide auto ins. and various forms to the district. Otherwise it is drive your own player to the game. Coaches hate the new policy. Very unsure early in the season who has reliable transportation. Football boosters stepped up and hired buses for games and then collected "donations" to offset the cost. As usual, the same people fundraising were the ones that paid their trans. fee.

First, charging at a baseball game with the funds going to the football program is pretty unfair, unless the baseball coach gets to claim the gate receipts from football in the fall.


Second, I imagine the board of education is unaware that transportation to games is by parents and players driving. The liability insurance of the district probably precludes such a thing.

Wow, I am surprised at how many high schools do charge a gate fee at all. Guess I am a little old fashioned and just assumed baseball was one of those sports that didn't charge. And we are fortunate that we do not have fees to play a sport. Hmmm, I will just keep my fingers crossed.

As far as the monies going to football, that was second hand info. But, the parents are not too happy. I heard it from them as well but do not know where they got their info. I think it would be wrong to go to football but not too bad to go to a general fund. I will just drive the boys, smile, and hope to heck they don't charge for the little guys who are the main snack bar supporters and play tag the whole game.

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Originally posted by BBfam:

My issue is that the director is the football coach and he had told a player that these funds will be helping the football team with transportation funds...

Is this common? I kind of see it as a conflict of interest. As far as I know, football gate fees don't fund the baseball team.

Charging gate fee is very common, but using Baseball program to fund Football program is very unusual in HS. Everybody knows football is the big money event in HS sports. Baseball program is always short of fund. You must live in HS Baseball heaven...

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Originally posted by #22's dad:
With the way the economy is I wouldnt be surprised if high schools start charging money if kids wanted to play/participate in certain after school activities.

Our school system has been pay-for-play for a few years now. If a player gets cut, they do get a refund.

Overall there are two main funds in every school - academic and athletic. Most schools don't let the two intermix or you end up in a mess. Basically all money generated through athletics - gates, concession, fundraisers, fees - end up into one general fund. So realistically that fundraiser baseball does could end up helping cross country get uniforms if need be. Since most principals realize this would not be met very well by the public they create sub accounts for each sport and let's each sport operate within their own subaccount.

When it comes to sports overall football usually just breaks even and doesn't support other sports. The cost of running a football team is enormous so most teams are lucky to break even. Obviously the more successful programs are the exception and make tons of money. The real money maker (if they are halfway successful) is basketball. The cost involved with running basketball team is fairly cheap so there tends to be extra money left over for the lesser sports like cross country, tennis, golf.

The only good education in America is Post Baccalaureate Degrees, which has a disproportionate amount of foreigners. Below that the education system is America is terrible.

This year was a very untypical year for baseball at my son's alma matter... For 31 years baseball was a no booster, no parent involvement, no cost sport... funded entirely by anonymous donation, former player donation and school district support.

Our same coach for 31 years preferred a low cost, low key, no player excluded by cost approach.

However, this year, due to state cuts, district cuts and general lack of availability of donated funds he had to go the route of fundraising (for the first time ever).

He got it done and all is well... Lucky for our school...

My long way to the point is ... The funds have to be raised to support sports at the hs level... How that is achieved may be a community effort between all sports.. but it needs to be done.

I spent 4 years driving my son and his high school teammates to games. At first, I was disgruntled because they didn't have buses for the kids (darn public school). Then it was really fun to get to know the players. I usually took snacks, let them listen to their music (most of it anyway), and really enjoyed getting to know all the players. There can be an upside to driving.

We also did fundraising every year by having an auction/dinner. We usually raised about 15-20K. Unfortunately, school finances are much worse now.

Wow! I'm surprised by some of the responses. In our area, kids are required to ride the bus to and from games unless some unusual circumstance occurs.

All sports that I'm aware of - football, other field sports, basketball, volley ball, and baseball all charge the same entry fee per person for regular season games (both home and road games with higher fees for playoff games. Our school does offer a deal where entrance to non-playoff home games is free with the purchase of the cards. Its a good deal if you go to enough games, but not if you're only attending one sport's games.

In addition to that, at my son's school, there is the "required" uniform items - hats, pull overs, etc. that each player has to purchase. This year that's $250. While not required all over the area, one county in the area also has a required fee of $100 per player per sport fee.

The baseball and softball teams have "mini" concession stands and each family generally ends up working one or two home games as volunteers. For other concessions, while families also are assigned some time as above, other volunteers identify one or more sports and are "paid" an hourly wage of a certain amount that gets paid equally to those sports from the concession revenue.

There's also usually a team fund raiser, parents and kids helping out on field day to get the field in shape for the season and the Booster Club Spring fund raiser where kids and parents are expected to assist.