Changing the Game

As school newspapers go online, GR8sports and GR8fundraisers are there to help

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:01:00 GMT

As print school newspapers face the realities of increasing costs and reduced district support, they will be heading online where they will reduce production costs and fit in with the changing ways teens and their parents want to get their school news and information. For those inclined to choose journalism in their college studies, the online experience is more relevant that the print newspapers.

And that will include sports information. School sports reporters, photographers and even videographers will be able to publish and distribute their stories on a real-time basis rather than once a month or even once a quarter as with their print newspapers.

The GR8sports module is designed for school website integration and uses R.O.P.E technology... Report Once, Publish Everywhere. This allows every school in a conference, even the state, to publish and share content such as scores and standings. The syndicated offer is FREE to school newspapers and booster clubs and can be delivered in their school colors with their mascott. Reporters can show off all their reporting with just a click in their own GR8sports Portfolio.

And once we are prviding a module for school sports, they will welcome income and fundraising opportunites. Income options might include allowing them to sell and activate local advertising ro sponsorships. Fundraising might include integration of the GR8auctions, GR8deals and GR8cars modules.

An important part of the GR8sports publishing model includes a national GR8sports Journalism Club with local chapters to provide guidance, training opportunities, contests, quarterly meetings and even scholarships.

This is another example of how the GR8sports/GR8fundraisers philosophy is unique in the market... focused on the kids, not us. If we focus on the kids through powerful programs for athletes, journalists, booster clubs and parents, we will Change the Game in unexpected ways developing strong, loyal partnerships.

College and Pro Athletes: From Gameday Hero to Hometown Hero

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:38:00 GMT

Becoming a Sportzine Publisher is a great opportunity for former college athletes and retired professional athletes. They can use their experience as a team leader to take their place as a community leader.

College and pro athletes have a unique insider's understanding of the trends in school district budget cuts, the passion and pride of high school and youth sports, and, the culture and challenges of booster club fundraising. They...

Have a winning attitude and will do what it takes to succeed
"Get” the importance of our mission
Are looking for ways to give back to the communities that supported them
Can open doors to state associations, professional teams, sponsors & other partners
Can provide desirable autographed memorabilia for GR8auction items.

The average career in the NFL is 3.5 years and even for the stars, their career is typically over by age 33. There is a lot of life ahead of theses athletes. I read in several places that 78% of pro football players are bankrupt, divorced or unemployed two years after leaving the game.

As Sportzine publishers former college and pro players may find a perfect career and business of their own. In both cases, they should have their first real job experience under their belt but the disciplines and Sportzine tools and guidance can give them the structure they need to succeed. Their own Sportzine could be become their avenue to give back, stay in the public eye and use their celebrity to promote their own business.

Specifically for pro athletes, they can find a full time career option or a semi-active owner option depending on income requirements and time commitment levels. Many retiring athletes have financial resources and don’t want a 9-5 work day but are open to a career where they can travel and spend time with their families but still generate enough income to protect their nest egg.

And active or retired athletes might place their sportzine franchsie inside teir foundation as a way to give back and a way to generate cash for the foundation. Read the blog on managing a Sportzine as a non-profit foundation.

Do your homework, ask the tough questions, and if you are a proven performer with the courage to be first, we will help you win big. It's time to Change the Game... Join the Sportzine team.

High Schools and Corporate Sponsorships

Mon, 23 May 2011 23:51:00 GMT

Traditionally, school districts have declined to sell corporate sponsorships on campus, on busses or at events. There are some exceptions such as scoreboard advertising, center field fence or football sidelines, but in general stadium naming rights, signage and other sponsorship opportunities are left vacant.

The pressure on school districts to find new and creative funding avenues for sports, music and arts is opening doors long believed to be closed, locked and without a key. Read CA: Sacramento, On-campus advertising finding new supporters and TX: Humble, Dealership buys stadium naming rights.

Web2ition sees this as an exciting trend and a future opportunity for our Sportzine Publishers. Over time, we anticipate tripling the fundraising impact we can have on participating booster clubs and increasing the income potential for the publishers as well.

The pace with which school districts open the potential of corporate sponsorships will vary by region and school district, however, it seems likely that within five years, the funding crisis will be so dire, school districts will have no choice but to entertain corporate sponsorships. Of course, as school sports programs are pushed outside the school sanctioning as club sports, those programs will be open to corporate sponsorships immediately, however, they do not own or control the facilities and so the big ticket sponsorship opportunities will always belong to the school districts.

As Sportzine Publishers develop their relationships with school booster clubs, ADs and district administrators and as their relationships with local and regional corporations expand, they will be trusted partners on both sides of the table and the appropriate marketing representative to either take a sponsorship proposal from a company to the school districts, or to promote a sponsorship opportunity by a school district to appropriate corporate candidates.

Being an early partner to schools and booster clubs puts our Sportzine Publishers in a position to establish their credentials and credibility while school districts are getting used to the idea of corporate sponsorships. Having relationships in the business community lets our publishers open doors quickly with the time is right.

The Game is Changing... slowly over time... And Sportzine Publishers will be ready when the time is right.

The 6 Million Dollar Game Plan (Updated)

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:06:00 GMT

The Sportzine Game Plan has three financial interests: 1) participating booster clubs, 2) local businesses (Boostes), and, 3) the Sportzine Publisher. The sporzine business model plan creates a interdependent relationship where all three parties are critical to the game plan success. Without finding a way to tap local businesses, school sports programs will die. Without the commercial value of the students, families and fans, the businesses are not interested in making large "donations". And without the technology and marketing force of the Sportzine Publisher, businesses and booster clubs don't have large scale programs to make meeting the challenge possible. Sportzine Publishers are a key enabler in Changing the Game.

