What's it cost to play at your HS?

My son is three years removed. There was a $50 activity fee for the first activity of the school year. There wasn't a cost for a second sport. There was an expectation of purchasing a $75 spirit pack (under, warmup and practice garments) and a minimum of a $50 ad purchased in the game program. The players also had to participate as instructors in two preseason 7-12 age instruction camps.

We just had had this debate at our Booster Club Meeting this week  We settled on $400 which includes a "$100 Spirit Pack" of sweats / t-shirts /shorts etc., which we've sold separately  in years past .... Most parents just said "tell me what I owe and don't nickel and dime me!"

Families can pay for some or all of their fees through fundraising.  A big one for us is outfield sponsors banners @ $250 ... $100 goes to the athlete's fees.  We also do a casino bus trip and a Super Bowl Pool (sell squares)among other things

Sons HS has sold subs as long as I can remember. It is quite an event getting the team together to make the subs.

We don't pay anything....but the kids do buy t'shirts, sweats, etc...but aren't required to.  We even have school owned jackets that are passed down from year to year. The team has sold advertising banners in the outfield that raise some money to cover things the school doesn't pay for.

$80.  We also have a fundraiser where we sell coupon books as a fundraiser for the entire school.  No one sport is allowed to have its own booster club.  Letter winners are expected to sell 10 at $20 each.  The reality is that this coupon book is so popular it doesn't take long to sell your 10 at all.  In fact, we have incentives in the sales and my girl's golf team had 6 girls who earned very nice incentives which included school hoodies, under-armor w/school logo, ... When my daughter played in hs, the wife and I bought our 10 and then the wife distributed them to people at work.  I really can't say that in the long time I've been a coach at my HS, that I have heard any parent complain.  

Son graduated in '12.  No mandatory fee to play.  Parents were asked to run the concession stand for one game - no big deal if you could not.  There was usually a fundraiser to help - the last few years the players were selling cases of soda.  Parents are encouraged, but not required to join the booster club.

A couple of years back the school division debated on instituting a "pay to play" fee to help offset the athletic expenses, but it was tabled and has not (to my knowledge) been brought up again.  Some of the neighboring school districts (counties) have instituted a play-to-pay fee.  At one school system it is $100 per student per sport so if a student plays three sports it's $300.  As I understand it, the fee is not due until the final tryouts (if any) are completed for that sport.  There are exceptions for students/parents who cannot afford to pay.

Two yrs ago our school implemented a $100 fee before that it was free. The kids usually get a T-shirt w/ motto for that yr on the back and sweatshirt. We have a deal where we run the concession stand during the football season and bring in a bit from that. The school only pays for travel etc. and rest of operating cost comes from the concessions.

Son's HS doesn't require you to "pay to play", however you are expected to raise funds to pay for your uniform. Of course you cant play without a uniform,

 There are 3 "levels" of uniform funding... $250 will get you the base uniform, pants jersey & hat.  For $500 you also get a pair of shoes and a couple of practice jersey's.  At the $750 level you also get a team jacket and bag, a second hat and a name plate for your locker.

There are at least 10 fundraisers that all players  are  encouraged to participate in.  They sell coupon books, Honey Baked Hams, business card ads in the program, signs for the wall.  They host  a golf tournament, a silent auction, Texas hold'em poker tournament, a  home run derby and a summer camp.  You can have a local business sponser your son, or as I prefer, just write them a check to meet your "fundraising goal"

Most of these fundraisers take place before tryouts.  Last year we had 40 or more freshmen selling coupon books, signs, and hams for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays  After tryouts only 15 of them had a spot on the freshman team roster.

Our Booster Club raises enough money to support the football and baseball teams.  None of my kids had to pay for uniforms.  

Big Country - Sounds like a demanding situation I'm glad we are not in. That is a ton of fund raising. I thought we had it tough for pulling 5 shifts in the concession stand.

We're not allowed to have a cost to play in our district, however.....

The booster club sells a "pride pack" for $225 JV and $250 for Varsity.  It includes a couple of practice shirts, mesh shorts, a batting practice jacket and a duffel bag.  It also includes a ticket for the player to the end of year banquet that is usually held at a local hotel. Varsity is $25 more to cover the cost of a pre-season tourney that JV can't play in due to district rules.

