Stan Schultz will do the math for you. He will tell you the number of teams he invites to his youth baseball tournament at Webb Bridge Park and what he charges per team as an entry fee, what he pays umpires and the deal he works with the city of Alpharetta for the use of fields.
You can calculate it all, but Schultz will tell you the net profit from his tournament, and he won’t apologize for it.
“We make a lot of money on our tournament, a lot of money,” said Schultz, who has a waiting list for next year’s tournament. “The net is about $17,000.”
That was for the three-day tournament, The Battle of the Bridge, held in Alpharetta on April 24-26.
It is how youth baseball pays for itself, and it has become a big-time summer business.
Tournaments held across metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia each weekend from February to late August generate millions of dollars through entry fees, attendance fees and concessions.
The king of the metro hill is ECB Inc., otherwise known as East Cobb Baseball. It had a $1.1 million operating budget in 2007, according to the latest tax information available.
The money is so plentiful that youth baseball in Georgia has attracted companies that make a business of running tournaments. Triple Crown, Hardcore Baseball of Georgia, the United States Travel Baseball Association (USTBA), Grand Slam, Nations Baseball and United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) compete for teams and rent fields from municipalities.
Tournaments that draw approximately 60 teams can pull in $24,000, or more, in entry fees, and ticket sales for parents and siblings can add an additional $5,000 to $6,000.
Umpires, field rentals and trophies are a significant cost against the gross, but the net for a tournament can range from $4,000 to $17,000 for a three-day event.
The players’ parents, who are asked to pay for seemingly everything from high school band and cheerleading uniforms to football pads, are once again being asked to foot most of the bill. Most parents pay monthly dues of $100 to $200 to their respective teams for uniforms and tournament entry fees, which are in addition to the ticket prices of $5 to $7 at the gate.
“It’s expensive to play travel ball, so we start planning ahead right now and start saving for next year,” said Libby Gooden, whose 11-year-old son, Garrett, plays for the Atlanta Roughriders, a team based in Decatur. “We know exactly how many weekends we’re going to be playing and we prepare.
“We also pack food for these tournaments because if you are at a tournament all day, a family of four can pay $40 to $50 for food at the concession stand. Some of these tournaments will keep you from bringing coolers in, so you have to go back and forth to your car.”
The same pay-for-play system finances girls fast-pitch softball and, in some cases, adult softball.
“Nobody is putting a gun to the heads of parents to pay for these travel teams and their tournament costs,” said Charles Patterson, a contractor, whose son plays for the Home Plate Chili Dogs, a 10-and-under team based in Peachtree City.
“It is well worth it, especially for kids who have some ability to move to another level beyond recreation-league ball. Most of the time it is a good atmosphere and the kids love the game. It is not necessarily to make them major-leaguers.”
In Alpharetta, Schultz uses his tournament money to finance his Athletics travel team. He said he does not keep a penny of tournament proceeds for himself, even though he and Scott Shields estimate it took 80 hours to organize and run the event.
When it comes time for the Athletics’ season-ending trip to Omaha for a tournament, Schultz cleans out the bank account by writing a check for about $1,200 back to each family to help with travel expenses to Nebraska.
Where the money goes
East Cobb Baseball, which has had a long list of “graduates” make it to the big leagues, also puts its profits to good use. According to the most recent tax return available (2007), East Cobb showed revenue of $404,572 collected from tournaments and showcases, those events where college and pro scouts flock to the park to evaluate talent. ECB’s expenses to run those events, according to federal tax documents, were $198,963.
The net profit, according to John Hill, a founding director of East Cobb, is put back into the complex for operations, field maintenance and renovations and to help fund the various teams that play and travel under the East Cobb banner.
East Cobb charged $8,000 to USTBA to use its complex for a tournament this spring, which is one of many tournaments staged at ECB Inc. Tommy Chase, the executive national director of USTBA, said he will go back again to East Cobb next season.
“East Cobb has a national brand,” Chase said. “We were able to get a team into our tournament this year from California, another from Indiana, because the tournament was at East Cobb.”
But Eric Anthony, the manager of a Columbus 12-year-old team, wonders if East Cobb’s hold on tournaments has stretched too far. He said tournament officials said that if his team did not stay in one of the hotels that sponsors East Cobb Baseball during the USSSA State Tournament (June 8-14), there would be an additional $200 charge on top of the $525 entry fee.
“That’s just wrong,” Anthony said. “It’s taking more money from us. We could have found a cheaper hotel than what they were offering. We’re driving back and forth to Columbus because of it.”
Costs are going up
Although Anthony’s complaint was directed at the East Cobb tournament, it’s not unusual to hear parents and coaches express dismay at the rising costs.
High tournament entry fees, gate fees and restricting coolers from parks — to increase concession revenue — have become commonplace.
At many tournaments, parents and siblings are charged $5 to $7 per day at the gate, which can add as much as $200 to a team’s cost per tournament.
“It’s extortion,” said Jeff Raymond, a coach with the 11-and-under Roughriders, whose home park is the First Baptist Church in Decatur. “You pay good money in entry fees and then these tournaments nickel and dime parents.”
It wasn’t always that way. Ten years ago, the typical entry fee was $300-$350, with the occasional $400 fee at East Cobb, according to Tom Ksionzyk, who coached a travel team called the Redwings, a Decatur-based team.
Ksionzyk said gate fees began to creep into tournaments about six years ago.
“You could play a tournament for the $300 to $350 [entry fee]; now you can pay $525, plus the $125 gate fee, so the cost has gone up considerably,” Ksionzyk said.
But there is still room for the modest, well-run tournament to help pay for some of a team’s expenses. The Roughriders played a six-team tournament June 13-14 and charged $350 per team for a three-game minimum. Most of the money went to umpires, who were paid $84 a pair per game, and $425 went to USSSA, the sanctioning body, which demands a fee.
The Roughriders had approximately $200 left over and then made money off a parent-run concession stand. The field was dragged and re-lined after every game, and there was an announcer in a small, wooden press box behind home plate.
“Old school?” asked Raymond. “You could call it that.”
Which is in stark contrast to the new school.
Patterson, the Peachtree City parent, has only one regret about the youth baseball bonanza.
“The only problem I have with it is that I didn’t jump on it 20 years ago,” he said.
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