High school football has high expenses, low revenue

October 28, 2011|By John Keilman, Tribune reporter
  • Concession sales, like these at Downers Grove South High School, help defray some costs of football programs. Ticket sales and fundraisers also help.
Concession sales, like these at Downers Grove South High School, help defray some costs of football programs. Ticket sales and fundraisers also help. (Benjamin Chernivsky, Photo for the Chicago Tribune)

Illinois' high school football playoffs start Friday, a season-ending reward for immense physical effort, shrewd game planning — and a whole lot of spending.

Some of the most successful Chicago-area programs drop more than $100,000 a year to play under the Friday night lights, a sum that for all the sport's popularity is only modestly offset by ticket sales, concessions and fundraisers. The athletes themselves sometimes must come up with hundreds of dollars for the privilege of playing.

"Using the most conservative cost estimates and the most liberal revenue estimates, football might cover half of its cost — maybe," said Hugh Franks, a former economics teacher in West Texas who published one of the only financial analyses of high school football. "It doesn't even come close."

That's because tickets cost just a few dollars, if anything. Stadiums have no luxury boxes, let alone beer sales. And for now, there is no television revenue of any consequence. (Wheaton Warrenville South and Glenbard West high schools made only $1,000 apiece for playing on ESPN earlier this year, their athletic directors said.)

The expenses, meanwhile, are considerable. Coaching stipends can approach six figures for a large staff. Rosters often carry more than 100 boys, each of whom needs a helmet that costs around $250, shoulder pads that run about $150 and a uniform that goes for roughly $150. And many schools are replacing their grass fields with synthetic turf, an installation that can cost well over $1 million.

Then there are more exotic purchases, driven by competitive pressure. The End Zone Club, a football booster organization at Elmhurst's York High School, bought a $7,000 DVD duplicator and a $2,500 computer and software package so the team's coaches could carve up and distribute scouting video to their players, tipping them off to their opponents' strategies.

"I would say at least 75 percent of the teams are doing something like that," said Mike Kuhn, the club's parent coordinator. "We try to do whatever we can to remain status quo and not go backward."

As with all areas of education, funding for football varies widely. Homewood-Flossmoor, for example, budgeted about $133,000 for its program this year, while Morris, a school on the southwestern fringe of the Chicago area, budgeted $70,000. Taft, on Chicago's Northwest Side, expects to spend only $11,000.

Even with such a disparity, Mickey Pruitt, the football coordinator for Chicago Public Schools, says cash has little relation to success.

"When it comes down to it, it's about execution on the football field," said Pruitt, a former Chicago Bear. "Only 11 (athletes) play at a time. If they're coached well enough, they can overcome the money part."

One entity that does make money from the sport is the Illinois High School Association, the organization that runs the playoff system. The group says it took in almost $2 million in football revenue last year, primarily from ticket sales. Its expenses, including the money it shared with participating schools, were about $850,000.

That made football the IHSA's No. 1 earner, with the boys' basketball tournament a close second. Executive Director Marty Hickman said the surplus was used to fund other events, from tennis to bass fishing, for which the organization does not charge admission.

While the returns are still small at the local level — Glenbard West, one of the state's top teams, spends about $100,000 on its program but made only $16,727 in admission fees last year — some schools are starting to dip into the same revenue stream that nourishes college and pro sports.

Wheaton North is streaming football games and other activities through an Internet service called iHigh, which allows the school to sell commercial time and advertising space to local businesses.

So far it has booked only two clients, a health club and a construction company, but athletic director Matt Fisher said that could be just the start: Some out-of-state schools, he said, are earning tens of thousands of dollars from their websites.

"It has potential to be significant, to offset the funds we get from the district," he said. "But I think it'll take some time to get there."

Despite football's high price tag, some school officials say it remains an economical student activity. Maine Township High School District 207 analyzed its sports programs two years ago and found that while football had by far the highest total cost, its cost per participant was in the middle of the pack.

At three-time defending state champion Maine South, for example, the football program cost $180,000, but spread over 208 athletes, it was less expensive than boys' golf, gymnastics and even water polo.

If there's any criticism of the cost of high school football, it remains muted. Students and parents at this year's jam-packed game between Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South said the Friday night event was as much a social ritual as an athletic contest, allowing friends and families to get together amid the crack of shoulder pads and the brassy peals of the marching band.

Downers South junior Angie Ruggiero, 16, clad head to toe in vivid "SuperFan" gear, said she sometimes hears resentment over the money directed at football but believes it's misplaced. She said that with games providing a night's worth of socializing and entertainment for perhaps $5 (not counting the $2 umbrella hat atop her head), there's nothing else like it in high school.

"(Other) sports, nobody cares, but I understand," she said. "This is more intense."


Twitter: @JohnKeilman