Can Sports Sponsorships Solve the High School Athletics Budget Crunch?

Despite some controversy, corporate sponsorships within high school athletics are becoming a growing trend.

David Kelley, a University of Cincinnati field service assistant professor in the Sport Administration Program in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) will present on the issue Dec. 16, at the 44th National Athletic Directors Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Kelley says in an age of shrinking school budgets, school districts have about 2 percent or less of their overall budget to cover costs of their entire athletic programs. Consequently, it’s a situation in which the programs are growing in popularity but program growth is a struggle under the budget squeeze. In reaction to this tough economic landscape, many schools try to ease the crunch by passing pay-to-play fees to parents.

Critics of high school athletics sports sponsorships voice concerns about having schools and programs exploited by businesses and corporations as an area of consumer research, says Kelley, while supporters say such sponsorships ease the financial burden on parents paying growing participation fees. Kelley adds that in some states such as Pennsylvania, the percentage of school districts reporting sport participation fees has tripled.

“Depending on public school district policies, there could be more difficulty in establishing corporate sponsorships, because it wouldn’t be a decision under the director of athletics,” Kelley says. “Instead, such decisions would have to go through the superintendent and the board of education.”

On the other hand, Kelley says private/parochial schools, where sponsorships are more common, have more leeway because athletics directors for the most part have the autonomy to make those decisions on their own, without public discourse.

“There are also fears of being a ‘sellout’ to corporate sponsorships. For years, there was a big push to get soft drink machines out of the schools, and now the image around corporate sponsorships represents a new challenge,” says Kelley. “However, when levies don’t get passed, programs like athletics are among the budgets that are getting slashed. So, a form of privatization is necessary to provide funding. Therefore, I think if it’s managed judiciously, corporate sponsorships can be a win-win,” says Kelley.

Kelley says the choice is really up to individual school districts in considering the collective philosophy of the school district and the community at large, when examining the suitability of corporate sponsorships as an alternative funding source.

The

44th National Athletic Directors Conference

, sponsored by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA), is the single premier conference that provides an outstanding educational in-service program for interscholastic athletic administrators. 

The conference features 200 exhibitors as well as athletic administrators who share their expertise on an array of topics.

UC’s Sport Administration Program

provides graduates with a strong technical foundation and the sport business skills necessary to successfully enter the field of sport management. Kelley teaches courses titled Introduction to Sport Administration, Economics of Sport and Sport Finance and Development. He is the author of the book, Sports Fundraising: Dynamic Methods for Schools, Universities and Youth Sport Organizations (Routledge, 2012).

UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services

has been dedicated to excellence in teaching for more than a century. With more than 32,000 alumni, 5,300 undergraduate and graduate students and 150 faculty and staff, the college prepares students to work in diverse communities, provides continual professional development and fosters education leadership at the local, state, national and international levels.