Waunakee Community School District co-curricular staff reported June 5 that overall spring participation dipped slightly from the previous year while ticket and digital-pass revenue remains an important source of funds for team supply budgets.

The district’s co-curricular presenter, Nick, told the committee that the number of state qualifiers in track and field was “close to 30” across boys and girls and that Boys Lacrosse won a conference title and was playing a sectional semifinal the night of the meeting. He said spring participation declines were “not an eye opening drop at all” but noted specific shifts: boys track and field participation fell by about 10 athletes and the boys golf roster declined from 86 to 73, a drop of 13 players.

Why it matters: the committee was reminded that gate receipts do not flow solely to the teams that host big games. Nick explained that playoff home games can drive high gross receipts (he cited a football net-sales figure in the presentation of about $61,000 as an example) but most of that revenue is used immediately to cover payroll, officials and tournament costs. He said the conference/tournament series currently retains about 85% of those receipts for covered costs and that figure is scheduled to drop to roughly 80% next year.

The report reiterated how the district uses ticket-sales revenue: proceeds from all sports are pooled to help fund teams’ supply budgets, a practice that the presenter said came out of a Title 9 study the district completed about three years ago. Digital passes remain the district’s second-largest revenue source after box-office sales; the presenter said wider adoption of digital passes contributed to a modest drop in box-office purchases this year, as fewer people bought single-event tickets at the gate.

Committee members asked about the 85% conference split and were given a brief explanation that tournament organizers and the conference retain a large share to cover staffing and officials; Nick said next year’s share to schools will improve by about 5 percentage points.

Volunteers and receipts: the presenter also reminded committee members that volunteer workers (score table staff, concessions, etc.) are provided free admission for the event they work and are eligible for admission to an additional event later in the year per board policy; he said that is not always widely understood and thanked district volunteers for supporting events.

Ending: The committee had no formal changes to policy at the meeting; the athletic report will be supplemented in the fall with final spring-season honors and a full year-end participation and ticketing summary.