School board OKs hike in athletics admission fees

The costs associated with attending Franklin County School District-sanctioned sporting events will soon increase following unanimous action by the school board on Tuesday, March 22.

The matter of admission charges for all sports was introduced by Superintendent of Education Chris Kent, who noted the district had not addressed “gate fees” revenues since 2017.

“Everything is getting super expensive, especially in covering the costs of referees and umpires — it’s crazy what we spend on that alone,” Kent told the five-member panel during its monthly business meeting.

“Unfortunately, it’s time for us to go up, and we’re not alone in this as a lot of districts have had to take similar actions. Some districts have gone as high as $10 per ticket for their events.”

Kent said Franklin County has been charging $7 to attend football games while other sports entrance fees were previously set at $6.

“What we are proposing to do is move everything — across the board — to $8 per ticket,” he continued.

“Basically, that’s a $1 increase for football games and $2 for all other sports like basketball, baseball, softball and soccer.”

The superintendent noted that if the district gets into a position where it has to enact online ticket sales, as other school systems have done or are doing, there is typically an additional $1 charge for that service.

“If that were the case, we would have to look at adding the dollar charge onto our general admission prices — so as to not lose money,” Kent continued. “But, for now, I am recommending the traditional paper tickets that we sell for sporting events, whether that be at the middle or high schools, be increased to $8 for the upcoming school year.”

District 3 representative Tywana Lee-Reed made the motion to approve Kent’s recommendation and District 5 board member Michael Coleman seconded with the group approving the change without dissent.