When running a travel youth baseball organization, you need to know how much money you have to spend on staffing, facilities, equipment, and more. This is where creating a budget becomes essential.
There are different tools and software that you can use to help you create your sports budget, but we love a good old-fashioned budget spreadsheet. A basic spreadsheet allows you to easily create, modify, and manage your team’s expenditures, revenue, and other financial obligations.
Throughout this article, we’re going to talk more about setting your travel baseball team budget and how you can create your own budget spreadsheet.
Key components of a travel baseball budget
When putting together your baseball league budget, there are two main areas you need to look at: your revenue and your expenses. The goal is always to ensure the revenue you have coming in is higher than the money you have going out for expenses.
Let’s walk through what this might look like.
Revenue sources
There are several places your youth sports team might see revenue coming in.
Player registration fees
Every baseball league, from Little League to travel ball, has registration fees that players must pay to participate. These should cover the player’s uniform at the very least and are typically turned in alongside the registration form.
But some leagues will increase these fees to help pad their budgets, especially if they’ll be facing travel expenses. The average cost of player registration fees can be anywhere from $50-400, depending on the sport, season, and location.
Sponsorships
Putting together sponsorship packages that appeal to local businesses and large corporations in the sports industry can be a great way to raise funds for your team in exchange for promotion.
Donations
You can accept donations from parents, people in your community, or businesses. Because a sports league is often classified as a non-profit organization, any donations you receive can be tax deductible, creating an enticing option for locals looking to contribute to a good cause.
Fundraisers
Finally, holding fundraisers can be a great way to bring in any additional revenue your team might need. Check out these baseball fundraising ideas to brainstorm options that make sense for your team—and can help boost your revenue for the season.
Expenses
Now let’s cover team expenses that youth sports organizations often face.
Travel expenses
This includes transportation to away games, lodging on game days/weekends, meals for the team and coaches, and any other expenses that come with traveling around the area.
Equipment
While you may require players to provide some baseball/softball equipment (like their own bat, helmet, glove, etc.), you’ll still be responsible for some equipment, like uniforms, balls, or catcher’s gear.
Facilities
Facility rentals and field maintenance for home games are likely some of the biggest costs your team will face. This cost will be even more if you have to find space to set up your fields. However, you may be able to rent the local recreational or high school baseball fields for your use, as long as game schedules don’t overlap.
Training costs
This includes fees for baseball coaches and other associated costs for properly training up your travel team for the next season.
Tournament fees
If you hope to participate in any end-of-season tournaments, you’ll need to set aside funds for registration and entry fees and travel if the event is not being held in your area.
Staffing
While many youth sports organizations run with the help of volunteers, you’ll likely still need to pay salaries or contract fees for certain roles, like administration, umpires, and other key helpers.
Miscellaneous expenses
Set aside funds for any additional expenses, such as insurance, administrative costs, background checks, or emergency costs, that you want to be prepared for.
Create a travel baseball team budget
Now that you know the numbers you need to keep track of, let’s get started creating that budget. First, you need to decide what tool to use to create your budget, and then you need to set up your spreadsheet.
Choosing the right tool
You have a few different options for creating your budget spreadsheet:
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Sheets
- Budgeting software
Though there are online tools like FlipGive or MoneyMinder, we’ll focus our tutorial on using a basic spreadsheet. These spreadsheets are easy to set up and maintain, giving you peace of mind that you’re staying on top of your budget.
You just have to decide the right spreadsheet tool to use. Microsoft Excel is a well-known spreadsheet software, but it’s fully offline and can only be accessed from a single computer. On the other hand, Google Sheets lives in the cloud and can be accessed by anyone that you choose to share it with—all they need is a Google account and the internet.
Pick whatever tool you’re more comfortable with and that works for your travel team. Create your new spreadsheet, and proceed to the next step.
Setting up your spreadsheet
While you may be able to find a budget template online as a starting point, it’s easy to set up your own spreadsheet as well.
First, we’ll start with the initial setup. You need to create categories for your revenue and expenses, as well as label your columns and rows.
Here’s an example of what this could look like:
You might have one sheet specifically for recording your revenue and another for expenses. Use color coding to categorize them based on the revenue and expense categories we already mentioned (i.e., registration fees or fundraisers, travel expenses or equipment).
Once you’ve labeled everything and added your expense and revenue categories, it’s time to start inputting your data.
Start by inputting your revenue. You might choose to create a column for “Anticipated Revenue” alongside another column for “Actual Revenue” to help you gauge how well you’re estimating. After all, you won’t always have the exact data, and may need to start planning ahead for future seasons.
Include a “Total” row at the bottom and use a formula to automatically calculate the sum of all revenue so you have an idea of how much your team can spend for the season. And if that’s not enough, how much more you need to fundraise.
From there, work on your expenses. Make sure that your expenses are equal to or less than what you’ve budgeted for each one. You can use past data to help calculate estimates for how much you need to budget.
Manage your budget
Once your spreadsheet template is complete, you simply need to maintain it. Keep it current by updating it every time new revenue comes in or expenses hit. This will keep you and any other administrators in the know about how much money your team has, how much it may need to fundraise, and whether it can afford added expenses.
The biggest reason you need to consistently check in to manage your budget is to ensure that your actual costs aren’t exceeding your budgeted amounts. Otherwise, you’ll run out of money more quickly than you anticipated.
If you notice that your actual expenses are outpacing your budget, you’ll need to find out immediately so that you can start making necessary adjustments to reel in your spending. Or so that you can get started pitching new sponsors or planning your next fundraising event.
Create your own travel baseball team budget spreadsheet
Now it’s time to create your own travel baseball team budget spreadsheet. Find a template online or create your own based on your specific budget categories and needs.
To help you accept registration fees, donations, and other fundraising costs, look to sports software like Jersey Watch. You can add donations and fees to your registration form, accept sponsorship payments, and more, helping to boost your baseball team’s overall budget.
