Getting Creative To Pay For Athletics

October 31, 2011 /
The Oregonian, Nick Dashel
http://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/index.ssf/2011/10/clark_county_high_schools_get.html

It’s not enough for most high school athletic departments to hire coaches, schedule referees and transportation, and oversee management of games.

More and more, at the forefront of responsibilities is this dilemma: how to pay for it.

Athletics used to make ends meet typically through a combination of district funding, ticket sales and concessions. Fundraisers such as car washes and candy sales paid for extras. Now, with some school districts forced to provide little or no funding for activities, those fundraisers pay for necessities.

Creativity is at a premium these days, given that most schools and their teams are hitting up parents, fans and local businesses with fundraisers.

Prairie athletic director Travis Drake hopes one unique idea he’s considering – at least at the high school level –will generate revenue for years to come. Drake recently received permission to sell sponsorship logos on the basketball court.

Drake wants to entice as many as four local businesses to put their company logo on one corner of the court, which could raise at least $2,000 a year. Drake mentioned that for a lucrative deal, he might consider placing a logo at center court.

“I’ve joked I’ll rename our gym if the price is right,” he said.

At Hockinson High School, the athletic department recently raised about $3,000 through a program with Ford Motor Company. Hockinson sponsored test drives of new cars at its school. In turn, Ford’s Drive One 4 UR School program donated $20 for every test drive to Hockinson athletics.

Prairie’s Drake says he has no choice but to mine every funding source to keep athletics afloat. The Battle Ground School District provides $213,000 to its two high schools in the Greater St. Helens League, Prairie and Battle Ground, for activities. This helps pay for coaches’ salaries, officials and transportation. But, Drake says, the coaches’ salaries alone at Prairie are $289,000 this school year.

A recent booster club auction raised about $40,000 so Drake could buy some athletic equipment and uniforms. Still, it’s not enough. And yet Drake says he is cautious not to use traditional fundraisers such as car washes for general athletics because many of Prairie’s teams do that to raise money.

“We would be fighting over the same pie, so we have to do stuff that no other program at Prairie is doing,” Drake said.

At Mountain View, the athletic/activities department is working toward bringing all of its fundraising under one umbrella, called the Thunder Foundation. Athletic director Adam Mathieson said that rather than have 15 or 20 different groups raise money for athletics, he wants to create one booster group that has ties with local businesses. Under this plan, Mountain View teams would submit financial requests to the foundation.

The foundation Mathieson envisions is modeled after colleges athletics. It would seek large donations from local individuals and businesses, as well as control most of the fundraisers.

“Football and basketball bring in more (donation) dollars than girls bowling, but bowling still needs a piece of the pie,” Mathieson said.

The needs in terms of dollars appear to grow each year. Mathieson said established funding sources – Evergreen School District, ticket sales, concessions, ASB cards – are down about $80,000 from five years ago.

Like Drake, Mathieson is not opposed to sponsorship in athletics.

“Some districts will not talk about doing advertising, but then you walk through their (school) commons, and there are Pepsi or Coke machines with their advertising,” Mathieson said. “If it’s a good idea and it helps the kids, then what is the difference?”

Drake says everything must be considered when it comes to raising money for athletics. Drake can see a day where schools get out of the game-transportation business, because of cost. He can also see a reduction in coaches’ salaries, just to save programs.

“It’s not that I don’t care about public reaction, I do,” Drake said. “But I know the need. We’re willing to try anything legally, any measure, to keep things going.”


Leave a Reply