Using the Sportzine Marketing Analysis worksheet, you can use your own numbers to match your market, income goals and your personal expectations. However, using conservative variables, a market with 50 metro high schools could generate over $400,000 in direct company revenue and over $1,000,000 in booster club give-backs. In addition, GR8deals could drive over $750,000 in new business for participating local business Boosters and GR8cars dealers might sell 500+ vehicles representing up to $4,000,000 in car sales.

Your humble business could make a 5 million dollar impact on your community. And your estimated profit in this model? Over $100,000.

This model expands to larger markets such as Atlanta, Chicago or Philladelphia where you might have from 100 to 175 high schools. With a larger market footprint, this model could generate over $1,000,000 in company revenue and as much as $10,000,000 in impact dollars to your community. Your business could generate over $2.00 for the kids for every dollar you bring into your own company!

You can use the Sportzine Marketing Analysis tool to look at lots of variables, market considerations, expenses and performance metrics. There is no guarantee of results and only you know whether you are a true competitor and a winner.

It's a powerful Game Plan where you write the rules and your Sportzine is a Game Changer. Change the Game in your community. Contact us for more information today.

Sportzines in a non-profit or foundation partnership

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:02:00 GMT

We have been looking at a non-profit model for a Sportzine operation or for partnering with existing non-profit foundations in certain markets. The idea is exciting, innovative and could be very productive.

As a non-profit, the overall business model of publishing a Sportzine would not change, only the way it accounts for its money. In effect, the "profit margin" could be used for overhead, marketing or pushed out to the participating teams and clubs. If anything, a non-profit would open doors with schools, booster clubs and local business owners at a faster rate with greater credibility and acceptance.

In a traditional Sportzine market which crosses several school districts, a publisher might choose to run the Sportzine as a non-profit and it is an excellent fit. The "profits" could be used to create college or pay-to-play scholarships, pay student writers, photographers or videographers, or to hold tournaments and events. The community benefit is even greater than the for-profit model... and that's a good thing.

The obstacle for executing the standard Sportzine model in a foundation partnership is that many foundations are single school or school district specific. One of the strengths of the Sportzine model is aggregatng enough schools, students, families and fans to create a critical marketing base for local businesses to get excited. In a single foundation for one school or district, there may not be enough of a market base to create the content, traffic and business value required to mazimize the fundraising potential of the model. A scenario where a foundation partnership may work is where a foundation includes at least 16 high schools and middle schools.

In either case, publishing a Sportzine has extremely low start-up costs and operating costs. It creates part time positions for an editor, a graphics person and several reps. In a non-profit, it might be that all these positions could be filled with volunteers increasing the yield even more. A school foundation could start a journalism program in the schools and develop a high quality network of student writers, reporters, photographers and videographers in the participating schools. Some of the "profit margin" money could be used for computers, awards and scholarships for the journalism students.

The concept of inviting local businesses to be "boosters" would create a large and powerful business network, a natural compliment to other foundation activities or events such as golf tournaments, banquets or live auctions.

The traditional Sportzine model generates high margin transactions (GR8deals, GR8auctions) as a direct fundraiser for individual booster clubs. The non-profit could collect money from the GR8deals and the GR8cars programs at the foundation level distributing the money based on need requests from clubs or groups, and at the same time allow individual booster clubs to leverage the GR8auctions, team sponsor and GR8cards programs to meet their individual fundraising goals.

Traditional Sportzine publishers are required to run their GR8deals and GR8auctions transactions through a central non-profit financial services organization to provide integrity, transparency and audit-ability. A Sportzine run as a non-profit would have adequate over-sight to manage its own money. There would be significant savings in handling those transactions in-house.

We would love to discuss options and strategies with any non-profit who might be interested in managing a Sportzine in their market. Use the form to the right to contact us or go to About Us and give us a call today.

Make a living, be a hometown hero!

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:41:00 GMT

I am an optimist. Always have been. So, when I say that in some areas it may be too late to save high school sports, that is hard to accept.

Ten years ago, I predicted that over time, high school sports would be pushed out of the school budgeting process. Parents, coaches, athletic directors and principles all said I was nuts. I hoped so.

For years, there was no significant pressure or threat to school sports from district budgets. I observed the custs to music and the arts, but I can't draw and my kids isn't interested in choir. However, in the last two years and even more so in the last six months, the threats to school sports, music and the arts are coming fast on a scale that can't be overcome with candy bars or washing cars.

We publish "In the News" articles from around the US reflecting the various states of school sports funding. What I don't publish are the comments below those articles from local residents. I am surprised by the range of comments lamenting the loss of district funding and those advocating that sports must go before teachers or core curriculum.

Those supporting sports in schools point to character and leadership development, higher grades, lower pregnancy and dropout rates, etc. Those against sports in schools mention that education should focus on life-long learning and skills and only a minimal number of students continue sports after graduating from high school. There is a perceived value difference between “curricular” and “extra-curricular”.

Although I didn't anticipate that the ACLU would be a catalyst to the sports funding dilemma, the main points in my case have proven to be right on target. And, I'm not interested in the political or politically correct reasons for school sports to stay in the budget or for them to be eliminated from the budget. It is what it is... or is going to be.

