Team dues during COVID 19 crisis

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Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
What is your team/org doing about dues for the season?

We are on a 14u national level travel team. We have no tournaments scheduled until late May. Most of our team are freshmen so the team wasn't expected to play but the few 8th graders were expected to play on an 8’s team during the spring but we have not played a game.


I’m trying to see what would be expected of your org during this time.
 
May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
We are a 12u team. The team's total budget was right around $28,000. That sounds like a huge budget, almost all of that money has already been spent. 14 total tournaments between fall, spring, and summer. There is only about $1,000 left in the kitty, and that money was set aside for field rentals for the spring and summer.

Indoor training - $9,000
Fall practices and round robins - $1,000
4, Fall tournaments - $2,475
Misc fees - $1010 This everything from team insurance, softballs, background, checks, registration to all the different organization (pgf, ASA, etc.)
Team fee - $7,200 This is for uniforms, cleats, bat bag, helmet, website, etc. Paid non parent head coach
10, Spring/Summer Tournaments - $6,400

That total comes to $27,085

Basically, if the entire spring and summer season is canceled there, would be a refund of $6,400 for the 10 tournaments in the spring and summer plus about $1,000 that was left in the kitty that was going to be spent on practice fields. $7,400 roughly.

That $6,400 for spring and summer tournaments has already been spent. That money is sitting with the tournament directors from all the softball organization such as; PGF, ASA, USSSA Elite Select. We have already had 3 tournaments canceled, in March and April. We have not got the money back yet. So I don't see how the softball teams can issue any refunds any time soon.

The other issue is that there are a lot of teams that may be trying to add tournaments on their off weekends, or possibly extend the season to make up for missed tournaments.

Honestly, there are just too many unknowns at this time to issue any refunds.

Edit- The team had 3 seperate payments. All players were paid in full by March 1st
 
Last edited:

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
What is your team/org doing about dues for the season?

We are on a 14u national level travel team. We have no tournaments scheduled until late May. Most of our team are freshmen so the team wasn't expected to play but the few 8th graders were expected to play on an 8’s team during the spring but we have not played a game.

If you are a national level 14U team the team will be paying deposits/ will shortly be paying deposits for some tournaments you should be playing several months in advance so you are going to be paying some fees as per normal.

That assumes you are in position to pay your fees right now (i.e. you are still employed). I would expect any team to be finding ways to work with their families at this time.

You should have a full understanding of how they are going to handle getting refunds back in the May/June time frame is tournaments don't happen. There was a pretty thorough discussion on that a few days ago.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Asking about player/family situation is appropriate not insisting!
Inquire is in consideration!

Touching base with players/familes for ongoing monthly dues with a proposed playing schedule.
To find out what could/might work seems an appropriate approach.

For those that paid giant amount upfront. Again inquire to the players/family situation about proposed schedule.

Things have changed !

Here most pay monthly.
Majority coaches spoken with waived fee's now.
One team heard paying 1/2
With half of families upset at that.
AND one coach sent e-mail out this week saying full dues are required thru April & May,
Which they did collect March for the two weeks.
This reflected horribly for the coach...which that email may have ended that team.
*Calif. Safe at home no school started mid March
 
Mar 10, 2020
734
63
Paid in advance will look to receive partial refund shorter season. Pending if other teammates cant participate no team more refund.
 
Apr 1, 2017
535
93
My guess is most orgs don’t have a plan in place, other than going larger scale with how they would handle a single tourney that gets rained out.

We have people here that have gone through tryouts for hundreds, maybe 1000’s, of different teams. Has anyone ever asked at tryouts how refunds would be handled if the entire season was cancelled?
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
This was more my concern. I asked and was told no plan was currently in place. I'm wondering if others had a plan and what it was.

Thanks for your reply.

This is our orgs current policy in case you didn't see it.

 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
We pay quarterly. Last payment was due April 1 which included payments for all tournaments through July 1 plus the 50 dollar org fee. All tournaments but 2 were paid for up front and even with that taken out of our account already we still had a positive balance due to fundraising and refunds from last Fall tournaments which were cancelled (and one early this Spring). I just gave the coach the $150 for the org fees and told him if we play those tournaments not already paid for, and after all of the refunds we will be getting for cancelled tournaments I have a negative balance, then I will pay him what is necessary to make my balance positive $50 (which is the minimum balance they want in there at all times). I don't expect to have to be doing that tbh...
 
May 31, 2018
227
43
Allen TX
We collected March payments (3/15), and we have notified our parents of our plan to collect April payments (4/15). This is based on the premise that tournaments will start back up in May and we will be prepared to play. If tournaments do not start by May 16th, we will cancel May payments. We will issue refunds or carry the balance forward to the fall (family discretion) after the we understand how many (if any) tournaments we will play.

We are also operating a "Plan B" that the Spring/Summer/Fall seasons may be 1 prolonged Fall season. We are a 2nd year 12u team, and if we can't start by mid-June (or play at least 6 tournaments Spring/Summer), we will move to 14u the minute it is safe to play again. This has also been communicated to the team. This may make tryouts uncertain, but we are prepared to move forward with our current roster as is, and may even add 1 new player if the right girl is looking for a team. We are fortunate enough to have a good group, but in uncertain times likes these, who knows what will happen.

I plan on keeping communications open, keeping the girls engaged, and being highly flexible with whatever scenario works best for our families.

Safety is a priority.

We are also sensitive to people being out of work, laid-off, loss of income, etc. We will deal with each case separately, and make things work the best we can. Luckily, most of our parents have essential jobs (nurses, teachers, law enforcement, etc) so I do not think anyone has been impacted financially yet (I will most likely be the first).
 

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