Pay to Play?

[Orange and Brown]

Nelsonville-York has an outstanding booster/Alumni assoc.
Football Ticket prices are 4 bucks for adults, 3 bucks for seniors, and students get in free......Yet they are still able to make money on Friday nights.... The only sports NY doesn't charge to watch are Baseball and Softball, I guess you can throw Golf in there to. For a long time I couldn't figure out why so many other schools were strugling when NY seemed to be doing so well. After a few conversations with some folks from 5 or 6 different districts I FINALLY got it through my thick skull. I learned that not everyone has a great Booster/ Alumni assoc, and that not every school packs the bleachers every Friday night....It baffles me to hear fans talk about how many fans come to there games and then they play Nelsonville-York and there are more fans on the Visiters side than the home side. It will be interesting to see just how creative schools get over the next few years to make money for there athletic programs.......We might see Basketball players selling candles . At some point every school will have to institue an "activity fee" for those who wanna participate in sports. Everything is getting more expensive...It costs more for gas, equipment, ect..... I really think that we will see dramatic changes over the next ten years how our schools are ran from the Federal level all the way down to the districts....I'll fight consolidation until the bitter end but it will happen, no one knows to what extent. I'm not going to speculate on which schools or how it will play out but it will happen.

[seofan_via_dublin]

Pickerington schools currently are at $210 per sport for HS, and $135 per for Jr high.

They are currently looking at the possibility of raising those to as high as $500 per for HS, and $335 for Jr high. No discounts for multiple sports or multiple kids.

I live in the Dublin school district, but currently don't have kids.

On a side note, being from the Gallia County school district, it sure is nice to see some city guts complaining about their kids leaving to go to other schools for sports! :122246

[ironmen1987]

I'm sure this has alot to do with Jackson trying to get in the SOC. A competitive conference in our back yard would cut travel time/expenses and hopefully allow more fans to fill the stands on both sides. It wasn't meant to be but I can understand why they tried. My daughter plays 3 sports and the travel/gate expenses rack up fast...

[jumphigh]

chilli charges 40 for the school year, You can play as many sports as you want for that fee

[Orange and Brown]

chilli charges 40 for the school year, You can play as many sports as you want for that fee

Thats not bad at all.

[BBallin fool]

4-ever you can "p" as much as you want on Steelers it won't go away.give me a break lol!!!

[KingJames]

30 dollars a year at Reedsville Eastern

[Falconburger]

What you are failing to realize is that once they start chargin, then they are not going back to free to play. Teachers losing their jobs in every school district, some districts parents have to drive thier kids to scrimmages and games, so it may come back down to the way it was along time ago, where you played the local teams and had more heated rivalries, but that hurt rurual teams when it came time to rankin. Like I said, this could open it up to more private schools offering scholarships to the best atheltes and some really good athelets not playing, whether it is 40, 100, or whatever some families cannot afford it, especially the families with more than 1 kid. With cuts and bigger class sized, no money for extracurricualr activities the education/state is letting our kids down..Feel for those kids who cannot pay to play..

[Falconburger]

^^^^^^^^^Dont forget Title IX

When you speak of too many sports programs, everything you do must be within the constraints of offering equal opportunities for male and female athletes.

At our school, which does have PTP, we have an outstanding athletic booster program and I honestly dont know where we'd be without them.

I wasnt talking about girls sports, I was talking about all the extra sports, it used to be that for boys you had the big 4- Football, Basketball, and baseball and Track, Girls had Vball, BBall, Softball and Track, but now you see alot more sports even at smaller schools, that drains on the budget, but do they really have the numbers to support all the sports? As far as boosters go, with the increasing prices, ie. look at pickerton's post above, you would need a scholarship to play there, even families with money are going to think twice about paying that amount..I probably would just save my money and let my kid play AAU (if they had a realistic chance to play college ball) where more college coaches would see them anyway, now that is some crazy prices to pay..

