SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Pay for Home Games that are Away

Should a team have to pay the host club for use of it's fields for a Home game. For example, if Cainhoy Soccer has to have a Home game, but it is played at Mt. Pleasant Soccer Club, should Cainhoy have to pay a fee. The fee would go toward the cost of field maintenance. Cainhoy would receive the "fee" if they hosted a game on their fields, but the Home team was MPSC and the Away team was JIYSC. The fee would come from MPSC as they were listed as the Home team for that game on the Cainhoy fields.

If you agree that a fee would be appropriate, is $50 per game too much/too little/just right?

Discuss.

Good topic and thanks for the plug. I don't know but suspect i would favor yes, they should pay, but then you would have to look a little deeper.

Actually they should actually negotiate and talk first with the host club, local league, or more likely owner of the fields. In many cases this is actually school districts, county council or some other municipality. I wonder how many clubs actually own their own fields.

This then gets you in to the whole "why should MPSC get sole use of town rec fields debate" and why can't Cainhoy or any other club with tax paying citizens get equal access to lighted beauties at Park West for example.

Assuming of course they are willing to pay the same rent as any other club to the town. Sorry MP for using you here but my point would be similar in any geography and I'm just continuing Shades example.

So to start this dialog going and to just offer my 2c I would like to think soccer clubs would plan to rent, build or borrow fields over time but if not, a reasonable rent would be appropriate.

$50 per game seems a little rich to me but I suspect it could go that high. I would like to think that these sorts of issues that would increase the cost of youth soccer to the extent of $50 per family could be avoided.

For the record viewers, Cainhoy Athletic plays its home games on borrowed fields from school district (Berkeley) and is building our own for the future. Just taking longer than expected.

In my understanding, there is only 1 soccer club in the Charleston area that currently "owns" their fields, JIYSC. The other clubs have arrangements of some form that provide them with a "home" set of fields. Others are in the process of building fields.

I'm not sure which league you are specifically talking about, but, for the leagues that I was affiliated with previously, each club that had teams registered to play in the league had to provide the use of a certain number of fields, based on the number of teams entered, for scheduling mathes. The actual scheduling of the fields was not at the discretion of the club.

Most often when this is brought up, it's from a point of competition between the clubs, external to the field of play. I know when I brought it up with the cups and games director a few years ago it was. I agree with Cainhoy's comments about it should be set up in advance, and whatever agreement is reached is between the clubs and not the league. But once the fields are offered up to the league, it's over, and the league really didn't have a mechanism to check. When I had that discussion it was relative to a particular club that had all of their home games scheduled at a different club, rather than their own fields. This was also when the cups and games director scheduled all the matches, not the club representatives.

I think the $50 per fee is what the state pays for the use of fields for state cup play. If it were applied club to club for use as you say above, it's really nothing more than a means to hinder or inhibit the use of the fields by the other club. If you think $50 would cover the cost of "maintenance" for the field to host that game, you need to dig deeper to understand the true costs field maintenance. The flip side of that, if you think that hosting a match somehow causes damage that is above the damage caused by practicing on the field during the week, you are also mistaken.

Given the clubs mentioned so prominently, MPSC and Cainhoy, and being skeptical, I think it's more about trying to stifle the perceived competition in the club market sector.

Another benefit to having many matches scheduled at one location is getting referees. I think it would be hard to get a ref to drive for one or two matches vs. having five or six matches scheduled for one location.

Wow, great insight Fireant.

Nearly had to move our U12G home game this weekend to MPSC due to lack of willing ref to adjudicate one game at our location. Luckily we found one and game on but it points out there is more than a patch of grass to consider. If we moved this home game it would not have been our choice.

While on subject, if you are a ref and live in Clements Ferry/Hwy 41 area drop me a line and I'll make sure assignor has your name.

There are very good financial (business) reasons to host games (concessions, etc) and these easily supply more revenue than the field expense. It is not unusual for a club with several fields in operation to make hundreds of dollars on a weekend.

Next... good post Bear with regard to field maintenance. Additionally you would need to consider whether the additional matches on club 'rented' fields actually increases the host Club's cost (the City or town I suspect just charges a flat rate regardless of traffic). If in the rare case this happens you would then need to consider only the delta in cost as a legitimate charge.

So why pay fees to a host club if they don't actually pay more for field maintenance?

Finally Bear please don't read anything on this thread that is directed at Cainhoy or MP. Our names were thrown out as examples and I believe Shades is associated with JIYSC based on earlier postings. Since as you say they own their own fields, I suspect they have clauses in bylaws or operating rules that dictate when and if their fields can be rented or used. We do.

Then I would ponder where would a nonprofits fields come from. As a public charity if these were donated you would have to at least consider the donors intent in any land contribution and ask whether they would want the field held for exclusive use or shared by many. In any case, this topic is complex and would need to be handled on a case by case basis in my humble opinion.

Thanks to all for your comments and opinions. This top was brought up by some at JIYSC and to be able to be part of the discussion I thought it would be best to see what other thoughts were out there from outside of the JIYSC.

Cainhoy Athletic, I can only say positive things about your club. It appears that your soccer club has very good vision and is certainly going to raise the bar in soccer in the LowCountry.

Thank you Shades. We are quite proud of what we have achieved in a little over a season. We certainly want and intend to stay true to our mission/goals and I often reflect on this verbiage from our website to keep us honest

'...our Club insists on increased participation and awareness of the game of soccer without sacrificing quality coaching and instruction. We will measure our success not only with the anticipated trophies but with program enrollment, soccer awareness, parental involvement, service to the community, club growth, and above all accessibility to everyone.'

We believe we are on track with some recent activities and news all pointing in the right direction:

Registered our 200th child with SCYSA this last week. Many new to SCYSA and club soccer.

Healthy population receiving scholarships of different levels and good diversity in membership

Visiting Cainhoy School and working with PE staff and administration to provide soccer awareness programs

Entering new partnership and relationship with the YMCA of Greater Charleston to increase the services we can offer and reach children in need of quality sporting activities.
YMCA Charleston Soccer

With College of Charleston Womens Soccer Program (Coach Dempsey) Cainhoy Athletic is hosting the largest tri-county Special Olympics Elementary aged soccer skills event on March 31st at Patriots Point (C of C) Soccer Stadium

Received recognition and funding from USYSA to support our mission of providing soccer activities to marginalized and rural communities. Only one of 14 recipients (nationwide) in 2010.
USYSA Grant News

Again, thanks to the soccer community for your support and help this first exciting year.

I guess this discussion must be mainly about local leagues such as the LSYSA or Sandlapper league. It's my understanding that SCYSA sponsored statewide leagues charge field fees to all participating teams and pay the host clubs for field usage.