FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 1999
FHSAA Board of Directors approves 1999-2000 budget, member schools to benefit
TAMPA – Member schools are the big winners in a trimmed down fiscal year 1999-2000 budget approved for the Florida High School Activities Association by the FHSAA Board of Directors at its meeting held June 18 at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa.
Under the new budget, built upon new financial policies recommended by Commissioner Robert W. Hughes, member schools will keep more of the revenue they generate from preseason classic tournaments and games, preseason jamborees and regular season invitational tournaments and meets.
Additionally, schools which host state series competitions on the district and regional levels for the Association can expect relief when event revenues fall short of paying the bills for those events.
"The member schools have told us that the amount of money the FHSAA collected from preseason and regular season events, as well as the financial losses incurred by schools which host certain state series events were their two biggest financial concerns," said Commissioner Hughes. "The Board of Directors asked me to take this into consideration when developing the budget for the new year and the staff and I have done that.
"We have trimmed more than a quarter of a million dollars from the budget, almost all of which will either be retained by member schools or reimbursed to member schools during the 1999-2000 school year."
Under Hughes' budget plan, the percentage of revenue collected by the Association from preseason classic tournaments in the sports of baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball will drop from 20 percent to 15 percent, while the FHSAA share from preseason and spring classic football games will drop from 25 to 20 percent. The FHSAA will reduce its take from invitational tournaments and meets from 10 percent to eight percent, while the Association's cut of the gate from postseason football bowl games will drop from 12.5 percent to eight percent.
Based on an analysis of 1997-98 fiscal year data, these percentage cuts will result in an estimated reduction in revenue to the FHSAA of just under $71,000 – all money the schools themselves will be able to keep.
Of greater importance to member schools, however, is a bold, new plan to help those who host district and regional tournaments and meets – the backbone of the Association's budget – with their expenses.
Currently, the FHSAA takes a percentage share of the total gate receipts – 20 percent in football, 15 percent from all other sports – from each state series event before expenses are paid, often leaving the host school with a financial loss. Under the new policy, the Association will take its share only from the net profit of the event after all expenses are paid.
If the net profit is $250 or less, the host school will be allowed to keep the net profit and neither the FHSAA nor the visiting schools will receive any share at all.
More importantly, if a state series event shows a net loss, in other words the expenses exceed the revenues; the Association will reimburse the host school up to $250 for that loss.
Here are some examples:
• A district girls volleyball tournament collects a total gate of $1,200 but incurs $700 in expenses. The FHSAA share will be 15 percent of the $500 net profit, not the $1,200 gross profit.
• A district boys basketball tournament collects a total gate of $1,500 but incurs $1,300 in expenses, leaving a net profit of only $200. The host school will be allowed to keep the $200 net profit and will pay nothing to either the FHSAA or the visiting schools.
• A regional girls softball tournament collects a total gate of $500 but incurs $700 in expenses, realizing a net loss of $200. The FHSAA will reimburse the host school $200 to cover the loss.
• A regional boys soccer game collects a total gate of $300 but incurs $600 in expenses, realizing a net loss of $300. The FHSAA will reimburse the host school $250, and the school will cover the remaining $50 loss.
During the 1997-98 school year, more than 250 FHSAA district and regional events lost money. Based on this data, the estimated loss in revenue to the Association under this new policy will be slightly more than $50,000.
"We won't know for certain what the exact loss to the Association will be until we go through it a year," Hughes said. "But the bottom line is that this Association cannot continue to ask schools to host playoff events and lose money doing it."
Hughes' plan was well received by the Board of Directors.
"Commissioner Hughes and his staff are to be commended," said Dr. J. Howard Hinesley, Superintendent of Schools in Pinellas County and chair of the Board's Finance Committee. "In just a short period of time, he (Hughes) has done what this Board asked and developed a budget which responds to the concerns of the membership which they expressed in the financial survey conducted earlier this year."
The total budget for the 1999-2000 school year, as adopted by the Board of Directors, is $2.65 million dollars, down from $2.92 million for the 1998-99 school year.
In other business, the Board of Directors:
• Adopted a comprehensive manual for FHSAA employees.
• Accepted Hughes' recommendation to deviate from the classification policy adopted earlier this year and approve two classifications of competition for the 2000 FHSAA Florida Weightlifting Finals. Schools with populations of 1,057 or more will be classified Class 2A; schools with 1,056 or less students will be classified Class A. The classification policy called for only one classification in the sport because of the small number of participating schools. The FHSAA staff will work with the Weightlifting Advisory Committee to establish new qualifying totals for the two classifications.
• Delayed until its September meeting the election of the President and Vice President for the new year.
The next meeting of the Board of Directors will be Sept. 26 and 27 at the Savannah Grande Reception Center in Gainesville.
Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org