[bilco 2]

Anyboby who don't own their land shouldn't be able to vote on school levies. levies effect land owners only, if you rent from some one else they pay the tax hike. I don't think its right for someone to vote for me to pay more tax when it don't effect them. why should they care if they don't pay them.

[gtowntiger78]

For those of you involved with "pay to participate", how is the fee calculated? Are the fees based on a sport by sport basis, or an overall cost divided among all the participants? If so, is that fair for a kid that plays only soccer(least expensive) to have to pay for some one else to play football(most expensive)? My kids have all graduated, but I wonder what I would do as a parent in this new environment we are seeing with "pay to participate".

[BBallin fool]

bilco2 !!! I agree 100%!!!

[Falconburger]

my question for next year and if the Kasich gets his bill passed what will be the status of some of these teams? Will they have the turnout for each sport as parents lose their jobs or have incomes cut down? This bill will affect alot of teachers all over the state, whose kids are involved in those sports, as in firemen, cops, etc..if you have to decide to pay the electric bill (which are enormous anymore) or your son/daughter to play sports? It is like that show on "Downsized" where they show parents acutally debating on travel sports, iced coffee, ballet? I am really intersted in seeing the sports landscape next year as this takes effect in many districts..

[JoeRoberts]

But using your example of soccer being the least expensive and football the most expensive, in most cases soccer generates little revenue (probably just about enough to pay the game officials) while football primarily and basketball secondarily usually are the big money makers that allow the other sports to continue.

That may be the case at some schools. However at our school in SE Ohio, both the superintendent and the principal have publically stated that football does not pay the way for anyone else, it barely makes enough to cover it's own costs (coaches, officials, security, travel, etc). On the other hand, some of the other sports, because they have lower costs and expenses because of minimal staff, etc., they come as close as FB to covering their costs.

[bilco 2]

I was talking last nite after church to my pastor, who teaches school. he said there might be in the thousands who lose there jobs. with less teachers, firemen, and cops, whose going to teach the same number of kids with less teachers, fight fires with less firemen, fight crime with less cops. Maybe the next step is to home school our kids, buy a fire truck for every neaborhood, and everybody buy a gun to replace the cops. this makes as much since as this bill they just pasted.

[Falconburger]

I was talking last nite after church to my pastor, who teaches school. he said there might be in the thousands who lose there jobs. with less teachers, firemen, and cops, whose going to teach the same number of kids with less teachers, fight fires with less firemen, fight crime with less cops. Maybe the next step is to home school our kids, buy a fire truck for every neaborhood, and everybody buy a gun to replace the cops. this makes as much since as this bill they just pasted.

Concur with that, in the end the real losers of all this economic situation will be OUR children, whether it is 60 student class sizes or barely enought players to play high school sports cause the others can afford it..

[JChipwood]

And then the loss in revenue driven by income taxes creates an increased deficit for future budgets resulting in a snowball effect for years to come.

[WHSwarrior]

I know that when I was a student at Warren, what bugged me was that I did pay to participate: I had to pay for my golf uniform, and all my track sweats, and we had to furnish our own banquets, etc. So...now that all the sports have to pay to participate, does that mean those things are covered in that fee? Or do all teams have to buy their own uniforms now? Or is there still that inequity between football, basketball, and everything else?

I fully understand the need of the athletic department to be self-sustaining...the point of a school is academics, but the athletics and extracurriculars really "make" an education if you choose to get involved. I can't say I'm horribly opposed to Warren's pay to play fee for next year ($100 per sport per kid), but that cost should include everything you need to play...not have to pay for a uniform, and equipment on top of that.

[ironmen1987]

I noticed on our jr high track schedule that only 2 of our 11 meets are more than 30 miles away (Logan and league meet at Marietta) and only 2 of the 12 varsity meets (Nelsonville and Rock Hill?). I haven't seen the baseball/softball schedules yet but with league games some travel can't be avoided. It will be a costly spring for everyone i'm afraid....

[ttfn]

Warren just started a $50 transportation fee per sport for the spring. It looks like it will go to $100 for the next school year.