By Bill Hanson, Associate Executive Director, San Antonio Sports

While wanting to conduct an athletic event in support of an amateur organization is admirable, getting a grip on the financial side must be the first priority. Whether you represent a sports commission, a CVB or a local youth team, putting yourself or your organization in financial debt is no way to keep your job or keep a good relationship with your fellow team parents. Many of our readers are new to the sports event industry and are likely members of a two or three-person staff, so developing an event budget may well be the task of a single person.

So where do you start if this is your first budget? Experienced event planners will tell you that you’ve got to have a complete budget anyway, so it shouldn’t matter whether you start with income or expenses. But because the list of income opportunities is far shorter than that of expenses we’ll start with income, and we’ll divide the income categories according to being event-generated and pre-event-generated. The objective is to provide you with a list of income categories, and inspire you to think of others pertinent to your situation.

The most common line items for income generated prior to an event are SPONSORSHIPS, DONATIONS and ENTRY FEES.

Whatever your organization or the size of your event, if there is public exposure, some businesses are willing to give you money in exchange for visibility. For small events, these businesses will likely be parent-owned and generated through goodwill. The obvious target market for these sponsorships is the immediate membership of your organization.  A sports commission must think bigger and find local businesses that will benefit from an association with your event. In addition to title, presenting and general event sponsorships there are items such as ticket-backs and lineup sheets that offer sponsor exposure.

Donations are another membership target no matter the size of the organization. A sports commission goes straight to its own Board of Directors for donations while a small amateur group again goes to it’s own parents or members.

Generating advance income through team or individual entry fees is not only financially advantageous, but is also the primary factor in estimating many of your expense items. This would be especially true if entries were capped and you could generate a demand for entry into your event. First-time budget-makers should, however, be conservative when estimating their number of entries.  We’ve all heard the claims of “I know 50 teams that will participate, no problem”. These become the famous last words of a wannabe event planner.

Pre-event income can also be generated through ADVANCE TICKET SALES, SIGNAGE, SOUVENIR PROGRAM ADVERTISING, PUBLIC ADDRESS ANNOUNCEMENTS, VENDOR FEES, PARKING PASSES and HOSPITALITY PASSES.

There are a number of budget line items that generate income during the conduct of your event, some contingent upon your competition venue and its own policies, and others directly dependent upon the capabilities of your local organizing committee. The primary obstacle to any event is the inability of the event organizer to recruit capable workers or to delegate responsibility to these workers. Capable workers translate to on-site income opportunities in GATE TICKET SALES, FOOD & BEVERAGE CONCESSIONS, SOUVENIR MERCHANDISE SALES, SOUVENIR PROGRAM SALES and PARKING FEES.  These line items must also be discussed with the management of your potential competition venue because, in most cases, there are policies in place governing what you can and cannot do during your event. If you don’t ask up front, you could find out the hard way, in the small print after signing the lease contract.

Your income likely will be either participant-driven or spectator-driven, and you should be conservative with either estimate. The easiest way to balance or enhance a budget is by arbitrarily increasing entry fees or ticket sales, yet most planners find that preferable to reducing expenses.

Identifying your income opportunities is one thing, but putting the proper budget number to them is quite another. Estimating line item amounts certainly comes easier with experience, but to the relative novice, conservative thinking should prevail. Don’t try to do it all yourself. Researching similar events is the most obvious and the quickest way. If your organization is a member of the National Association of Sports Commissions, you have many peers willing to assist you.

The best way to approach the expense items in your budget is to “expect the unexpected”, and we’ll cover those in the next post.