Nebraska School System Runs Athletics With Few Taxpayer Funds

Lincoln Journal Star

http://journalstar.com/sports/high-school/lps-runs-athletic-program-with-minimal-taxpayer-funds/article_c7c039ef-c2f3-5898-be9d-2c76c2d7fa0f.html

Nothing irritates Lincoln Public Schools athletic director Karen Hand more than seeing people sit outside the south fence at Seacrest Field and watch a high school football game without paying admission.

“I’m not sure they realize what they pay at the gate affects us,” Hand said. “We have to have those gate receipts to run our athletic programs.”

The final figures from the 2011-12 budget year are still being tallied, but in 2010-11, LPS spent $1.31 million on athletics (not counting coaches’ salaries,  which are part of salary costs in the general fund budget). Of that amount, $317,050 was covered by taxpayer money — $240,210 as LPS’s general fund contribution and a $76,840 stipend to cover ninth-grade athletics.

The rest is made up of gate receipts for all the sports, corporate sponsorships, advertising and revenue from hosting Nebraska School Activities Association activities. LPS has been able to avoid requiring students to pay a fee to play sports, something that cash-strapped school districts around the nation have been forced to implement.

In the 2010-11 term, football brought in $190,313 in receipts ($158,391 for the regular season and $31,922 for playoffs), while boys and girls basketball produced $106,482. Hosting NSAA activities was worth another $102,186.

Hand said attendance was up slightly in 2011-12 compared with the previous year, so she expects better gate revenue when the final numbers are released.

General-admission tickets for LPS events are $5 for adults and $3 for students. LPS employee passes are now $65 for a year (good for any LPS event) and student passes are $30.

“We really don’t want to raise our prices if we can avoid it,” Hand said.

The $317,050 of taxpayer funds is less than 0.1 percent of LPS’s general fund expenditures of $359.4 million for the 2010-11 school year. That benefited 5,104 student-athletes who made athletic teams at the six high schools.

Hand said that during the budget process, which is currently going on for the 2012-13 school year, the six high school athletic directors present budgets for their respective departments. She said allocations for equipment and supplies are the same for every school, so no one can have a competitive advantage in that area.

“The transportation for each school is different based on how many road games they have, and that can vary from year to year,” Hand said. “Everything else we try to keep as close as possible so students from each school have the same opportunities.”