In California, the state has been in financial trouble for years, but it is reaching a critical state and school budgets are not exempt to cuts. With the ACLU/California decision in December of last year, there is an immediate change to budget assumptions that force hard decisions in the next two years that might have been out five or more years before.

Florida is right behind California dealing with school sports funding and several other states are sounding alarms. No matter how comfortable you may be that school sports are safe in your state or school district, if the ACLU chooses to sue your state next over pay-to-play policies, things can change in an instant.

The real point is that over time booster clubs will be paying 100% of the cost of school sports: equipment, uniforms, fields and gyms, coaches, travel, officials, etc. It they were proud to raise $1,000 last year, next year their task could be $20,000. And across all the booster clubs in a single high school, the amount could be $100,000 or even $200,000.

Booster clubs can't ramp up that fast. For a booster club to raise $100,000 takes organizational maturity, an annual fundraising strategy, new partners, new fundraising events and campaigns, technology, marketing... and people. Reliable people with plenty of time to volunteer, the right skills and unbelievable political connections. And no life.

If you are considering becoming a Sportzine Publisher in California or Florida, begin today and you have a long sprint ahead of you. If you are in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina or some other states where the impending cuts are only a crisis, you need to begin today but you can rest between sprints.

If you are in a school district where it is a topic at school district meetings but it never comes to a vote, then you can get out in front of the need and as the funding drys up, your contributions can contribute to the solution. It is later than you think because once you can see it coming, you get to be like California and Florida very fast. Too fast to start from scratch and be a meaningful partner in the solution.

Sportzine Publishers cannot "save" school sports by ourselves. However, we can be a significant part of the solution and they can’t make it without the high value fundraising features of a Sportzine. If your Sportzine makes a 20% or even 30% impact that means contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars back to the athletes and their sports, music and arts programs.

The traditional, tax-payer funding for school sports has worked for one hundred years, but the rules don;t work anymore. It is time to Change the Game, change the rules and a new partner is required to provide solutions not even on the table today.

As a Sportzine Publisher, you can be the difference. A hometown hero.

When all sports are club sports

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:56:00 GMT

Where does this trend of school districts cutting sports and extra-curricular activities budgets, year after year, end?

Districts are forcing ADs part time, middle schools sports go first, tier three high school sports go next, revenue sports have protection over non-revenue sports, the number of games per season are being scaled back to reduce transportation, field and official costs, some schools consolidate their teams across two or even three high schools, some districts are turning their sports programs over to the parks department or a non-profit foundation. The ACLU is going after schools with pay-to-play and the unions will fight the "curricular" vs. "extra-curricular" fight everyday. Teachers will win over quarterbacks in the end. Eventually the remaining budget will be so small it requires cutting the last remaining sport. Then what?

Even if you believe your school is not at risk, think about who your teams are going to compete against in 3 or 5 years. If middle school and freshman sports are gone, where is the feeder program for your varsity teams?

In most states, at least some third tier sports are already club sports playing under the school mascot but as non-sanctioned sports. When a sports is relegated to "club sports" status, that is code for no funding; no money for coaches, equipment, uniforms, officials, tournament fees and transportation. The athletes and their parents are on the hook for all expenses. Some ice hockey teams cost as much as $1,500 per team member to fund a season.

If every team is responsible for full season funding, cross country needs very little in equipment or officials and their uniforms are very cheap. Football on the other hand, is very expensive on a per player basis. Tennis has no gate receipts whereas boys basketball does. And so does girls basketball, but not nearly the boys take in. Same expenses, less gate income, higher per player contributions from the parents or fundraising to do.

You have to wonder if every dollar for every team comes from fundraising, will your friends, family and neighbors dread your visits? Will local businesses cut you off before even before you tell them how cute your team is? Can the football team, the soccer team and the baseball team all have a golf tournament or a live auction? Is there a fundraising saturation point where the community gets fundraising fatigue?

Let's think about facilities for a second. If the school no longer has basketball and volleyball teams, why do they need a gym? Will they maintain the stadium, gym, track, etc. for club teams? Will they want a share of your gates? Want the teams to pay practice and game facility rental? How long before they divide that gym into classrooms?

And if this happens gradually on a school by school basis, what happens as teams are at different stages of transition? How do leagues plan year to year?

There are many more questions... more questions than answers. We are confident that our Sportzine Publishers will be part of the changing game. An important player in each team's fundraising planning. The need for our services will increase every year... no matter what direction this market takes. The one thing that is predictable is that there will not be a reversal of fortune. The trend is set and the future is clear... The transition to an all club sports model is real.

The big picture

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:22:00 GMT

Our goal is to create a national network of Sportzines and Sportzine Publishers such that every community in the nation is covered and has the opportunity to take advantage of the Sportzine fundraising opportunities.

The current plan focuses on early roll-out to the 200 largest cities and metro markets. Most markets will be from 50 to 125 high school territories. With 20,000+ high schools in the US, rural markets would be added to their closest metro market over time. Even if there are enough high schools compared to metro markets, the average student body population will be smaller and the business population in their towns will be much smaller.

We realize that fundraising campaigns will be more lucrative (in give-backs and for the publisher) in metro and suburban areas, however, to the extent that our programs can help in rural markets, they will be important to those communities as well. Smaller communities tend to have fewer sports and smaller budget commitments. In addition, we will be introducing additional fundraising campaigns soon.

In just a few years, it is quite possible that Sportzine Publishers could generate over $10,000,000 annually in give-backs to their collective communities. To be part of a cause so important and play a role so significant, Sportzine Publishers will truely be hometown heroes.

