Concerned about planned cost increases to New Canaan’s only youth basketball program—already the most expensive in the area, prohibitively so for many families—officials said Monday night they hope to address rising gym rental fees at Saxe Middle School, which have doubled in three years.
In reviewing a financial breakdown from the New Canaan Basketball Association, officials with the town’s Youth Sports Committee said they were surprised by and concerned about rental fees at Saxe that have jumped from $16,000 in 2012 to $32,000 last year—and, as a result, pushed the 5-month program’s per-player cost from $780 (with uniforms) to what likely will be about $980 next year.
“I am having difficulty with this,” committee member Sally Campbell said during the group’s meeting, held in Lapham Community Center.
While field sports pay a $20 per-player fields usage fee to the town, basketball’s gym rental cost is more than 12 times that amount on a per-player basis.
“I feel that our outdoor sports—lacrosse, soccer and so on—they have access to our fields, and a town resource, and they do not have to pay anything and this is a similar program and I think somehow we should be able to do better. The town should do better by you in your fees, because it does make basketball prohibitively expensive.”
She requested a copy of New Canaan Public Schools’ invoices of NCBA, represented at the meeting by the nonprofit organization’s president, Chris Crovatto.
According to Crovatto, despite a scholarship program generously and anonymously funded by a NCBA board member, three to 10 families each year pull their kids out of the program each year due to its high costs. Though the NCBA itself is growing more popular and successful—it’s up to 130 kids this year, and for the first time ever, is now fielding two fifth-grade girls’ teams (the program serves kids in grades five through eight)—some families throw up their hands and say, “ ‘OK, I’ll go play at the Y—it’s fun and we don’t have to drive around,’ ” Crovatto said.
“And that, to me, is a travesty because we have enough trouble keeping the basketball program at the high school level, with all the competing sports, to lose kids in middle school over $400.”
“We are, by far, the most expensive travel basketball program in Fairfield County. We are $100 more than Darien. We are several hundred more than most of the other ones. Some of that is our own doing. What I mean by that is: We work very hard to have more home games. When you are the home, hosting team, you pay the gym rental fee plus you pay the refs. And we do that because we are subsidizing a lot of less fortunate programs, and we’re fine with that. You get a lot more games, and quite frankly there are so many parents that have multiple kids in our program that having them local where they can run around here versus going to Newtown and back again, which happens all the time—we are happy paying. That being said, it is still very expensive.”
As with most other youth sports in New Canaan, it’s operated by professional coaches and a coaching director—the single highest line-item on the NCBA’s cost sheet, followed by gym rentals. During its season, the local league—part of the Fairfield County Basketball League—needs 15 practice slots per week on weekdays, and 12 to 14 game slots on weekends. Not only have NCPS fees gone up, but New Canaan Country School also recently increased its use fees by more than 30 percent, Crovatto said (some games have been held at St. Luke’s School, he said, which has been very generous with NCBA, even offering the space for free at one time).
During the meeting, Crovatto said the public schools have been very good to work with, though the NCBA has fielded some complaints that the gym floors at Saxe can be too slippery during games. He also said he’d like the town to look at a more effective insurance policy that may cover multiple youth sports and do so more comprehensively than current policies do. Committee members asked about how the various divisions work, how the NCBA promotes itself, how it integrates with the Y program and about rare cases of parent-coaches.
Crovatto said the expense of the program for parents has come to a “critical phase” where the NCBA is “going to start losing more people.”
“We are at $780 now and so $1,000 to play travel basketball—that is a lot of money,” he said.