We also sell banners for $150-$500. Throw in concession stand money and booster club fees, and the program brings in a good amount of money.

It's necessary though because funding for baseball is pretty tight at the school.  I know so far the boosters have paid for a portable batting practice mound, new netting and carpets for the cages, some new dirt for the infield, a company to come in and re-do the pitchers mound, and new tarps for the mound and home plate.

On top of that the booster club is paying for one of the assistant coaches this year because there were no funds in the school budget for the position.

Wish our boosters bought us all that. We don't even have lights, but football facilities r nice and new gym for bball. Baseball doesn't bring in a lot of money but we do pretty well As team. We dont have bathrooms either. 

playball2011  like wise. Our FB team field was just replaced to the tune of $1.3 mil and we just had to use booster funds to try to fix our beach sand field with a $6,000 patch using bags of ??. Lights would be nice.

Beach sand field?  What sport are you talking about?  

Our HS just spent $3.6 millon building a new football stadium with the new turf field.  Old stadium would have cost twice as much to refurbish and improve.  The old field had serious issues - the football and soccer officials told the school if the field was not improved they would not approve the field for play.  There were also parking issues (seriously insufficient) and issues with the footings of the stands.

The $3.6 million was money left over from building the new HS about 4 years ago.  Kind of pissed me off.  Could spend millions to improve the football field, but couldn't spend an extra $10K or so to install irrigation when the new baseball field was put in at the new HS.  Go figure.

The plain fact is football and basketball are the major money makers at the HS level.   The other sports (baseball, softball, soccer, field hockey, track) just don't draw the same numbers. At best our baseball team drew crowds of 200 or so - and that was only towards the end of the season as it became clear they were heading to the playoffs.  Early in the season it was only 50-75 fans.  Compare that to the 1500-2000 that attend home football games all season.

I detest fundraisers where kids are banging on my door or hitting me up in front of the grocery store. Too many organizations do it. I feel like I'm always being hit on. Before I moved I knew all the kids or their families. I think I was giving more than $500 per year in addition to what I was covering my own kids. Whenever my kids had fundraisers I gave them the money and told them to leave people alone.

I hope your booster organization checked state laws before getting involved in gambling. I know of an organization that got nailed for illegal gambling over casino nights, football and March Madness pools. The team nearly got suspended for a season.

Agree with RJM on checking rules for "gambling" fund raisers.  Our baseball org doesn't even allow them, much less my son's Christian school.  For fundraising, I usually go straight to his batting/pitching coach (lessons) when there is a fundraiser.  It's like getting a discount on the lessons.

$800 to play not including uniforms or varsity spring break game in Arizona. We have a Rockies ticket fundraiser where we can sell Rockies tickets at half price. Its a good fundraiser if you take advantage of it - basically every player needs to sell 40 tickets to break even - if you sell more - good for you.

We are talking about High School, right? Those #'s are staggering to me. I would like to know what people are paying for Showcase/Travel teams; starting a new thread.

I agree. Basically there a kids from low income families that might not be able to play.  

HS this year will cost me just over $1000, that includes fall/winter fees, trainer/conditioning and spring. We also do a number of other fundraisers for coaches stippens, field maintenance and improvements.    

Our HS it's $160 per sport, $50-$75 for other extracurricular activities (jazz band, debate, speach, etc) with a cap of $350/yr.  HS Baseball fundraisers are salt sales twice a year, discount cards, bagging groceries (3-4 times per year) and direct solicitation letters to family/friends (I'm not a fan of this).  Players purchase their own batting helmets.  Booster club solicites advertising from local businesses.

I agree.  Lots of travel teams around here do it too.  It's gotten to the point where I just pay the optional extra fee ($25) and not do the fundraiser when I sign my daughter up for LL softball. Too much hassle and neither I nor my daughter have time to go beating on doors or bugging friends and neighbors.

FWIW - my son's JUCO sends out personal appeals to contribute/donate to the athletic programs.

Is that what you pay directly to the school? I think the OP was referring to actual school fees.

My son's HS doesn't charge for anything.  Shoe package (spikes and trainers) is $125 but not mandatory.

