I am curious as to the amount of money that baseball programs get from the School district in other places. We get $600 and that's it. That doesn't even cover game balls for us. The school mows the outfield, paints the foul lines and fills our gas cans for the drag and infield mower. The school pays for the umpires and provides the buses. Our kids have to pay $75 per sport to play plus an ASB card.
Just interested to see what other areas do.
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I can't tell you how much they budget in our district but it sounds like the school is spending way more then $600 on the baseball program. Everything you listed they do for you cost money. you have to pay someone to mow the fields, paint the line and fill the gas cans. How many umps per game? If it's two there's another $150-$200 per game. Bus transportation is not cheap either. It sounds to me like the $600 is for repairing or replacing equipment. Not saying that I agree that $600 is enough. Just saying that you need to look at the total budget, not just what is given over and above the ordinary expenses.
I hope I don't sound too stupid but, whats an ASB card?Our kids pay 25.00 but most play more than one sport.The 25.00 covers things for one school year.I am not really sure our program gets any money.V. HC. came up with a unique fundraiser @ 10 years ago that has grown to this point to I would guesstimate brings in a low 5 figures a year.Add to that an older gentleman who hs nothing better to do but take care of the small handful of playing field allbut 24/7.All in all were very lucky.
My current district gives each HS approximately $1600 of needed product (X amount of cases of game balls, rakes, drags, nets, etc...) Anything more, our specific school/booster has to come up with the rest. Not sure where you are at, but $600 sounds VERY low. The best thing to start doing is start fundraising. Get the kids involved, and start being creative with community involvement. I like doing that more than simply asking the parents to fork over x amount of dollars.
I hope I don't sound too stupid but, whats an ASB card?Our kids pay 25.00 but most play more than one sport.The 25.00 covers things for one school year.I am not really sure our program gets any money.V. HC. came up with a unique fundraiser @ 10 years ago that has grown to this point to I would guesstimate brings in a low 5 figures a year.Add to that an older gentleman who hs nothing better to do but take care of the small handful of playing field allbut 24/7.All in all were very lucky.
Do you mind sharing what HC does? I'm always interested in hearing other people's fundraising success stories...
I have no idea what the school budgeted for the team. Parents were expected to buy an ad in the program at $50-$200. The coach ran two week long 7-12yo summer camps and paid players who wanted to work them minimum wage. He ran two one night preseason 7-12yo camps with the players "volunteering" to help. The team had home, away and practice uniforms. New dugouts were built during my son's time there.
1st pitch auction? Whats that? Thanks...
May I ask o.p. what part of the country your in?
Are you apart of this process? Contacting donors and what not?
Our budget is $900 total for V and JV... covers balls. The general booster club buys hats. We get a set of uni's every three years. The players are asked to pay a voluntary $100 transportation fee and there is a spirit pack that typically runs between $40-$90. Everything else is fundraising. There are many restrictions on acceptable fundraising and donations, so it is a challenge to say the least. We have done a great deal of improvements to our facilities via fundraising and volunteer efforts but those are also met with strong resistance from administration/maintenance due to liability and added ongoing maintenance requirements. Baseball is viewed as the PITA sport because is costs a lot to do right and doesn't bring in much at the gate.
We don't have a budget so to speak. We have an account. Camp money etc. go in to that account. At the end of each season, all HCs submit their "wish list" for items that then want. Here is a copy of one of my lists:
NOTE: ANYTHING BOLD IS WHAT I BELIEVE I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE.
######, we have to do a better job of knowing what it is that we get from this list! After I know what I can get from this list, then I can go about seeking alternative ways of getting my other needs.
Typically, I had a couple of thousand dollars minimum in my account and so, by the time I was done being the HC, we had more stuff than most colleges.
I sent you a dialog.
I'm in the Northwest. We do have to to do fundraising. Anything we want to do is extra. For example we are moving the bullpens from inside the field to outside. Its going to cost about $6,500. All of it is paid for by fundraising. We have a field drag tractor. Engine broke last year. Came out of fundraising. In our area this is standard practice as far as I know. Baseball & softball are the only sports in our area that have to take care of their own fields. I'm not complaining as it is the way it is. There just isn't any money spent in our area on youth sports in general.
Why is moving bullpens going to cost $6500? If anyone knows of a school that doesn't have to fundraise let me know so I can get an application there. I don't care if I'm the assistant to the assistant water boy. Trying to pay for a season is the most difficult part of a coach's job.
When I was in Kentucky we didn't have a budget. School took care of umpires and didn't have to worry about buses. I drove the bus so saved money there from paying a driver. We played at a public park so no chance of doing a gate nor concession stand although their concession stand made a killing off HS fans. Every single thing I wanted - balls, catcher's gear, uniforms, etc.... - I had to fund raise for each year. I had to raise about $4-5000 each year. In my 9 years as HC I didn't have a booster club for years after the first year. They were so poisonous that I disbanded them.....mainly because that first year they were going to the board of education demanding me to be fired. Really didn't want to work with people raising money who were trying to fire me. Last few years I brought back the booster club and it was much better.
