Ohio School Sports Costly Even With Student Fees

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio—With or without student participation fees, districts in Ohio struggle to pay for sports teams as school revenue falls.  An analysis of 23 public schools in northeast Ohio found that none made a profit from their high school athletic programs, defying popular belief that sports can pay for themselves.  All the schools used some of their general fund to cover the cost of athletics.
   
Twelve of the 23 schools charged fees to students who want to play but it wasn’t enough to cover the total expense for an individual high school athlete.  Richmond Heights Superintendent James Herrholtz says the situation can frustrate students who wonder whether they’ll have sports even with pay-to-play fees.  Total expenses for Cardinal local schools pay-to-play program were $187,390 last year, but total pay-to-play revenue was only $117,625.

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