Team Financial Disclosures

[SpringsFD158]

My DD plays 16U and on her third TB team. The 1st two were startups and just so girls could play. Her current team is a well established team, part of an organization where all aspects (training, coaching, level of play) are leaps and bounds ahead of where she started. My main question is her 1st team gave a breakdown of finances. 2nd team had no money flow problems, charged very little to play on team, but head of organization was more worried about "fruitless" items such as coaches attire and such then putting into tournament fees and useful equipment. Now being part of a singular team in an organization, we've been part of for a couple years now, we pay our dues and do some outside fundraising, but still seem to be walking "fine line" of do we have enough. Just wondering if its norm to have a financial breakdown of where your money goes or is it normal to just pay your money and it is what it is. Just wondering if team gets their fair share? Am I being "hyper-critical?

 

[Long Baller]

DD played for a few different org's over her career. The younger ages when we did individual team fundraising, it was normal for the coach to be transparent with the books to show you where the fundraising dollars went. As she got older, we were with "bigger" org's that didn't fundraise so you paid your dues no questions asked. Many org's are for profit entities, so a portion of your team fees go straight to the org head's pocket book.

 

[EdLovrich]

Just my 2 cents: Would you invest in a company without seeing its prospectus? You can be sure the info is already available, if these are for-profit or non-profits, there are filings that are done. I wouldn't ask to see the whole tax form, but an abbreviated P&L would not be out of line.

 

[ang2bmd]

We have run teams both start ups and with organizations. We always keep a spreadsheet of expenses and are certainly willing to go over it with any parent at any time, but we don't send it out on a regular basis. When asked I think most parents are completely clueless about how much things actually cost. Especially here in the midwest where we have to pay for indoor practice time which runs about 75 dollars an hour. They also typically greatly under estimate tournament costs. We usually didn't even charge to the team for equipment like balls and nets and extra tees if something broke because we figured we would keep them ourselves when the season ended. Now my older daughters team is high end national organization and I don't ask to see the books. Shes getting what she needs to im good with that.

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[Strike2]

If you believe you're getting decent value for what you're paying, then I wouldn't spend much time worrying about it. However, I know of some pretty ridiculous fees charged by orgs that are not that good, but people still line up to pay it for some reason. When your $2000 per year (and up) "big name org" team is getting lit up by that independent "pay as we go", that should quickly signal a problem with value.

 

[Schmick's Gloves]

Can't remember any of the good organizations my kid played for telling us exactly where each cent went.
What has always been more important is a team giving us an accurate calendar letting us know what weekends we would have off and what tournaments we would play in so we could schedule travel and vaycays.
It's not difficult to figure out that if a team only plays in one tournament a month and doesn't have indoor practice/hitting every week, dues should be 150 or less a month. If a team plays 3 weekends a month, has indoor facility work every week and doesn't constantly ask for fund raising money, then you may expect to pay 250 or so a month

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[texasheat]

Just my 2 cents: Would you invest in a company without seeing its prospectus? You can be sure the info is already available, if these are for-profit or non-profits, there are filings that are done. I wouldn't ask to see the whole tax form, but an abbreviated P&L would not be out of line.

Based on my experience if you required a look at the P&L in order to play on a team, you would have very very few options. Maybe even zero. At the end of the day it boils down to this. Do you think you are receiving fair value in return for the dues you're paying? If the answer is yes, who cares about the P&L. If the answer is no, talk to the powers that be and see if your expectations are out of whack or if there is something nefarious going on. It will be easy to tell which one is the case.

 

[EdLovrich]

Based on my experience if you required a look at the P&L in order to play on a team, you would have very very few options. Maybe even zero.

Is this your experience from having asked to see the financials or your reaction to having been asked by someone to see them? Or neither of the above?

 

[thecat]

A timely post. I just started my first team a few months ago. Everything is transparent. Otherwise someone will have questions. The coach should buy their own personal gear anyway

 

[Orange Socks]

Just my 2 cents: Would you invest in a company without seeing its prospectus? You can be sure the info is already available, if these are for-profit or non-profits, there are filings that are done. I wouldn't ask to see the whole tax form, but an abbreviated P&L would not be out of line.

Thanks coach for offering my DD a roster spot on your team. Before we pay our first installment, I would like a quick looksie at your team's year end Balance sheet. Coach: Yeah about that balance sheet you want to see. Uh, NO!

As others have said and there have been other threads on this very topic. It's okay to be walking on a thin line as long as tournaments, ump fees, field time, uniforms, and quite possibly coach stipends are being paid on time, and you feel there is good development, good showcasing, good recruiting then I'll keep writing checks. As a team becomes more established, there will be left over monies year to year which will build a cushion that alleviates the stress. Many high end tournaments ask for the tournaments fees a year in advance and they were very expensive. I liked when the coach would send out the summer summer schedule in February with a couple TBD's for filler tourneys sprinkled in. Meanwhile, my buddy's team had no clue about what tourneys they were playing. One summer they played only 4 tourneys!!! Parent were not happy. This might be a situation were I might ask, but I would be looking for a different team if it got to that point. DD was on the same 18U team for 3 years and I had a pretty good idea of what tourneys we were gonna play every year before the schedule was sent out. It's pretty much the same in every region of the country.