Sportzine Publishers will be asked to serve on committees such as committees such as fundraising, publishing/journalism or futures/enhancements, etc. The network of Sportzine Publishers will become the source of creative ideas for success, community impact and best practices. Regional or even national conferences will be beneficial in sharing tips and strategies for success. MAybe an awards club will have us all meeting in Hawaii for Vegas each year.

The immediate need is the formation of the Boosters Financial Services non-profit to handle the GR8auctions and GR8deals transactions and distribute the money. All Sportzine Publishers will be required to join the association and elect a board and committees as appropriate. As vendors, neither Web2ition, Tofino Auctions, nor GR8sports USA will be association or board members.

As the map fills in, we will introduce regional and state Sportzines and a national Sportzine as part of the GR8sports USA network. This network will be optimized for the aggregation of the sports information and not intrude on local Sportzine fundraising and revenue streams. It will provide a great opportunity for national brands such as McDonalds, Coke and Pepsi, the auto manufacturers, etc. to make meaningful advertising buys and some of that money will roll downhill to the local Sportzine Publishers.

There are some very dynamic future publishing and fundraising opportunities in front of us including print products, a buyers service for booster clubs and more.

GR8auctions are here!

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:05:00 GMT

At Web2ition, we are always looking for additional ways to serve the Sportzine Publishers, athletes and booster clubs in our markets.

We are very excited to announce GR8auctions, online auctions to increase Sportzine Pubisher revenue and community fundraising impact throughout the year. And booster clubs of any size and from any sports, music or arts club can participate.

Many booster clubs hold annual live auctions. They require about 6 months of very hard work to run, are a ton of work requiring lots of committees and volunteers, require an event site such as a hotel or banquet room and an auctioneer, plus you have to come up with deposits and pre-auction expenses. Marketing is very expensive including printing for flyers and an auction catalog. Auction night requires lots of volunteers to run the door, the floor, seating, silent auction, live auction and cashiering.

Online auctions are significantly less work and can be just as rewarding or even more so since the booster club spends all their time just securing donations. However, most booster clubs do not have web designers, appropriate club web sites and established web traffic to make an online auction effective or feasible.

GR8auctions enable any sports, music or arts club, of any size, to take advantage of an online auction with no up front expense, no marketing, no admin and no risk. They just sign up and go into the community to get donation items to auction. GR8auctions will be held quarterly or possibly semi-annually in smaller markets. GR8auctions can be held the last week or each month, three times a year, or on a continious basis.

GR8auctions allow bidders to search by item category across all booster clubs and merchants or to view the catalog for a specific booster club. Booster Clubs manaage their own auction inventory. Bidders manage their own account, place bids and track the bidding, place items on a watch list, even get email notices if their bid is outbid. The GR8auctions technology is easy to learn and use.

Booster clubs sign up to participate in an auction and their only two responsibilities are to call on local merchants to get donations and to promote the auction through the student body and local community. If your market is an entry level market with only 30 or so high schools, you want at least 10 booster clubs to participate. The more the better. If each booster club has an $8,000 fundraising target, then your auction would raise $80,000, netting $72,000 to the booster clubs. If your market has 50 or 75 or more high schools, as you enter your second year of auctions, you might get the participation rate to 50% or more, then your auctions could raise $200,000 each netting $180,000! In major markets, the GR8auctions could raise over $1 million dollars for local sports, music and the arts each year.

Through GR8auctions, booster clubs from high schools, youth organizations and even music and the arts can all participate in the largest online auction in your market. It just takes 1% of local businesses to contribute auction items with an average value of only $50 to meet the typical fundraising objectives, Through the daily traffic generated by the Sportzine’s regular features and marketing through the booster clubs, Sportzine Publishers can do what no single booster club could do on their own.

Booster clubs never pay money upfront to participate in a GR8auction. They just sign up during the registration period and begin collecting items. The local Sportzine Publisher takes care of all the marketing, advertising, credit card processing, auction settlement and collections, technology and logistics. Participating booster clubs net 90% of the proceeds for their sold items.

GR8auctions establishes an account for each booster club and they can list as many items as they wish. They can add or delete their own items including photos. Items can have minimum bids and reserves. GR8auctions will report auction results by booster club immediately after the auction closes and pay out the proceeds within a few days.

Booster clubs should seek out items with an average value of at least $50, however all donations add up. Merchants offering large ticket items such as a vacation, a hot tub or a quality piece of art may have hard costs they need to recover or might not be able to completely take a loss on the whole cost. They can set a reserve amount required to cover a merchant’s real costs as long as it is still a great deal for the bidder and the net after the reserve is still meaningful as a fundraising item.

The key to a successful auction is bidders… and for an online auction they come from: 1) Natural traffic to the Sportzine who learn about the auction; 2) booster club promotion to the student body and in the community; 3) advertising; and, 4) promotion through participating merchants.

Web2ition will partner with a 501c3 non-profit to handle the transactions and distribute the money. This will keep expenses low, provide for formal financial auditing, and complete auction transparency and integrity.

The Sportzine Market Analysis worksheets have been updated to include BoosterAuctions.

Watch for additional fundraising products and services coming later this year.

Sportzines: Scalable for any market and income goal

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:07:00 GMT

As I talk to prospective small business people, there seems to be an assumption that because this is a low cost of entry opportunity and because you can home office, it is: 1) a home based business, 2) you can work in your underwear, 3) you can work part time hours for full time pay, and 4) you are buying a job so you can't get fired.

