I bring this to your attention because this particular post was inspired by a recent wall posting on the Mercer County Flag Football League Facebook page. One of our more "enlightened" league participants inquired, "Any changes with the $24,000 the league will generate this year. I understand there are more ref fees and greater insurance costs but how about a few enhancements: 2 more games or tourney fee included, cost reduction based on league growth..."
I was curious about what our league actually costs. DISCLAIMER (it is very important that you read this): I do not know the actual costs of the league. I know the costs of the entrance fees, I know how much the officials get paid and I know what the league pays for the fields. I do not know the insurance costs nor do I know the other miscellaneous costs involved with running our league. I am merely making assumptions based on research that I have conducted. My conclusions are my own and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of anyone else. People get funny about money and quite frankly I am glad I do not organize or coordinate this endeavor.
To begin I am working under the premise (premise means assumption) that 32 have joined our league AND have paid IN FULL the $750 entrance fee. For the organizers of teams I know many of you know how difficult a task this can be sometimes. Now imagine collecting that times 32! As correctly stated above this starts us out with the amount of $24,000. From this point we now have to consider costs.
The costliest aspect of running our organization is payroll. In this instance the referees. Referees account for almost 60 percent of our budget. Currently there are 32 teams in our league which means we have 16 games a week. The officials are paid $25 a game with three officials for each game which means each game costs $75 to officiate. $75 x 16 = $1,200 a week for officiating alone. Multiply that over ten weeks and we have $12,000 just for the regular season. When you include the additional $2,050 for officiating in the playoffs the total JUST FOR OFFICIATING is $14,050.
We are now left with a total of $9,950 dollars. For the use of the park, the Mercer County Park Commission charges the league $600 for each field for the entirety of the season. We have four fields so the cost for field rental is $2,400.
This leaves us with a total of $7,550. The next consideration is insurance. This one is a guess and most difficult to ascertain. I went through no less than three websites to gauge a range for pricing. Most insurances consider whether the league is amatuer (Yes), the state we play in (NJ), are we a non-profit (YES), do we own or maintain any facilities, is there ANY form of compensation or prize money for PARTICIPATION (No), is this school sanctioned (no), are the events held on private property (no), do we maintain pools (no) and are we a municipality or a park and recreation division (not sure so I said yes).
Based on my answers, the amount of people to be insured (32*12=384) and the coverage options for the league (in my scenario I chose $100 deductible with a $250,000 medical payments limit and a general liability limit of $3,000,000) I came up with a average $4,200 for insurance on the season.
This leaves the league with a total of $3,350 remaining. this amount does not reflect any extra that I am wholly unaware (like field equipment, referee flags, spray paint, etc etc). Let us just assume for a moment that $3,350 is in fact remaining. Do we expect Charlie and Pat to do all the legwork for FREE? Charlie does the schedule which takes so much time it boggles the mind. Pat organizes the officials and handles other unforeseen activity (like cancellations and/or field movements).
Take the remaining $3,350 and divide that by two and we are left with $1,675 each for Pat and Charlie. Assuming they put in ten hours a week for thirteen weeks (Ten regular season weeks plus three for playoffs and finals). I choose ten because there is four hours of games each Sunday and then the other BS they have to consider during the week itself. This comes to a total of 130 hours of WORK for the duration of the season. Divide the $1,675 by 130 hours and Charlie and Pat have made a TOTAL of $12.89 an hour. Assuming they collect ALL of the money I am happy to pay Charlie and Pat $12.89 an hour for the work they put in to get this going!!!