Booster club has two big fundraisers, a golf tournament as well as sponsoring a 5k/10k run.  Both do pretty well and cover the majority of costs.  Between the two we netted around $20K this year.

Our high school coach raises a lot of money running summer baseball camps and preseason early spring camps for ages 7-12. For the week long summer camps the players get paid. For the one night preseason camps they're slave labor. My son enjoyed the preseason camps. He thought it was funny to get asked for his autograph.

About ten years ago our high school got a turfed football field. It was discounted but still expensive. The stadium was used as a visit site for perspective turf clients for the company. Its not that there's a bias against baseball as much as these stadium are multi purpose. Ours is used for football, soccer and lacrosse. It was also rented out to a Catholic high school football team. The wear and tear replacement is way less than maintaining grass. I wouldn't want to have a baseball field shared. Its bad enough the Canadian geese use it as a landing pad in their migratory path.

I've seen college kids getting paid to help out at camps, not HS. Not sure that is allowed in our state. The money should go into baseball acct  not their pockets, esp if it keeps them from selling door to door. 

There r places around town where kids can clean up after big events or work concessions to make money for their teams, but it's a battle to be chosen to do those fundraisers. 

Who got to keep the money the private catholic school paid for rent? Did it go into Booster fund for all to share or just to football team? If everyones Booster money paid for fball  field, hope the money went into general fund. 

RJM- for clearification, they are Canada Geese. I know this as a young lad from RI who married a Canadian. Sorry couldn't help myself.

That's what I pay for my son to play on the HS team. It goes to the booster club. the only thing that I am aware of that goes to the school is $100 for transportation which is included within the $1000.

I believe any facilities rental money goes went into the district general fund. Aside from the football field, summer baseball teams rented fields. Swim clubs rented the swimming pool. Our youth sports organization paid a fee for use of soccer and baseball fields and basketball courts.

I'll compromise on the name of the geese .... bleeping geese. What a mess they made. They obstruct traffic too.

Our big booster club fundraiser is pork butt roasts. We have two events. Last one is weekend before Thanksgiving. Other is held in late September. Combined,  we cook about 1,200 10# roasts. We borrow a bunch of pits.  Baseball players, moms, dads, former players' dads all help. Lots of planning and organization. 24 hr event getting everything set up, cooked and then pressure washing the pits afterwards but a fun time. Boys pay nothing to play baseball. Booster Club paid alot toward a new electronic video scoreboard, new netting from dugout to dugout (39K), re-doing locker room. This year, we've already bought L screen, pitching machines, pitching platforms, etc. We plan on buying 2 bats for each team and maybe some practice shirts. Our baseball boosters are very active and coaches are also very supportive.

At my son's school, they are paid to play.  The better they are, the more they make.  For example.  $100 if you can hit a fastball, $50 more for a curveball, $50 more for the slider.  Pitchers get $100 to throw 75mph on varsity, and $50 more for each 5mph above that.  Seems to work pretty well.  Uniforms are free btw.

of the $4500 / year of property taxes, which most are for "education / schools" I think we already pay plenty...the HS does not charge anything additional to play...if you want hoodies, shorts, etc., then that is extra, otherwise everything is paid.

We pay zero here too. All included in school tax. Even school hockey(which is expensive) is free unless he has to buy a jersey.

Surely you jest? 

We charge between $30 - $90 for spirit pack (include nice jacket or pullover every couple years).  The athletes are asked but not required to pay $100 travel fee that covers as many sports as they play.  Then we charge about $75 for a 15-20 game summer program.

Funding is a combination of school budget, general booster club and baseball fundraising as needed.  In the past, the baseball program has been discouraged from doing its own fundraisers but that changes from year to year. 

Someone has a potty mouth. I would too if our school was reaching in my pocket like that. We pay $100 participation fee (same for all sports) and that goes down if you play multiple sports. We have a great booster club that buys all the kids "spirit wear". I think they recieved a sweatshirt, short/long sleeve T, hat, warm up pull over. i used to complain about having to do (10) 2hr shifts in the football concession stand but now I see the light. They even purchased 4 Maco bats and currently carry a $12,000 balance. from the post on this board we appear to be fortunate.