Quickly, taking them all at once, FALSE. Publishing a Sportzine is a full time business and you can recharge you computer in your "home office", but the business is out in the community where you will be embarassed if you show up in your underwear, where your pay is predicated on long hours, your hard work and lots of luck, and, worse than geting fired, if you fail you will let a ton of great people down.

So, for entrepreneurs that want to succeed, let's talk about scaling your success to meet your goals.

Depending on where you live, there are several considerations in determining opportunity:

Is your market city/suburban or rural? (Watch for an article defining the unique challenges of rural markets)
How dense are your schools geographically? In a metro market, you might have 100 high schools in the same geography where in a rural market, there might only be 25.
How dense is the business community in your market? What is the average number of businesses per high school?

Here are some rules of thumb we have come up with to think about your market, opportunity and business.

Net $50,000 a year: You need a market base of 25-30 high schools.  You need: 3 PT sales people calling on businesses, presenting to booster clubs and selling sponsorships; 1 PT editor and 1 freelance graphics person. Figure you are 1 FT doing 2 of these PT assignments, so you will have at least 2 PT people. You need to reach $175,000 in sales and raise at least $320,000 in fundraising money. It will take you at least a year to reach your monthly target revenue run rate of $15,000 per month.

Net $75,000 a year: You need a market base of 30-35 high schools.  You need: 3 PT sales people calling on businesses and presenting to booster clubs plus 1 FT sales person also selling sponsorships; 1 PT editor and 1 freelance graphics person.  You need to reach $225,000 in sales and raise $420,000 in fundraising money. It will take you at least 18 months to reach your monthly target revenue run rate of $18,000.

Net $100,000 a year: You need a market base of 35-40 high schools.  You need: 4 PT sales people calling on businesses and presenting to booster clubs plus 1 FT sales person selling sponsorships; 1 FT editor and 1 PT graphics person. You need to reach $260,000 in sales and raise $500,000 in fundraising money generated. It will take you at least 18 months to reach your target run rate of $22,000 in revenue each month.

Net $150,000+ a year: You need a market base of at least 50+ high schools.  You need: 1 PT sales person for every 10 high schools calling on businesses and presenting to booster clubs plus 1 FT sales person selling sponsorships; 1 FT editor and 1 PT graphics person. You need to reach $7,500 in sales for every high school in your market and raise at least $10,000 in fundraising money averaged across the high schools. It will take you at least two years to reach your monthly target run rate.

Major markets such as Dallas, Chicago or Philadelphia are exceptional opportunities for strong business managers looking to build a sizable company and play an important role in the community.

Using the Sportzine Market Analysis worksheet, you can examine many variables as they relate directly to your market.

ACLU: Pay-to-Play and most sports fees Illegal

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:10:00 GMT

On Dec 9^th, the ACLU settled a law suit against the state of California claiming “pay-to-learn” policies of charging student fees are inconsistent with the US Constitution and the State of California Constitution which both promise a free public education. The settlement has been interpreted to address both curricular and extra-curricular fees. The agreement to end "pay to learn" still needs court approval and state legislation before it goes into effect. Similar concerns are alive in other states. In a related 2006 case, the Indiana Supreme Court struck down a school district's $20 activity fee as a violation of that state’s constitutional free school guarantee.

Reading In The News, activity fees and pay-to-play are common strategies for raising money for extra-curricular activities. Most schools have a provision to forgive the pay-to-play fees for students and athletes for whom the fee is a financial burden and many schools have a maximum fee for multiple sport athletes or families with multiple kids in sports. In Nasua, NH, eliminating fees would cost $200,000. In Marion OH, fees for next year sports are being raised to $500 per student, double the fees for the current school year. In Dover, NH, girl ice hockey players paid $1,450 to play last year. If these fees go away, how do these programs survive?

School districts in CA are proactively taking action to eliminate sports and activity fees rather than wait for the ACLU to file against them. Although the original suit named 30 school districts in CA not including the LA School District, that school district recently cancelled a pay-to-play sports fee based on “anecdotal” reports that the ACLU is now looking at them. In addition, the ACLU has been investigating complaints about improperly charged sports and activity fees such as:

Pt. Loma High School requires parents to make a $300 "fair share" contribution to cover band expenses

Clairemont High School requires student athletes to get physical exams from private doctors; Mira Mesa charges $20 for required physicals; and Patrick Henry requests a $25 "donation" for physicals, which are required for certain school sports

La Jolla High, Pt. Loma High, and Lincoln High require students to purchase ASB cards to be eligible to play in school sports

Scripps Ranch High charges students playing on its lacrosse team $300 in dues, and requires them to purchase spirit packs for $50; lacrosse players at Serra High must pay dues of $250/year

Cheer members at Clairemont High must pay a minimum of $1097/year, with extra costs for additional equipment and competition uniforms

Crawford High cheerleaders have to pay $350/year plus approximately $50 for cheer camp

Serra High cheerleaders must pay $455-$485 for uniforms, $335 for summer cheer camp, $500 for coaches' donations, plus an additional $395 for optional uniform items

At Lincoln High and Pt. Loma High, students are required to purchase an ASB card in order to participate in any extracurricular activities.

In a settlement announced by Governor Schwarzenegger on Dec 9, 2010, the Governor said “Every California student has the right to not only a quality public education, but a free public education. Our state has promised that to our students, and I am grateful to the ACLU for bringing the issue of these illegal fees to light,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I am proud of the settlement we have reached, and assure all California parents and students that the State will do its part to make sure every school district knows it is illegal to charge students fees for attending public schools.”

