Students and spectators pay $5 to attend most school athletic events which adds up the more they go to. At the doors of the school gym stands two students geared up in red, white and blue, all ready to support their team. As one of them takes out cash to buy their ticket, the other has their phone out and is ready to show their Seasonal Athletic Pass to the staff. The difference: one student would only have to pay $24 to attend all the regular season home basketball games.
To students and parents alike, attending school sporting events may seem to hurt them more financially than to their liking. Especially parents who have a three-season athlete and come to their every game would agree that schools should allow their spectators to come for free as they’re supporting their child and the school. In addition, lower-income families may not always be able to afford to come to these games and support their children in the process.
However, through seasonal/yearly passes, the school has created options that make it cheaper for regular spectators to come. Found on the athletics website, GoFan currently offers students to buy either a winter seasonal or all-year ticket for $24 or $40 and for parents $40 or $70, respectively. Therefore, a student wanting to go to all 20 home basketball games (boys’ and girls’ combined) would only pay $24 compared to $100 if they were to buy a $5 ticket each time. On the other hand, with these events being free of cost, students would be more inclined to come, in turn, increasing school spirit and fan turnouts. This would also be appealing to students who don’t understand sports yet still want to have a fun time. Although true, other factors such as school-night games or workload also affect student fan turnouts, none of which are directly related to game prices.
The main reason schools charge for games is because running a high school athletic program is expensive and every team loses more money than they raise. Overall, running the school athletic program costs around $180,000 for the 2022-2023 school year and ticket revenue was allocated to help buy new equipment and pay for the referees, according to athletic director Alton Lightsey.
Even in Texas where athletics is an integral part of their culture and schools are given a large budget, students still have to pay to enter games with their revenue going back to the district. At Tompkins High School, a part of Katy Independent School District outside of Houston, tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for kids on campus, and in their proper stadium, it is $10 for adults and $5 for students, as per athletic director Todd McVey.
One possible solution would be to increase the ticket price for parents to $8 or $10 and have students of the school attend for free, proposed social studies teacher and former athletic director Chris Thompson. However, with that also comes a blow to the athletic department as not enough funds would be generated from ticket sales and it may also lead to less parent involvement in the stands of games. Although it may be irritating to pay for school athletic events, there is a way through GoFan that students can attend for an affordable amount as well as help out the athletic department in the process.
