Football season is BIG MONEY
By Joe Scalzo
On Aug. 28, as Boardman High athletic director Dave Smercansky looked out over the crowd of nearly 10,000 fans inside Spartan Stadium, his face broke into a grin wide enough to stretch from Glenwood Avenue to Market Street.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I was getting little tingleys down my back.
“It was a good night.”
That game — the first meeting between the two schools in six years — lived up to the hype on the field, with Mooney holding on for a 23-17 win. But it had an even bigger effect off the field, with Boardman’s athletic department grossing between $20,000 and $25,000 in ticket sales alone.
As the director of the area’s largest athletic department, one where football receipts account for approximately 85 percent of its revenues, those types of games can make or break your budget.
“It pays a whole lot of bills,” said Smercansky.
This is a story about the side of high school football you probably don’t think much about. The part that helps install FieldTurf in stadiums (thanks to generous booster clubs), buys new band uniforms (thanks to concession stand sales at halftime) and sends coaches to summer clinics (which helps maintain winning programs, which creates more revenues to attend even more summer clinics).
Football is only one of about 25 varsity sports offered by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. But in Ohio, and in the Valley, football is king, especially when it comes to money.
This story takes a closer look at football’s effect on finances, focusing on two area schools, one big, one small: Canfield, a Division II football program with one of the area’s best athletic programs; and Columbiana, a Division V school that consistently contends for league titles in every sport.
Balancing jobs and balancing budgets
Bob Spaite is in his 16th year as football coach at Columbiana.
His record entering tonight’s game is 125-55 and he’s on track to lead the Clippers to their eighth playoff appearance, all during his tenure.
He is also the school’s athletic director — a relatively rare situation for football coaches in this area — which gives him a broader perspective on the Valley’s most popular sport.
His annual athletic budget, which includes middle school and high school teams, usually ranges between $80,000 and $90,000 and he usually goes over budget by $10,000 to $20,000 each year. Still, Spaite almost always breaks even, due in large part to team fund-raisers, which bring in more than $90,000 every year and the support of the community.
His budget covers everything from equipment (jerseys, helmets, etc.) to field rental (the Clippers play football at Firestone Stadium, which is in a public park) to field maintenance (water bill, electric bill, paint for the field lines, etc.) to postseason awards (medals, trophies) to security (for football and boys basketball) to emergency medical personnel.
Last year’s football team earned a little more than $26,500 but also cost a little more than $15,500. Consequently, boys basketball can often bring in a higher net profit than football. Last year’s boys basketball team, for instance, made $16,500 and spent a little more than $6,000.
Columbiana also gets between $10,000 and $15,000 annually from its booster club — “We wouldn’t be able to function without them,” Spaite said — and gets aid from the Clipper Athletic Facility Committee, which handles things like building the weight room and buying batting cages.
Football income is directly related to team success — and the opponent’s success. Good teams and big games draw large crowds.
“If we went 0-10, it would devastate us,” said Spaite. “The team needs to win for us to be solvent.
“Down here, people don’t give me too hard of a time if we’re losing. I had a couple rough years when I first got here but they’re weren’t calling for my neck. But if we’re losing, basically, they just don’t come. And that’s bad.”
Spaite aims for five home games each football season — “Football-wise, you’ve got to have five [home] and five [away] or you’re going to get killed [financially],” he said — which is pretty standard, unless you’re a school like Massillon or Steubenville that can afford to pay visiting teams to come to their stadium.
The most common setup is a home and home, with one team playing at home the first year (and keeping all the revenue) and on the road the next (surrendering all the revenue). It’s standard for conference games and it was the setup for the two-year Mooney-Boardman contract.
Spaite gets a lot of help from his treasurer — “She’s a bean counter,” he said, “and I mean that as a compliment” — who makes sure the numbers add up and there are no unnecessary expenses.
“We do our best to maintain a first-class program and take care of the coaches, without going overboard on expenses,” said Spaite.
Funding excellence with outside help
Canfield’s athletic department, although bigger, isn’t significantly different than Columbiana’s, at least not on the surface.