If all fees for mainstream curricular classes and activities are eliminated, the financial pressure on sports increases as even more money is pulled away from sports to cover that short-fall. And if activity fees and pay-to-play fees are eliminated, that places additional pressure on booster clubs to raise even more money.

In addition to the ACLU’s intrusion in school and sports funding, booster clubs are being defined and regulated by the state legislatures, school districts as well as being governed by individual school principles and ADs. And teacher’s unions will sacrifice sports before they offer up any concessions of their own. A coach who is also a union teacher has a terrible conflict of interest when he/she is faced with a personal pay or pension freeze or cut while “extra-curricular activities” take non-educational money from the school’s budget.

Which states and school districts will the ACLU go after next? Will school districts proactively change their policies? School districts may decide to keep charging until they are forced to stop, however, the California agreement requires reimbursing fees charged. How far back and how big a payout will that be? What budget will those dollars come from if the fees have already been spent?

The trends in cutting sports funding within the schools and the legal and legislative issues mentioned above may hasten a day when all high school sports become club sports with no tax payer funding. That potential raises so many questions beyond how parents will afford the full cost of their kid playing a sport… or 3 sports per year. It raises questions regarding what school districts will do with existing sports facilities: why do they need to maintain them when they no longer use them for school sanctioned programs? The facilities could either become rental income for the school paid as another expense for the club teams to pick up like ice hockey does today or they will be converted to class rooms and labs.

All this reinforces the need for professional school sports fundraising outside the school district, off the school campus and even supplementing the booster club. There are examples of school sports foundations being formed or the complete transfer of school sports to the parks department. Some brand new high schools do not have the money to even get their sports programs started.

If communities and booster clubs do not act proactively, when the announcement is made regarding cutting their kid’s sports, it will be too late to ramp up their fundraising game. Booster clubs are used to raising $5,000 or even $25,000, but they don’t have the organization, events, technology, skills or people to raise $100,000 or more. They would need to elevate their fundraising goals, methods and events because nickel and dime fundraisiers won’t do the job anymore. They need to join forces across sports programs in a cooperative campaign and that they will need to raise money year round. They need to expand their resources, skills and volunteer base which means that parents in an affordable sport such as cross-country will be asked to contribute their time to fundraisers that support the more expensive sports such as football or ice hockey.

Now is the time to take action. Starting a Sportzine in your community is an important contribution to this cause. Sportzines alone cannot “save” school sports, the numbers are too big for a single strategy to solve everything. But Sportzine Publishers can be an important part of the solution and you can start today in your community.

School Fees: What’s Allowed?

Some specific fees, charges and deposits are authorized by law. These specific fees, charges and deposits are:

• Charges for optional attendance as a spectator at a school or district-sponsored activity.

• Charges for food served to students, subject to free and reduced price meal program eligibility and other restrictions specified in law.

• Paying the replacement cost for district books or supplies loaned to a student that the student fails to return, or that is willfully cut, defaced or otherwise injured, up to an amount not to exceed $10,000.

• Fees for field trips and excursions in connection with courses of instruction or school-related social, educational, cultural, athletic, or school band activities, as long as no student is prevented from making the field trip or excursion because of lack of sufficient funds.

• Medical or hospital insurance for field trips that is made available by the school district.

• Charges for required medical and accident insurance for athletic team members, so long as there is a waiver for financial hardship.

• Charges for standardized physical education attire of a particular color and design, but the school may not mandate that the attire be purchased from the school and no physical education grade of a student may be impacted based on the failure to wear standardized apparel “arising from circumstances beyond the control” of the student.

• Charges for the parking of vehicles on school grounds.

• Charges for the rental or lease of personal property needed for district purposes, such as caps and gowns for graduation ceremonies.

• Fees for school camp programs, so long as no student is denied the opportunity to participate because of nonpayment of the fee.

• Reimbursement for the direct cost of materials provided to a student for property the student has fabricated from such materials for his/her own possession and use, such as wood shop, art, or sewing projects kept by the student.

• Reimbursement for the actual cost of duplicating public records, student records, or a prospectus of the school curriculum.

• Fees for transportation to and from school, and transportation between school and regional occupational centers, programs or classes, as long as the fee does not exceed the statewide average nonsubsidized cost per student and provided there is a waiver provision based on financial need.

• Fees for transportation of pupils to places of summer employment.

• Tuition fees charged to pupils whose parents are actual and legal residents of an adjacent foreign country or an adjacent state.

• Tuition fees collected from foreign students attending a District school pursuant to an F-1 visa, equal to the full unsubsidized per capita cost of providing education during the period of attendance.

• Fees for an optional fingerprinting program for kindergarten or other newly enrolled students, if the fee does not exceed the actual costs associated with the program.

• Fees for community classes in civic, vocational, literacy, health, homemaking, and technical and general education, not to exceed the cost of maintaining the community classes.

• Deposits for band instruments, music, uniforms and other regalia which school band members take on excursions to foreign countries.

• Charges for eye safety devices, at a price not to exceed the district’s actual costs, in specified courses or activities in which students are engaged in, or are observing, an activity or the use of hazardous substances likely to cause injury to the eyes.

Bad situation creates exceptional opportunity

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:43:00 GMT

Your opportunity as a Sportzine Publisher is partially driven by the economic down-turn as lower tax collections create a short term short fall for states and school districts. However, as the economy recovers, the need for your services will continue to grow. Today’s critical state have been accelerated by the downturn, however, there are articles In The News from as far back as 2003 talking about the dire state of high school sports funding. As the economy and tax revenues recover, absorbing normal inflation and replenishing lost curriculum funding will prevent sports from seeing meaningful restored funding come its way.

