Our main goal is to host a great game, make a profit on registrations, and give that profit away to worthy local causes. Any extra or unexpected earnings just add to our Donation Pool and help us give more support to organizations providing real help to people in our community.
Here is a rough breakdown of expenses, which vary slightly every year:
- 60% of all entry fees collected are spent locally to provide a fun and rewarding softball experience.
- Field reservations, umpires, staff, jerseys, prizes, etc.
- 25% of all registrations go directly to our local non-profit partners.
- Donations earned by teams during each season and donated at the end of the year.
- 15% of all entry fees collected go to outside vendors.
- Amazon supply orders, Credit Card fees, Website fees, etc.
Softball has some very predictable expenses, but here is a good breakdown of exactly what it takes to run this game and where your registration fees will be spent.
- Field use through Durham Parks & Recreation is $20 per hour. With 8 games per week, for 12 weeks (including playoffs), so we are budgeting $1,920 in field reservation expenses.
- Our umpires earn $30 per game. Our budget for 96 regular season games and 13 playoff games is $3,660.
- Our field attendant earns $15 per hour. For 12 weeks at 6.5 hours per week, our budget is $1,170.
- We use a brand new softball every game. Balls cost about $5/each, or $545 in ball expenses.
- Each team requires insurance, which costs about $140 per team, per season. If we fill all 16 teams, we will be paying $2,240 in insurance fees.
- All players receive a custom jersey. These cost about $7 per player, or $1,792 for all 256 players.
- Bases, scorecards, print materials, website expenses, and other small line items, we are estimating approximately $500 per season.
- PayPal fees take off about 2.75% of all payments, or an estimated $492 per season.
- TOTAL: $12,319 in estimated operating expenses.
Along with paying for the normal costs involved in organizing a softball league, your registration will also:
- Sponsor an estimated $4,000 / season in direct cash donations to our 17 charity sponsors.
- Continue to support Play NC’s Miracle League of the Triangle team, the Junior League White Sox. (~$1,500 / year)
- Continue to sponsor a Cat Cottage at the Animal Protection Society of Durham. ($300 / year)
- Continue to sponsor a Baseball AND Softball team for South Durham Little League. ($1,200 / year)
- Support our “off-season donation fund,” where we try to help local causes and individuals with needs that we can’t anticipate now.
Basically, after expenses and “guaranteed donations,” we usually have between $3,000 to 4,000 left over each season to fund our Donation Pools. This means roughly 20% of your registration fee will be donated to our partner non-profits.
As a non-profit league focused on helping Durham, we can promise you that every possible dollar will go towards three goals:
- Providing a great softball experience, or
- Patronizing a Durham business, or
- Helping a Durham non-profit.
The umpires and field attendants will be the only humans earning personal money from Play NC events (ie. Ryan works for free) and >75% of all funds we receive are re-invested in Durham individuals or organizations by the end of the season.
We appreciate your support!