This year’s budget is a little more than $100,000 — that only covers high school sports — but the Cardinals usually run a slight surplus, which gives athletic director Greg Cooper a little wiggle room in the summer to pay for coaching clinics or handle small expenses and upgrades.
“We’ve been fortunate since I’ve been here to have a surplus,” said Cooper, who has been at Canfield since 2006. “By the end of the school year, you know you’re not going to be making money until you start selling tickets again in the fall.”
Canfield’s football gate receipts are projected at about $42,500 this year, which is more than 40 percent of the budget. (The percentage varies from school to school. Warren Harding, for instance, gets about 60 percent of its budget from football.)
“Football is the big money-maker,” Cooper said. “No doubt about that.”
Football is also the biggest expense, costing Canfield about $31,000 this year. One big difference between Canfield and Boardman is that transportation is included in the Spartans’ budget, but not in the Cardinals’. This is a big reason why Boardman, which competes in the Stark County-based Federal League, had a $45,000 athletic deficit last year.
“Oh yeah, we’re the welfare department,” Smercansky joked. “You have to end the year in the black and we’re always getting money from the school.”
Canfield’s football team is 7-1 this year and in the thick of the playoff hunt. Since Mike Pavlansky was hired in 2001, the Cardinals have made five playoff appearances and won four league titles, making it one of the school’s most successful sports.
Although the boys basketball team is also successful —it has a projected net profit of about $7,000 this winter — there’s one key difference between the two sports.
“In basketball, I may have 10 home games, but I’ve only got about 1,100 seats in the gym,” said Cooper. “Any more than that and the fire marshal starts turning people away.
“But if we play a really good Poland football team at the end of the year, I can sell tickets through halftime. You can always get more people around the track.”
Canfield’s sports success, and its community’s strong economic situation, are bolstered by a tremendous booster club, which often allows its teams to make the jump from good to great.
For instance, while most coaches salaries are covered by the school through supplemental contracts, Canfield has been able to hire four or five additional coaches thanks to its Gridiron Club, which gives $10,000 to the school board to cover those costs. And the Canfield Nest Builders have been instrumental in transforming the athletic facilities into some of the area’s best.
“Our boosters help you go from a level of OK or acceptable to a level of excellence,” Cooper said. “They pay for a lot of the big things, but they’ll also see the football team traveling to Columbus for a playoff game in school buses and say, ‘Wait a minute. How much would it cost to take Greyhound buses?’ They pay for that.”
Boosters raise money through stadium advertising, football programs (which are stuffed with ads from local businesses) and corporate sponsorships. Canfield also gets money by renting out its stadium — East and Chaney will play their Week 10 football game there and Youngstown Christian uses it for home games — which covers maintenance costs.
Add it up, and you can see there’s a lot more to Canfield’s success than just good athletes.
“We get such strong support,” said Cooper. “Not only from the tax dollars, but also from the effort of people that go above and beyond.”
‘Minor sports’ have minor influence
All this begs a question: What about the other sports?
Well, in general, most sports lose money or break even.
Canfield’s girls basketball team, for instance, is one of the area’s best but Cooper estimates it will only make about $500 this year.
Volleyball and soccer can make a small profit or break even at most schools (particularly if the programs are good), but sports such as cross country, golf, hockey, swimming, tennis, track and wrestling generally lose money.
And while non-revenue sports can certainly bring pride to a schools’ fans, only football and boys basketball seem to galvanize a community. (As Howland football coach Dick Angle has said, “Minor sports are nice, but they don’t get levies passed.”)
Football is also the main consideration when it comes to joining a conference. The main reason Boardman and Fitch play in the Federal League instead of the All-American Conference is the reluctance of the Red Tier teams to schedule them in football. Big schools have big players which (the thinking goes) can lead to big defeats and even bigger injuries.
And with league titles and playoff berths at stake, there’s a risk to all that (financial) reward.
Football may drive budget decisions, but sports always come down to players and coaches.
After all, a healthy bottom line is almost never worth as much as a healthy quarterback.
scalzo@vindy.com