Every year, Berkeley High School spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on the school’s various athletic teams. Whether it be new swimsuits, football gear, or maintaining BHS’ various athletic fields, the cost of running a sport is often incredibly high. Funding for each BHS sport varies, but the cost to keep up with inflation and expenses running each season, BHS students should be more aware of the varying circumstances between each sports team that contribute to athletic expenses.
One BHS sport that especially feels the weight of budgeting and pricy equipment is girls water polo. Players have to accrue a lot of funds outside of school to ensure that they can stay properly funded throughout the season, which can take a lot of effort. Shiloh Wahl, a BHS sophomore, noticed a ton of encouragement to donate and fundraise for her sport. “We have to pay $100 for a water polo suit … on the water polo team especially, we have to put a lot of effort into raising money, and we spend a lot of time fundraising,” Wahl said. Fundraising takes a huge amount of energy, and having to pay for personal gear can take a toll on players.
Additionally, a lot of sports gear that players need must be refurbished frequently. Ava Witschi, a BHS sophomore who plays field hockey and lacrosse commented on the little costs that add up over time when investing in high quality equipment. “If you really enjoy doing a sport it’s better to have your own stuff because you get used to it … that includes cleats, stick, helmet, mouth guard and other clothing. And after a while that adds up. Especially when you play a sport that is not cheap, like lacrosse, where a good stick is around 300 dollars and they suggest getting it restrung every other season, and that’s like 100 dollars,”. Witschi said. The cost to be an athlete for a public school is a frequent cause of stress, and bearing the weight of expensive equipment can be difficult for many athletes at BHS.
At BHS, football plays a huge role in athletic involvement from students, both from watching Friday night games and playing the sport themselves. But while many students are familiar with the sport’s flashy games and packed stadiums, many people aren’t familiar with the fundraising football has to do during the year to stay financially afloat during the fall season. Since many students are unaware of the amount of fundraising sports such as football must do, there is a myth that they receive more or less or different funding from other sports, according to Ross Parker, BHS Athletic Director. However, much of the expenses for running different teams relies greatly on the cost of individual facets that the team’s budget needs to reach. “Funding is like buckets. You have coaches, officials, equipment, transportation, game management... Badminton is incredibly cheap to run. But football is expensive, but then football also brings in about $25,000 in tickets. So it becomes really close to revenue neutral,” Parker said. While some sports look like they’re getting more support on the surface, fundraising is incredibly crucial to the outlay each sport is able to spend on the countless expensive aspects of running a school athletics team.
All in all, the different team budgets that go into paying for an athletic team can vary. But the nuances and differences between the cost to run each individual sport at BHS is a huge contributor to the amount of funding each sport receives, which is something students need to be increasingly aware of in order to understand why some sports appear more funded than others.