Basketball is one of the last great games because it costs nearly nothing to play. You need a ball and a hoop. A kid from the East Side if Stamford has the same chance to succeed as a kid from New Canaan because the game costs nothing. There is a reason the greatest players of all time came from poverty in this sport more than any other. $1,000 to play youth basketball is insane. And “professional” coaches? Please. In the 80s the Y ran the youth and travel leagues, dads coached and with a solid coach and program at the high school the Rams played in 2 state finals. Now the high school program has been reduced to the perennial bottom feeders of the league, so this $1,000 a player cost has yielded no results on the court. In fact, the AAU style of play is one of the reasons NC has fallen so far behind in hoops. It’s glorified playground basketball with a well paid baby sitter. Shame on the NCBA people for bringing it to this.
What the Youth Sports Committee is saying here is not that the NCBA has mismanaged the league, but that the facilities use fees set by the Board of Education are driving costs too high. Though the coaches’ fees are the single-highest line item on the cost side for NCBA (at about $42,000 last year), as a percentage of total cost of program, the league is not out of line with other sports that don’t have to pay a fee to use a field. For example, youth soccer’s total cost is about $714,000 per year and the NCSA pays $500,000 to UK Elite for coaching. If soccer additionally had to pay $400,000 for using the fields, it couldn’t survive.
Does the Y program also pay fees? The mark-up for non-y members has gone up exponentially and is currently the highest mark-up for non-members of any programs that allow non-member participation. With volunteer coaches and no major equipment needs, it is the most expensive sport my son plays on a per game/practice basis with one hour of practice and one game per week.
what is the justification for the substantial increase in rental fees for our students to use our public schools? Basketball is an inexpensive sport and should be made affordable by all means necessary including the costs associated with the “professional” coaches salaries. It is time for those who live in New Canaan to say enough is enough.
To weigh in on some comments made above……I have found that the “professional” coaches hired by the NCBA to be excellent and bring a teaching and experience dimension well beyond the level of most parent coaching. They are well worth the investment in our kids basketball development. The youth travel program is well run and I think you will begin to see the High School program reap the benefits of the hard work being done at the youth level over the past 3-4 years. I wholeheartedly disagree with the comments that this is glorified playground basketball with a babysitter. I watch a lot of games and practices at various ages and I see professional and NC High School coaches teaching fundamentals and taking an active role in developing basketball in New Canaan. The best is yet to come.
We all make choices on sports and teams our children will participate on. My three sons have chosen the sport of hockey and I would be doing handstands if the cost for their teams was $1000.00 a season. Choices that is what life is about!!
Not meaning to turn the focus away from the article which is about the delicate balance of keeping costs down for a youth sports group and the fiscal challenges the BOE faces each year…
I have a kid in the NCBA and he loves it mostly because of the pro coaches. That’s what makes it better than Y Ball–no dads involved. They’re worth every penny. They know the game, they’re objective and they teach the kids many valuable things that they can take with them on and off the court. It’s a strong youth program right now, stronger than it’s ever been. The records of each team from grades 5-8 speak for themselves.
I also have seen the NCHS team play many times this year. They have contended in almost every game and could easily have an 8-7 record or better if a couple of shots and calls went their way. Their core group of players are all underclassmen who will be back next year, so I think Mike Evans’ impact of building a hoops culture is starting to show. no one works harder.
What has hurt Rams basketball the past 6-7 years has been sports specialization. Back in my day, the stud NC football players were also the stud NC basketball players (Overbecks, Roubinek, Pete Arnold, etc.). Imagine what it would have been like in the Usher years if those guys only played football and lax?
All that said, the future is very bright for NCHS hoops and the NCBA has played a big part of building that foundation. As Brian said, the best is yet to come.
The coaches at the high school level need to pay attention to these costs. They are losing players to other sports.
$1000 for an indoor travel sport does not seem out of line. As someone else already mentioned travel hockey costs a lot more. Part of the problem is that the fixed costs are spread over a limited # of participants. What really drives the rental costs is the mandatory $58 per hour custodian fee which there would see to be no getting around. Not sure of the current # but in past, program served around 150 players. Maybe the idea of having mostly home games, 2 practices per week and two officials also needs to be reviewed as a way of reducing costs