Birmingham Raises Pay-to-Play Rates for Middle, High School Athletes

If you or your child is a student athlete in you may be paying more in September.

The district’s Athletic Advisory Board will raise the pay-to-play rates for middle and high school students next year $10 to $20 per student, depending on the sport played.

According to deputy superintendent Paul DeAngelis, the rate increase is part of the district's continuing effort to reduce general fund dollars supporting athletics. Seaholm athletic director Aaron Frank said the district is expected to collect an additional $16,000 next year from pay-to-play rates.

The new pay system will raise rates for middle school students from $110 to $120 per student. High school sports will be divided into two tiers, with two different pay structure. Upper tier sports will cost $165 per student and lower tier sports will stay at the current $145-per-student rate.

According to Frank, high school sports were divided into tiers based  on the costs of equipment, referees and officials, transportation and coaching, tournament entry fees and the total number of participants.

Sports assigned to the upper tier are:

• Baseball
• Softball
• Boys and girls basketball
• Boys and girls water polo
• Volleyball
• Skiing

Other sports will cost $145 per athlete with the exclusion of gynmastics, figure skating and hockey whose athletes do not pay the district.

Frank said the district is constantly evaluating the cost per athlete for each sport, but the key factor is the number of participants. Some sports like football, he said, are expensive but with 110-115 students participating each year, the costs are more widely distributed. Sports with fewer students, he said, cost more to school.

"We're hoping to keep (the pay-to-play rate) as low as possible but also do it in the fairest way possible," Frank said. "There's a certain base cost to operate a program no matter what. The tiering is meant to help continue to keep our budget in balance and do it in a way that most fairly allocates that additional revenue back to the programs that cost the most."

Birmingham ranks  in the middle of the pay-to-play rate in Oakland County. Clawson charges $100 per athlete. . Troy charges $175 per athlete.

The athletic department collected $347,000 in revenue last year. In recent years it implemented a variety of cost-saving measures, including online registration, reducing transportation and custodial costs and contracting the coaching staff.

“We will continue to reduce equipment and transportation costs, but the pay-for-participation increase is a way to generate revenue,” DeAngelis said.

sports mom Kristen MacKay, whose son Austen Park plays lacrosse and football for the Maples, said she's not particularly bothered by the rate increase, but notes that having a kid play sports is already expensive.

While the districts provides all required equipment, many sports are funded through boosters and parental support. MacKay said she has spent $600-700 for her son to play football, and nearly $800 this year for his lacrosse equipment.

“If the difference between the different tiers is $20, I don’t think it is that much of an issue,” MacKay said. “I don’t like pay-to-play in general, but I do understand that it is necessary, particularly when the school budget cuts get deeper and deeper each year.”