Fees and payment schedules

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I'm just curious with the way the economy is, what is the typical player fees payment schedule of your org. or other orgs. that you know about. Do most ask for total fees up front, how long do they let you stretch it out with payments. When is the final payment dates and what are the consequences.

No need to mention names just curious if the economy is affecting softball hard yet.

 

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We actually sent out a letter requesting a $125.00 deposit that was due this month.
With times being so hard, we called everyone last weekend and told them to hold off until late January or early February.
Several of the parents said they were so relieved because they were going to have to call and say they didn't have it right now.
Our team is fortunate to have the option to do this.
The team has been together a long time, we are all like family, so we know they are loyal and trust them to not jump ship.
We are on our own and not part of an organization, so we can set our own deadlines.
I know some cannot do that so I hope it does not stop some from being able to play.

 

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We due three payments Sept/ Nov/ Jan but are a lil flexible

 

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We are collecting $200 for each kid by Dec. 1st. Then we have a simple fundraiser that ends Dec. 7th and will go again in March. That is all we are expecting from our parents due to sponsor support paying for our tournaments.

 

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Our player fees are 250.00 and they are due Feb. 1st. We have a 12 tournament schedule and things are tight for everyone
so we will due a couple of fund raisers and have a 10 dollar player fee at each tournament to replenish our funds. At the end of 10 tournaments we will have enough accumulated in the 10.00 fee to pay for the last 2 tournaments plus fall ball and this saves the parents 100.00 up front. We had a meeting on our finances and this went over well.
Good Luck to everyone in 09!!!!!!!


Digger Express

 

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Digger,

Your fees are only $250 and you are playing in 12 tourneys? Wow. Are your fees that low because of the fundraisers?

 

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Cincy, If you look at what digger said, Its $250 plus $10 tournament = $370 plus fundraisers. Interesting concept but more and more tournaments are asking for money up front. For, example if you want to apply for GAPSS and Stingrays, you had to send in over $1000 last week. It is impossible to play 12 tournaments without significant fundraising and $250 fees.

 

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Doing the math here without sponsorship and including uniforms plus a league average fee and only 4 tournaments from average cost...... $350 is the base adding 6 more tournaments?? Without any sponsorship / fundraisers the average on the low end will be around $530 and that is going with low end price ranges. I agree 12 tournaments will spike the scale a lot higher.

If events lower fees and you add fundraisers along with some sponsorship the cost can be lower.
I truely think Tournaments will need to drop entry fees to survive the next 4 years of change.

 

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Digger,

Your fees are only $250 and you are playing in 12 tourneys? Wow. Are your fees that low because of the fundraisers?

Yes, we had 3 fundraisers last year and did pretty well.Last year our fees were 350 and the fees covered the unforms.This year the fees are 250 and the parents pay for the uniforms. They have to pay more over all but it spreads it out a little bit. I noticed that some enrty fees for the tournaments we played last year had gone up. This was a way to obtain the extra entry fee money and the parents not take a hit all at once.We should be able to cover all of our enty fees on time and have the tournaments we play in in the fall paid by the end of august. I propossed this to the parents and they thought it was a great idea.We will still have to do our fundraisers.

 

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This is why NAFA has uniform blowouts and try our best to get the business community to give back to the girls when a tournament comes to their city. Some Convention and Visitor bureaus have indeed and we hope teams look to our events and say thank you to these businesses for giving back. Simple theory actually.

 

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ohioquakerman it is a simple concept in theory but I am not sure how well it works in reality. I am not sure who all of the sponsors are but when people come to town anymore for tournaments they basically frequent a few hotels and a few resturants. Other then that not sure there is much more economic impact. I think that many of these business's get hammered by everyone seeking donations / givebacks and at some point they will just raise the prices to be able to give something back. Not sure that is much of a win / win. Maybe it spreads the cost out over a few more families but ultimately most business's are not just giving something away. Somehow some way it will be passed on.

I am not being negative, just realistic. This is just how the market works.

With regards to the uniform blow-outs that is a good idea but for some organizations that buy all of their uniforms at one time it may not be very practical. Lets say that an organization has 7 or 8 teams and one of them wins the uniform blowout. If the organization already ordered the uniforms or they already purchsed them then what does the winning team recieve? Cash, certificate? Just curious.

 

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Fees within our organization very. My team is at $325 per with 3-4 fundraisers (as you know some go well-some don't). Any left over $$ is divided at end of season. We also require an up front $150 by October, then pick up remaining amount Feb 1 and Mar 1. Helps out during Holidays. All parents really kick in on fundraisers knowing they have a chance to get some back at the end. We also have a large sponsorship program that can give the players the chance to play for no out of pocket if done properly. Obviously, sponsors are becoming harder to come by with the market troubles many are experiencing.