It is a sad reality that out of disaster comes opportunity. With all the destruction of Katrina, the rebuilding of New Orleans and the coast areas created thousands of construction jobs. The Americans with Disabilities Act forced every business in America to build new ramps, install elevators, remodel bathrooms and paint new reserved parking spaces. Billions of dollars were spent in compliance. Energy policy is forcing auto makers, energy companies and consumers to spend money to comply with new laws. It is common for legislation to impact businesses, vendors, customers and citizens on a direct and on an indirect basis.

Teacher salaries, unfunded pensions, facilities costs, state legislatures, state athletic associations, the unions and the ACLU all play a role in determining school budgets. The spirited debate over the value of curricular expenses versus extra-curricular expenses will continue in every school district and over time, extra-curricular sports and activities will continue to lose ground.

Will sports be eventually pushed out of the school district budget completely? Will all sports be club sports? Will the districts continue to maintain the gyms, stadiums and fields? Will they charge rent to the team to use them for parctices and contests? What about transportation? Officials?

Good intentions have serious impact on young athletes, artists and musicians.  In some cases, unintended consequences. In other cases, pure conflicts of interest.

Sportzine Publishers can Change the Game, make a difference. With over 9 pages of articles In The News, the pace of bad situations turning worse is accelerating. Even if your school seems to be immune to the budget cuts to sports, look carefully at the district budgets and the national trends.   The battle over curricular verses extra-curricular will always end with the same winner and the same loser.

Sportzine Publishers cannot "save" high school sports alone. With current plans for future services, Sportzine Publishers may be able double their contributions. But with numbers this big, hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you can make a 10% or a 25% difference, you are a true partner and critical player in a participating sports program's strategy to survive.

You can Change the Game and be there to partner with them. Be a hometown hero.

High school booster clubs: The challenge

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:00:00 GMT

If you examine the typical high school's capacity to raise money within the sports and activities parent ranks, it is a tremendous challenge. A typical high school has 20+ sports teams plus activities such as cheer, drill team. But also impacted by this "value" (where curricular classes and activities are to be saved at the expense of the extra-curricular activities) criteria are arts, music, drama, debate and many other clubs.

In a recent survey, 71% of parents said they were frustrated or overwhelmed by fundraising. Our kids begin knocking on neighbors doors or selling cookies in front of Safeway as early as the third grade.

A typical high school has many parent organizations to support the athletes. Frequently, there are official booster clubs for football, boys basketball, baseball and maybe a couple other sports. All the other sports do have parent meetings and every athlete has parents who love them. There is a trend to create single all-sports booster clubs and that will help.

Typically, a parent group raises money for a specific need such as uniforms or travel just before their season begins. And once the season ends, the parent group disbands until next year.

In addition, parent groups fail to develop organizational maturity. Structure and programs that survive year to year acoss parent migrations and seasons. This includes leadership, skills, talent, technology, events, programs and other disciplines. This perpetual coming together one seson at a time is driven by the fact that most of the parents have a maximum three year interest driven by their kid's remaining time in high school. They are not real concerned about what happens once their kid leaves the program.

A typical parent is busy with other kids, work, etc. Their kid may be involved in multiple sports and activities or they may have other kids in other programs competing for their time, skills and cash.

Typical fundraiser raises from $500 to $1,500. A parent group can raise this in two or three weeks and then they reach into their own pockets for anything else that comes up. Once the fundraiser is done, certainly once the season is over, those parents push fundriasing out of mind until next year. To raise several times as much money in future years, they may need to raise money year round. Difficult to make happen when the kid has moved on to the next sport, if your child is a senior and won't be back, when you can't be confident that your child will want to play next year or even make the team.

Many fundraisers compete with each other or are considered to be exclusive to one group. As an example, in many schools, merchant discount cards are reserved for the football team and any other group that wants to do a discount cards fundraiser is told no. The auction or the golf tournament have specific beneficiaries and they don't like to share.

One thing that is needed is more professional grade fundraising options that do run year round raising major dollars. Even if a school does an auction and a golf tournament, what next? Where is the next major fundraising event or program?

When individual booster clubs act on their own, the critical mass of athletes and parents is lost. The skills and talent base is isolated from other clubs. The collective buying power in vendor negotiations is reduced. And the collective community and business network is left under utilized and leveraged.

Another limiting factor for booster clubs is the lack of technology. They need a booster club website which requires an editor to keep it current. And today, they should use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with other parents. And fundraising technology is key.

One additional issue to consider in trying to bring all the sports together for year round fundraising is fairnesss. Football and ice hockey require more money per athelete. Parents from less expensive sports such as cross country will be expected to contribute their time and hard work to raise money for football and ice hockey long after their sport's funding needs are met.

As a Sportzine Publisher, you can address all of the issues mentioned above. Your programs raise money for every athlete, every team, all year round. You aggregate enough high schools and traffic to make the programs valuable in numbers a single school or booster club could never reach. Your technology is professional grade and outside the reach by booster clubs.

Yes, you can Change The Game.

Can we really “Change the Game”?

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:36:00 GMT

In traditional sports analogies, “changing the game” would mean a new play that surprises the competition, a new piece of equipment that improves performance, new field turf that prevents injuries or makes the athletes faster and more agile. An athlete might be a “game changer” because of their size, speed, strength, skill or leadership.