Down here in NC I've not been a HC yet but I am AD at my school. When I came on I inherited a $20K debt in athletics. The year before I became AD it was $40K when our principal came on board. The principal made all gate and concession money go to general athletics plus some other money they found in other places which cut the debt in half. The main change we have done which SHOULD get us out of debt after this year is all gate money is now split 70/30 with the sport and general athletics.
The sport gets 70% of the gate money while the 30% goes to general athletics. It's slowed down recovery but we are at the point we can do it to make the teams self supporting. Under the previous AD each coach did like what CoachB25 does and submit a list of what they needed then the money came out of general athletics to pay for all teams. The way we do it now the responsibility of making smart financial decisions rests with the coach. He or she has to know how much money is in their account and that's what they spend unless they raise more money for what they need. General athletics will not help out a sport if they can't pay for something. Non-revenue sports have to do a fund raiser but the majority of their stuff comes from general athletics but overall they usually don't cost a lot of money.
At first the coaches didn't like this idea but after doing it last year the majority of them love it. Under this system I really do not have to tell them no on things they want to purchase. It's their money because they earned it through gate and fund raising. We got a few coaches who don't like change and criticize it but they are the ones who turned in the gigantic wish lists. They don't like to fund raise and pretty much refuse to do so. They are now limited to what's in their fund or they ask our school wide booster club to help pay for a few things.
coach2709 - here you go...
This year for the first time our baseball teams are not fundraising. Some of our other sports do (football, soccer, etc), but its minimal. The way they are freeing up budget money is to require kids to buy their unis and a helmet on top of the $100 participation fee. The hats and shirts (they buy a Rawlings dry fit shirt) come as part of a required spirit pack. Kids must provide white pants. The kids then can add on other items, dugout shirts, warmups etc, if they wish. Freshman are required to purchase a helmet as well. This will free up the school from having to purchase replacement helmets and unis as they wear out. If a student can not pay the participation fee it is waived (I think its state law). If they can not afford the required equipment (or personal equipment as well - shoes, gloves, etc) the athletic boosters maintain an athlete in need fund and will purchase those items for the student.
Our school does not allow athletic boosters at a per sport level. There is one organization for all sports. We live in a pretty well-off area and they are well funded. Coaches can submit requests for things they need throughout the year and they will evaluate the request and purchase the items for them. I know they just bought some high end pitching machine for the team as well as tarps for the fields. Last year they "remodeled" the varsity field.
We are lucky as the park district actually owns our fields. There is a very large plot of land in the central part of our town that was donated to the city by a very rich benefactor. The stipulation on the land was that it was to be used for the betterment of the community. Our HS sits adjacent to that land. Its divided amongst a hospital, cemetery, boy scout camp, garden plots, skeet range, and many sports fields (football, baseball, soccer, LAX, etc). As our fields sit on this land they fall under the jurisdiction of the Park District. The Park District reserves the varsity field 24x7 during the HS season and the summer HS season. This essentially locks it up from being used by other teams. The Frosh/Soph/JV fields are reserved during the HS season as well but used by local teams for games when not in use by the HS. The burden of maintaining the fields falls on the park district and not the school freeing up money that would normally be used on the fields.
I'm not privy to the HS athletic budget, but from what I understand the school covers transportation, umpires, basic equipment (game balls, helmets, bats), field maintenance (grass cutting), electricity (lights) and coach's stipend. On the field maintenance (grass cutting) the coach prefers to handle it himself vs the school ground personnel (they tend to only cut when absolutely needed - the result can be 6"-8" tall grass in the infield and outfield). The new score boards for the baseball and softball was funded by the school - came out of the remains of the building program. The school is relatively new (only 6 years old) and when the baseball/softball diamonds were first constructed we did not have scoreboards. It took 3 years to finally get them purchased and installed.
Any extras such as batting cages, storage sheds, fresh infield dirt, grass seed, press box, etc is usually funded by the booster club and donations. In addition to fund raisers the baseball boosters help run the concession stand during football games and receive a portion of the proceeds. They also run a concession stand during baseball games.
At present there is no student activity fee (pay-to-play) though the subject has come up in school board meetings.
I don't know how much the district budgets but am certain it covered the basics. The baseball booster club account pays for quite a lot. I believe the spring fundraiser (coupon book and newsletter sales) raise new $10k. I personally wrote a check for new $400 as I had to buy some of the coupons myself. Don't see it as a big deal, just another way to say "activity fee" In the past that fundraiser paid for a new scoreboard and new radar gun amount other things. Last years fundraiser paid for the new tarp, other equipment for this year (etc) There is an out of town tourney and that pays for hotels/meals and transportation costs for 3 nights. I think when you talk a large suburban district the budget for the districts cover the basics and that's it.
