Post 8 Funding DUGOUT CHAT Tom Magedanz - 03.21.2002

Raising money for Legion and Teener baseball in Pierre is a scary proposition. It takes a lot of money ($50,000 in some years for four teams), and by the end of every season funds are down to nothing. We start all over again during the winter.

Why does it cost so much? The simple answer is geography. Pierre is located a long way from just about everywhere. If we want to play baseball, we have to travel. A lot. And traveling is expensive. Our closest opponent (Huron) is two hours away. It's just a fact of life.

Where does our money go? Transportation. About a third goes to the bus contract. Coaches' salaries amount to less than 20%. We don't pay our coaches very much compared with other programs. Rooms cost us $6000 or $7000 per year, mostly in tournaments. Finding lodging in Rapid City in particular is hard on the purse strings, which is why we try to get lodging at the National Guard Camp whenever possible. Other expenses include uniforms, equipment, 20-30 dozen baseballs, umpires. Last year, with the switch to the -3 bat rule, the Legion team had to skimp, getting by with only four team bats. Sometimes, unusual expenses come up, such as replacing the batting cage net or redoing the pitchers mound with special clay that does better in the rain. It all adds up. Last year we also chose to skip the College World Series tournament in Omaha to save money. This saved us around $4000, but our kids didn't get the opportunity to play down there and to see a College World Series game, unlike their Post 8 predecessors.

Some of our expenses aren't known until late in the season. For example, we want our Teener and Legion teams to make it to the state tournament, but going there will cost us $3000 or so, while going to the regional will be in the $2500 range. It makes a huge difference to our program if we can host a regional or state tournament, especially the State Legion tournament. In the years when we host the state Legion tournament, we don't have to spend $2500 to go to the regional tournament and we don't have to spend $2500 - $3000 to go to the state tournament. Also, we usually make around $3000 or so when we host the tournament, so having the tournament saves us more than $8000 compared with other years. When we have the chance to sponsor a regional or state tournament, we jump at it, because it is a major financial help to us.

Pierre gets good baseball crowds, as good as anyone in the state except Rapid City Post 22. We make money at home games, especially Legion games, and it is important to us that we don't play out of town unless that team agrees to return the favor and play us in Pierre (not all teams want to come all the way out here). We take in money at the gate and we don't have to spend money for the bus and motels. To make the travel easier, we have agreements with several teams in which we take turns playing all four games for the year at one town and go to the other town the next year. Doubleheaders two days in a row with an overnight stay is cheaper and easier than separate trips. We do this with Valley Springs, Brookings, and Sioux Falls East. Last year Yankton was supposed to come to Pierre for back to back doubleheaders, but canceled at the last minute (their team folded) leaving us four games short on our schedule. We made up the games by getting into a weekend tournament at Watertown, but took a hit of nearly $1000 when tournament/travel expenses and lost home game revenues are added together. This year, Miles City, Montana is playing here on their way to tournaments farther east, which is pure gravy for us: extra home games with a good team and no travel expenses (they are just passing through and don't expect us to come to Miles City). How we set up our schedule makes a big difference in how our finances go.

Where does our money come from? Lots of places, not the least of which is the players themselves. This year, Teener and Legion players will need to sell $150 worth of raffle tickets. Raffle tickets enable kids who may not be able to afford the $150 to earn the
money rather than paying a straight fee. Sixty kids will raise $9000. Our season pass program raises around $7000 at $25 per family pass. We get around $10,000 per year from donations from businesses, professional people, and individuals in the community. Since the early 1990s, Pierre American Legion Post 8 has made sizeable annual donations to the program, although their contributions vary according to their financial situation. The remainder comes from other activities, such as gate receipts, outfield sign rental, pancake feeds, car wash, 50-50 drawings, cap sales, burger feeds, and whatever else we can think of. We don't have one large source of income to take care of things; we have to chip away at it from many small sources.

Running Pierre's Legion and Teener baseball programs takes a lot of money and a lot of effort by many, many people. We can keep it going because of the generosity of literally hundreds of people in the Pierre/Ft. Pierre community. We deeply appreciate their help.

Thank you.