WYSL Club Presidents and Registrars:
The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association has announced several fee changes for the next soccer year, and I will go through those in some detail below. In order to pay for these changes, the WYSL will have to increase its team registration fees, and details are provided below so that clubs can figure these changes into their plans for player registration fees for the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 seasons.
1) ENYYSA Player registration fees (includes registration fees passed on to USYSA and USSF, and medical and liability insurance).
a) Recreation Player Fees are being reduced from $9.50 per player to $8.00 per player. Clubs which run their own recreation soccer programs will pay lower recreation fees next year.
b) Travel Player registration fees are being increased from $14 per player to $18 per player, to offset the costs of the reduction for recreation players. ENYYSA has made this change in recognition that many of its services, such as the State Cup Tournament, Premier League and ODP, are geared more to the travel players than the recreation players, and also in recognition that other recreational programs such as US Club Soccer were offering lower registration costs.
c) The impact of the registration fee increase on a WYSL team depends upon its age group (older age teams can have more players on their rosters). The cost per team is approximately $50 to $80 per team, regardless of whether they play one or two seasons.
2) ENYYSA Referee Fees for 2008-2009.
a) All of the leagues in ENYYSA have been paying referees according to a four year agreement that expires at the end of the current soccer year. Many leagues have reported difficulties attracting enough referees at the current rate schedule, which is well below the rates paid for soccer referees by public and private schools and adult soccer leagues. The expiring agreement also lags behind higher gasoline and transportation prices.
b) ENYYSA has announced a new agreement for next three year period. There will be a significant bump in referee fees next year, followed by modest increases in years two and three. The impact of these increases will be about $100 per team for the full year, or $50 per team for a one season team.
3) Risk Management Background Checks
a) The cost for conducting background checks for coaches, team managers and club officials are increasing from $10 per checking to $15 per checking. These checks are required by ENYYSA, and are conducted once every two years. Rather than have the individual travel soccer volunteers pay for their own background checks, the WYSL pays for these directly and builds the cost into the team registration fees. Recreation coach background checks will be paid by the clubs.
4) WYSL Travel Team Registration Fees for 2008-2009 soccer year
The WYSL Board, taking into account all of the above increases in costs that have been announced by ENYYSA, has adopted the following registration fees for the upcoming 2008 to 2009 soccer year:
Recreation Players
$8.00 per player, a $1.50 decrease from the current level.
Travel Teams
One Season Approximate Cost Per Player Increase (1)
U-9 to U-11 $ 750 $ 7
U-12 to U-14 900 7
U-15 to U-19 950 6
Two Seasons Approximate Cost Per Player Increase (1)
U-9 to U-11 $ 1,030 $ 11
U-12 to U-14 1,180 10
U-15 to U-19 1,230 9
(1) Assumes roster size of 14 players, 18 players and 20 players for the three age groups.
While I do not like to see the costs for children to participate in soccer to go up any higher than they already are, I feel it is necessary to immediately inform the clubs of these changes so that they can take them into account when they announce their own registrations for the Fall 2008 season.
If you have any questions about the reasons for these changes in costs, please contact me.
Rip Fisher
WYSL President
