In last Tuesdays class we did a project that involved acting like an Athletic Director for a school and giving money to the different sports. Each sport had a minimal limit on how much money we could give out. We received a $20,000 donation, had fundraising, and charged $50 for pay to play for the teams that were not highly ranked.
We started by adding all the bold expenses (which was expenses we had to pay) and came up with $151,350. Then we added up the fundraising for the four biggest teams which were football, women and men's track, and women and men's swimming. Then we ended up charging $50 for pay to play for the rest of the teams and added up the $20,000 from a donation. We added up the total of $165,500 from the fundraising, pay to play, and the donation. After adding up the total, we subtracted the $165,500 from the $151,350 and then we got $14,150. From that total we took $1,000 from men and women's shot put and discuss in track, $1,200 from volleyball jerseys, $2,000 from hockey jerseys, $1,200 for men and women's soccer jerseys, and lastly $6,000 for men's football helmets. There were 8 remaining sports that did not receive any extra funding, so we divided our left over $1,550 by 8 and gave the rest to those sports for them to spend the money however they would like.
This project was helpful in making me realize how money is distributed between sport teams in every school. Distributing money takes time, patience, teamwork, and a lot of thought. Even though it is important to distribute money evenly through the different sports, some times more money has to go to the higher ranked sports. This might seem unfair at times, but in the end the higher ranked team will earn more money from winning games and attracting fans, so giving them more money will bring in more profit for the school.
Kody Burlingame, Nicholas Vanderpool, RJ Hefflinger, Jacob Beverly
I was thinking about this whole budget management and it really could not be addressed in the proper way. I think to really get a good idea on how things should be budgeted and to see each person’s biases towards the sports, each person should have done their own budget based on their senior year of high school. My school had just received new helmets and basketball had the floor re-finished so a few of the things that we said yes to would have not gotten by if it was just me doing it. Also pay to play at my school was like 80 dollars a player and other group members didn’t even have to pay so they thought the idea was unrealistic at 50 dollars, which we had set it in the budget. Some of the bold items were previously done as well so that would have opened up more money for a possible team to go to a camp to another state or something fun.
ReplyDeleteOverall this short little budget activity really shows how hard it can be to run a budget for anything. Money is always going to be tight and the people in charge really have to make good, responsible decisions when the budget affects so many people. Even when you make good decisions on what to spend money on your going to have some people not like it just because their kids sport didn’t get anything that year. Being an athletic director and seeing that the money is spread as evenly as it can be is certainly a challenge and good directors need to be very good communicators just as much as they are with numbers. I learned a lot seeing the items with real numbers behind them and how much was coming in and even though it wasn’t real, I felt bad for the teams that we didn’t leave any money to.
By:RJ Hefflinger
I'm glad you included your insights on doing this activity R.J. I think whether you did this as individuals or in a group, each person probably would bring certain predispositions as to how the money should be spent. In one group, there was a football player who thought football's needs should be met first, while in another, there was a soccer player who didn't think the football team should have as much money. How many Athletic Directors are former coaches (often former football coaches)? As a result, they might be tempted to show favoritism toward football. I'm glad you could see that being an Athletic Director would be challenging and would require good communication skills.
DeleteThanks for sharing your reflections on this activity!
Dr. Spencer
I really think this was an interesting activity because I had never really thought about all the thought and decision making that goes into allocating money as an athletic director. I didn't realize that athletic directors make tough decisions frequently and have to give some sports the short end of the stick. It is also interesting to see what sports some people favor over others because like Dr. Spence said people may have bias towards the sports they have played. As a group we tried to be as fair as possible towards every sport but some sports are more expensive than others and it results in them getting a need taken care of and no extra money towards new equipment or a team trip. Where as less expensive teams get more benefits because it is easier to allocate money to that sport. I learned through this activity that it is hard to equally allocate money no matter how much you want to be fair and that a lot of thought has to go into making decisions as an athletic director.
ReplyDeleteBy: Jacob Beverly