Tournament gate fees

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I am trying to understand how people can charge an admission fee to get into a public park. I know a City has guildlines about when you can charge an admission fee into a Public park and when you cant, but it seems wrong to me, the use of Public funds to build and upkeep the fields, and then some Organization that is not even based in that City can come in get a permit for the field and then charge somebody who lives in that city an admission fee lol.

The Middle class in America is nickle and dimed to death, and nobody ever questions how or why.

If TD's had to raise their prices of tourneys to offset not being able to charge an admission fee, atleast that would be a controlled cost. As it is now, you have no idea weekend to weekend what you or your family is going to pay.

 

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Yeah the past weekend we payed $5 per person and $1 for additional kids

 

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Being Wilmington and Chillicothe are city parks..... I could NEVER charge for entry or parking.... ever . I like it that way.

Teams have to look at everything. Yes you might be paying 275 or 300 to get into a tournament... but by the time youpay per person, etc... you just paid over 600 to 700 dollars to get in that 275 tournament...lol

I know from my standpoint... I will start having to charge a little more next year to keep up with the expense of running a tournament for the girls.

 

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The past 2 weekends cost me a total of $60 dollars for my wife and me. That to me seems excessive. I have 2 other small kids, who as of now are not being charged to get in. I was walking into the park and thought to myself, why am I being charged a gate fee to get into a public park? I need to investigate this further lol. ;D

 

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we were in Tennessee and we got charged $12 an adult for the weekend.

 

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I agree softball gate prices are sometimes brutal....But its nothing compared to CYO!

 

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I was wondering about this a bit too. My mother likes to come see the games but asked where does the money go?

The teams pay to enter the tourney, I'd assume that it pays for the field rentals. There is profits from the concessions, where does it go? The profits from the entry fees, where do they go?

Not angry.... just trying to understand

 

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The tourn.directors will charge whatever they can get us to pay. No one will miss their kids' games over $5.
It does seem greedy to me, but our family just buys less food from the consessions and don't buy t-shirts.
Teams need to consider these costs when choosing tournaments in the future, whenever possible.

The $5 a day parking fee at Berliner was out of line.
One game Friday, they still charge $5.
A lot of teams will not come back next year.

 

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I agree softball gate prices are sometimes brutal....But its nothing compared to CYO!

This is true.

 

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One thing I am wondering is if they can legally charge you to get into a city owned and ran park. I did some research and next I am checking into local fields, because there are some parks around the country that have specific rules for charging admission and there are other fields that do not allow it. I am curious as to how many of us have attended a tourney paid a gate fee were the Organization was not legally allowed to charge an admission fee.

Here is a rule I found for a ball park in SC.

Sec. 21-6. Park Admission Fees


Charitable, political or nonprofit organizations may use city park facilities and charge a fee for an event so long as the event does not effectively exclude the general public from the use of the entire park in question. However, it shall be unlawful for any person, group or entity to charge a public admission fee or event fee for entrance to a public park


These are the kind of rules I am curious about.

 

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Tournament fees are high enough not to mention everything else. To charge entrance fees is ridiculous and just a money sucking TD in my book. Those who charge will lose more and more teams every year. I am considering doing more multiple team scrimmages every year ( like the one in West Liberty this year ) and fewer tourneys. They supplied umpires and balls and we did a round robin format. 4 games for $100.00 in one day. Most tourneys are $350.00 for a 4 game guarantee - ridiculous. Mitch had a great idea and still made money at $100.00 a team plus concessions. Charge $150.00 a team and the winner can get trophies or t-shirts. This is a way to get TD's back in line with pricing in my opinion. Congrats Mitch on the idea and I hope more and more teams do this next year.

 

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One thing I am wondering is if they can legally charge you to get into a city owned and ran park. I did some research and next I am checking into local fields, because there are some parks around the country that have specific rules for charging admission and there are other fields that do not allow it. I am curious as to how many of us have attended a tourney paid a gate fee were the Organization was not legally allowed to charge an admission fee.

Here is a rule I found for a ball park in SC.

Sec. 21-6. Park Admission Fees


Charitable, political or nonprofit organizations may use city park facilities and charge a fee for an event so long as the event does not effectively exclude the general public from the use of the entire park in question. However, it shall be unlawful for any person, group or entity to charge a public admission fee or event fee for entrance to a public park


These are the kind of rules I am curious about.

I wonder if a similar rule applies to the Toledo Tune Up in Sylvania as only the ball fields are charged admission while the rest of the park is open.

 

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I wonder too ... but then again, that will only get us a bit over a gallon of gas anymore..

 

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This is always a touchy subject but the truth of the matter is that entry fees barely cover the sanction fees, umpires, trophies, game balls and the help needed to keep the fields in good condition. Yes, concessions help but we all know far more time is spent tailgating than buying from the concession stand. It's not as lucrative as you may imagine considering all the work that goes into running a major tournament.

 

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Hockeybuckeye- Pacesetter in Sylvania this year held a Fastpitch High school tourney the TCL/NLL Challenge on one side of Pacesetter. It cost $5 bucks a person to get into, on the other side was a Men's slow pitch tourney were there was no admission fee lol, I kind of found that amusing. They had a beer truck so I stopped over there between games ;D

 

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....
The $5 ?a day parking fee at Berliner was out of line.
One game Friday, they still charge $5.
A lot of teams will not come back next year.

I tried to get a coach's pass at Berliner. They (TD) said it's not us, it's the city charging to park. With 96 teams and about 10 cars per team @ $5.00 a pop. That adds up to ~ $4800 a day in parking. Close to $15,000 for the tournament. Not a bad chunk of change to get into a city park.

 

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That's the explanation I got at Berliner in Columbus. The gate fee is strictly the jurisdiction of the City of Columbus and anyone holding a tournament there has no say in the matter.

I'm sure that there might be as many variations on how this is handled as there are cities, fields or tournaments.

One nice thing I've found out about Berliner- everytime I've pulled in there wearing an umpire uniform, the parking attendant has waived me through- no charge!

One other thing I've noticed there- sometimes the gate fee is $3.00, sometimes it is $5.00. When the higher price is charged, I wonder if the organization holding the tourney is taking a cut?

 

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sluggerfest 13.00 busto blast 13.00 all at rivershore this year

 

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As someone stated in an earlier post, after you pay your expenses, you make very little off of registration fees. I can tell you at Genshaft park in Massillon, you can't even do your own concessions because they sold their concession stand. So the only money made is on admissions, t-shirts, and an other vendor that comes and give a percentage of their sales. most tournaments are fundraisers for organizations and they are in it to make a profit. If tournaments had no way to make profits, you will see many less tournaments and less girls would be able to play. maybe we should sit back and say it is cheaper than taking the family to a movie, a pro game, a broadway show, a concert, etc. Even the HS states charged admission and it was a lot higher than most tournaments for a lot less games.

 

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ringer, they didn't charge you extra? those guys are fired the next time i see them....i think they took one of those under-car anti-terrorist mirrors to mandan's car, now he'll gladly pay the gate fee next time