Pay $50 to get cut

rudy · Post by **rudy** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:12 am

http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/news_article/show/125894

HShockeywatcher · Post by **HShockeywatcher** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:12 am

"The cuts from the two hockey teams translates to $2,800 in fees generated for the school's budget."

There were 56 students that were cut! How many are cut from a typical program?

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:35 am

HShockeywatcher wrote:There were 56 students that were cut! How many are cut from a typical program?

Typical meaning average? Outside of the Top 20, I would bet the average is closer to 10 than 50.

KrautBache · Post by **KrautBache** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:32 am

I guess it's not all that different than paying a $50 application fee to be rejected by a college. (Or buying a gal a $100 dinner and only getting a handshake at the front door!

)

mulefarm · Post by **mulefarm** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:46 am

It should be for all sports, if increasing revenue is their objective. It costs money to heat the gym and mow the grass and these expenses should also be recovered also. Hockey always has paid it's own way compared to onther sports!

seek & destroy · Post by **seek & destroy** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:08 am

mulefarm wrote:It should be for all sports, if increasing revenue is their objective. It costs money to heat the gym and mow the grass and these expenses should also be recovered also. Hockey always has paid it's own way compared to onther sports!

I agree 100% that if a school decides to have tryout fees than ALL sports should have some sort of tryout fee. It does cost money for maintenance and other things for swimming pools, fields, tracks etc.. To single out hockey and golf is done just to pick on sports that parents are use to having to pay for use of the facility.

Personally, I have no problem with charging a tryout fee as a way to raise revenue. Of those 56 kids who were cut, there had to be a bunch that knew that they were likely not going to make it but were willing to pay the fee for the experience of 'giving it a shot'...I commend them for trying and their parents for being willing to pay to let them try.

My only issue is that I think it is easy for schools to single out some sports that they feel cater to the more affluent and let the other sports off because the 'field' is already paid for. A tryout is a tryout and all sports have some sort of costs whether it is blatant ($200 per ice hour or $45 green fees) or hidden ($250,000 for fixing up and taking care of field/pool/track maintenance etc.).

LetsPlayHockey22 · Post by **LetsPlayHockey22** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:10 am

When I went to Blaine we didn't pay to tryout. I believe we paid for captain's practices, then tryouts were free, then if you made the team is was $300 or so for the season. Although, things might have changed in the last 7-8 years. And for a bigger program, we usually only cut around 15 kids, some years less.

Tigers33 · Post by **Tigers33** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:42 am

Keep in mind the school pays for the ice seperate. There is probably extra ice needed, extra bills for the amount of ice. To compare this to cutting the grass and heating the gym is not a good comparison. Those things are done on school property regardless of the kids getting cut.

Is this fair? No, by no means is it fair. However, how many kids pay to tryout for advanced 16, 17, and so on. All you are paying for is the ice time at a hefty price. Correct? Lets say your son tries out for advanced 16. That might cost you 100 dollars (probably more) And your kid might get cut. Its the same thing.

Keep in mind boy's hockey cut 42 kids and girls hockey 14. All 56 werent cut from the boys program.

Same is true for golf. Is it fair if your kids uses the dome for a week and plays 27 holes for free. No! So, there is a tryout fee. You just piad 50 dollars for 27 holes and 5 hours at least at the golf dome. Not that bad of a deal to be honest. Sign me up

mulefarm · Post by **mulefarm** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:16 pm

I'm just guessing, but I bet it is cheaper for the school dist to rent ice time for the hockey programs than it is to maintain their outdoor fields for a year. Do they charge teams for captains practice and open gym? They should know what it costs /hr to run these facilities and charge accordingly. They should be charging youth and adult teams and organizations an hourly rate to increase revenue. Why isn't this fair?

seek & destroy · Post by **seek & destroy** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:16 pm

Tigers33 wrote:Keep in mind the school pays for the ice seperate. There is probably extra ice needed, extra bills for the amount of ice. To compare this to cutting the grass and heating the gym is not a good comparison. Those things are done on school property regardless of the kids getting cut.

So using your theory, we should build a rink on school property and maintain it and then it would be free of charge to the students of the school?

Most schools chose to build a baseball field on school property. They also chose to build a combination track/soccer/football field on school property. Many also add a pool to school property. The costs of these faciiities are in the millions to build. The upkeep and maintenance is also extremely costly.

To say that "those things are done on school property" anyway is exactly my point. People act as if it doesn't cost anything because the school "owns it" but hockey, which costs nothing to build because others build it, typically gets treated like it is such a costly sport because of the ice 'rental' fee. The rental fee is merely a way of paying as you go for the original building costs and maintenance of the facility. In the long run, it probably costs less to pay rental fees than it does to build stadiums/pools/fields and then maintain them. It would be nice if schools realized that when they look at their budgets for sports.

Tigers33 · Post by **Tigers33** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:24 pm

The point seek and destroy is the school is already paying for the cost of their gymnasium and fields, whether it is in season or out of season. That is their property that they own. Correct? I cant just go play basketball at Edina HS on my own. Right? I would need to rent that space from them.

The kids arent paying a 5 dollar fee to use the gym during gym class. Right? However, if that gym class went to the rink it wouldnt shock me to know the kids would need to pay 5 dollars to skate. I remember doing this at bowling alley's or roller gardens as a youth. We would have to pay 5 dollars to use their facility. Why didnt the school pay for that? Oh, because its a seperate entity than the school. Just like the hockey rinks are a seperate entity from the high school.

This doesnt surprise me at all. I think you would have more of a beef if the girls basketball team was having to pay 50 for a tryout fee. For what? 3 hours of the time they spent in the gym. Now to me thats not really fair. The school is paying for the gym whether the kids are in it or not. Swimming and diving could be another example. I am not sure if the school gets a bill for the hour or two the team uses the pool.

BodyShots · Post by **BodyShots** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:10 pm

KrautBache wrote:I guess it's not all that different than paying a $50 application fee to be rejected by a college. (Or buying a gal a $100 dinner and only getting a handshake at the front door! )

Now that's funny.

for4checker · Post by **for4checker** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:58 pm

Heck it would be cheaper than buying a hockey sticks. Just think one snap of a shaft and your looking at 150 plus or minus.

This is the way it is nowdays, budget cuts, just a few years ago most student athletes, and this is not from all schools were paying no fees, now just about every sport has a cost.

toivo22 · Post by **toivo22** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:52 pm

for4checker wrote:Heck it would be cheaper than buying a hockey sticks. Just think one snap of a shaft and your looking at 150 plus or minus.

This is the way it is nowdays, budget cuts, just a few years ago most student athletes, and this is not from all schools were paying no fees, now just about every sport has a cost.

Why don't we go back to wooden sticks? They are way cheaper, but wait they are not as cool

Scouting Players · Post by **Scouting Players** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:28 am

sounds like you need to move your kid to a small town were no one gets cut.

Shinbone_News · Post by **Shinbone_News** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:27 am

I think the tryout fee is maybe also intended to weed out the "less serious" players. Some big associations do it at levels as low as Peewees. But at the high school level, especially Edina, it seems a bit of a money grab. They easily have the deepest talent pool in the state, and most of those 50 cut kids probably thought they had legitimate chances (esp. if they played in a smaller school) but were naive about things like politics and off-season training.

That all said, as a parent of a multi-sport athlete, I can assure that every sport is asking for money at every opportunity, even the "cheap ones" like track & field.

HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Pay $50 to get cut

Pay $50 to get cut

$50, cheaper than a hockey stick

Re: $50, cheaper than a hockey stick