We are talking about changing a high school sports culture that is 100 years old, clogged by an academic/government/union controlled environment, with politically charged positions on every side of the simplest issue. The Sportzine strategy and business model has been developed over 14 years, hundreds of thousands of dollars and with the contributions of dozens of smart people. Here is a short primer on the hard lessons learned.

The challenges are many. We tried to work with the schools and found that they have a rule, regulation, policy or procedure that prevents anything good from ever happening. We found that meetings and approvals took so long that our affiliates starved waiting for permission. We found that in a school with 10 champions of our model, one person could stop us in our tracks because in politically charged schools, any potential for a person who hasn’t been born yet to be impacted in a way we can’t anticipate at this time is adequate reason to not do anything new. So, it is clear that we can't play by their rules.

We tried to work directly with booster clubs and discovered that they subordinate their power to the AD or the school district/AD proactively intrudes in the booster club's operations. Either way, working with booster clubs was just as inefficient and laiden with road blocks as working with the schools.

Intuition tells us that the AD will be our friend and open doors for us. After all, we offer free money! He or she might even be your sibling or spouse and really want you to succeed. However, when you subordinate control of your business to anyone inside a school’s sphere of influence, you are done. It’s a shame because we could do so much more together.

This brings us back to our tagline: Changing the Game.

The bottom line is that schools are not winning the game under their current strategies and financial limitations. They are confined by the institutions, culture and history that defines them. The game they are playing has too many inhibiting rules, too few volunteers and too few resources to do big things or to even change strategies in a timely manner.

But Sportzine Publishers are not confined by these fences. Stay off their playing field, change how score is kept, rewrite the rules, expand the roster to include local businesses, and, play the game like champions. The defined Sportzine business model can be enhanced with additional fundraising features to potentially double the impact of the current features. Sportzine Publishers cannot "save high school sports" alone but they can lead the way. Winning is the only option.

The general message in Changing the Game is to empower a joint force of businesses and booster clubs to do things they could never do on their own. This creates an aggregate market and opportunity for business boosters large enoght hat they are able to offer long term, professional, high value fundraising marketing campaigns that result in meaningful income for everyone.

The net message is that we have to change the game with new rules that allow our business model to breath and to succeed. The current environment will suffocate the whole opportunity if we don’t Change the Game.

Changing the Game: Change the media rules to serve the athletes

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 23:54:00 GMT

In the high school sports market, there is plenty of great media coverage. There are local newspapers, radio and TV stations. On the web, there are tons of local booster club sites, school sites, newspaper sites, state-wide or regional sites and a few national sites. Recently USA Today and CBS sports have invested in web high school sports coverage.

The commercial media outlets make their revenue from advertising and by charging for premium fan memberships. And not one of them shares their revenue or success with the athletes that make their businesses possible.

A newspaper or website photographer takes a photo of a touchdown… and copyrights it. One photo of an athlete sells lots of papers that go to friends and family all over the country or generates dozens of emails with links to the site and photo. Based on what principle of intelligent property does the photographer or media outlet own a picture of a 16 year old kid he doesn’t know and who didn’t give the photographer permission to take the photo? Did the athlete or their parents or the team or coach or school relinquish their rights somewhere along the way? Or is this just how it has always been? Photos of kids playing sports and heart-warming stories of victory and defeat sell newspapers and drive website traffic... And ad revenue.

In many communities, the local newspaper has been the friend, advocate and champion for high school sports for decades. Because it drives readers and subscriptions. To be fair, they have no obligation to share the advertising revenue and their margins are paper thin. (pun intended.)

It is the nature of media outlets to use news, sports and weather to attract listeners, viewers, readers or web traffic. There is little cost to get the information and sports in particular bring loyal passionate fans (family) who return often. They have never shared advertising revenue in the past, and there is no indication that their business model is going to change in the future.

Local radio stations broadcast football and sometimes basketball (selling advertising) but again, there is no giveback to the teams/kids. In many markets, local TV stations have dedicated programs on Friday nights during football season. Some stations even use their traffic helicopters to shuttle the reporters and camera men to as many football games as possible for a few minutes of live footage. They sell tons of advertising… and keep it all.

Sex sells and we call it exploitation. Youth and high school sports sell, and the parents say thanks. It is time to Change the Game and to do that, we have to Change the Rules.

At Web2ition, we believe that we have an obligation to say thanks to the athletes that make our business possible. Their names, stories and photos are the raw materials we use to create our product. Sportzines are designed as a sports information resources, however, there is an equal emphasis on fundraising. Sportzines are the catalyst, the technology, the vehicle that makes these high value fundraising campaigns possible. And Sportzine Publishers play a special role in their communities.

The compelling business principle at work is simple: Businesses will support the athletes and families that support them… AND, the athletes and families will support the businesses that support them.

How quickly will booster clubs adopt and support a site that provides the same or greater promotion and sports reporting value but is built on the mission to be a financial partner in these tough times. If booster clubs earn $500 or even $1,000 a month through your Sportzine fudnraisng campaigns, they will promote the site through the booster clubs, in school newspapers, to team parents and to student bodies. If the athletes, booster clubs and families embrace a financial interest in your success, that is a competitive advantage more powerful than the 50 year history of the local newspaper. Local businesses will see how coming together as Business boosters, they can make a difference at a level that they can’t individually, and they will see how the Sportzine marketing programs drive customers. In both cases, “What’s in it for me” is unique, fresh, meaningful , direct and short term.

We are Changing the Game and the Rules. It's our game now.