Increase in participation leaves department scrambling for funds

Sixty thousand dollars.

That’s the amount that was tasked for the upkeep of four intramural fields, paying for every referee and staff member for a season, and every other expenditure Intramurals would have for the school year.

“And we’re going to end up over our budget for the year because we’ve had over 100 teams more that played this year than last,” Director of Intramurals Bert Rosenberger said.

The increase gave Rosenberger 646 teams to prepare and plan for; it also created some budget problems.

Of the $60,000 that was budgeted from Campus Life, $46,000 was allocated for paying employees, leaving $14,000 for everything else.

“Each team costs us a little over $100 each. That’s for new equipment like flag belts and softballs, and upkeep of the fields because each team plays on the same fields as everyone else.”

Bert Rosenberger, Director of Intramurals

“That involves new equipment, T-shirts, sending teams to the state tournament, uniforms, paint for the fields,” Rosenberger said. “You name what we need, that $14,000 was for it.”

Intramurals gets additional income, from a $40 fee each team pays through imleagues.com to play. That amounts to another $24,000 after credit card transaction fees are accounted for.

Though the fee may seem high, it actually is among the lowest in the state. West Georgia charges $100 per team, per sport, and the University of Georgia takes in $75. Georgia Southern, regarded as one of the top intramural programs in the state, asks $40, the same as Georgia College.

And yet, the fee isn’t enough to help cover operating costs.

“Each team costs us a little over $100 each,” Rosenberger said. “That’s for new equipment like flag belts and softballs, and upkeep of the fields because each team plays on the same fields as everyone else.”

Being the highest percentage of the available student population participating can make it tricky as well: This year, more than 2,300 different people have played at least once, giving each field a pounding five to six nights a week.

“Each hour we have all games going for 4-on-4 flag football and softball costs us roughly $150 an hour,” Rosenberger said.

For instance, April 6, which had a full slate of games, cost $594 just in salaries for the five hours.

Originally, the budget had money allocated specifically for field maintenance, but the increased amount of teams forced that money to be used for paying the extra officials needed for the extra games.

That’s with two thirds of the staff making minimum wage per hour.

But for the future, SGA recently passed a $10,000 per year fund that will be used only to maintain and improve the intramural fields, beginning this July.

“This will help us get our fields to accomodate to the high level our participation is at now,” Rosenberger said.

“And hopefully, it’ll help us stay under budget.”

Posted by Caleb Rule on Apr 21 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.