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Originally Posted by Bill Beatty
The rationalization is that sports programs bring in revenue. This is a complete myth. The small amount of ticket sales is a drop in the bucket when comparing the cost of a football team.
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You are seriously underestimating the revenue that the football program brings in.
I can't speak for everywhere, so I'll just describe how South Fork High School was at the time I graduated.
Ticket sales for games were huge. Admission was five dollars per person, and an average home game would have 2500 people attending (more or less depending on how many of the opponent's fans traveled with them). We had five home games that year. Our rivalry game was home also, but I mention it separate because
everyone in the county came to it. We easily had 7500 attend that game. That's about $100,000 in revenue. However, only half of that went to football. The other half went to the general sports account.
Another soource of revenue is the football booster's club. They're main job on Friday nights was selling merchandise. The rest of the year, they got sponsors for things the team needed. We had banners for local buisinesses hanging all around the stadium. If a buisiness had donated a particular item (golf cart, score board, etc.), you'd know it because their logo was on that item. They also sold programs for two dollars each. And they sold ad space in those programs. Each football player and cheerleader was required to sell an ad.
This isn't including concession stands, because the band runs those. They get to keep whatever they make.
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Originally Posted by Bill Beatty
You must remember to include all the equipment, the salaries of the coaches, managers, trainers, etc. as well as the cost to build and maintain the field etc. I would bet that the cost of an average size high school team is in the hundreds of thousands when figuring "all" the costs.
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Our head football coach got paid $5000 per year for coaching. Assistant coaches got between $500 and $1500 for the year. Our managers were students who either didn't want to play or who couldn't due to injury. We didn't have a full-time trainer on staff, but someone with a local practice came in every afternoon. I imagine they paid her something.
Building the field was a one-time cost that the school incurred over fifteen years ago. It is also used by soccer, track, and other sports throughout the year. The school's Agricultural Technologies program maintains the football field, the baseball field, the softball field, and the golf course (yes, we had a three-hole par three golf course with a driving range and a practice green on campus).
Football is
huge in Florida, so perhaps my school was a bad example. However, I do know that in most Florida high schools, the football program fully funds itself, and highly supplements the entire sports program. Perhaps teams should consider classifying themselves as a sport instead of a club. Maybe they'd be allowed to tap into the money that football brings in.