Our second Storyline for the 2014 XC Season - "FHSAA THIRD PARTY SANCTIONING"

See more Storyline's:

"STATE XC MEET DATE CHANGES TO NOVEMBER 15th, 2014"

This year the FHSAA has started to enforce the fee structure associated with events not being hosted by member schools and it's caused several meets to be cancelled or significantly impacted financially.  Expect even more fall-out from this enforcement as meet directors formulate plans for the 2015 Track and Field season and in subsequent Cross Country seasons starting in the fall of 2015.

It may seem like our first two storylines for the 2014 XC season are rather FHSAA centric, and to a degree they are.  The FHSAA is the governing body for our sport and the pre-eminent governing body for the majority of the high school sports in the State of Florida.

From the FHSAA.org website.

"The FHSAA sponsors 3,396 championship series games through which 139 teams, and 294 individuals are crowned state champions in 32 sports each year. Over 2,000 student athletes each year experience winning a championship. Through participation in these athletic programs, nearly 800,000 students annually are extended opportunities to receive lessons in leadership, sportsmanship and citizenship.

The Florida High School Athletic Association . . . building leaders through teamwork, sportsmanship and citizenship."

So when we think about their aims, desires, goals and objectives from the FHSAA stand-point, they are charged with a lot of responsibility for a lot of constituents.  Their broad spectrum of sports include what can be considered revenue sports and what a good many of us consider the the fringe sports in terms of revenue, such as cross country and track and field. 

Although most fans of the sport may never have heard of issues associated with "sanctioned" events and more recently, "third party sanctioning fee's", the issue of third party sanctioning is not a new one.  It's only bubbled to the surface this year as the FHSAA decided to enforce their policies that have been in effect in one form or another since 2010.  Any sporting event that includes a third-party needs to be sanctioned by, and a fee paid for that sanctioning, to the FHSAA.  The fee's associated with "third party direct events" and the 50% premium for live streaming the event is the real eye-catcher in 2014-2015. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT FHSAA SANCTIONING AT FHSAA.ORG

The FHSAA institutes a policy of sanctioning meets involving third parties so their is accountability for the event being held.  The name of the game is liability and the FHSAA wants their member schools and themselves protected in case there is legal action involved with an event. 

Along the same lines, the FHSAA wants to keep the costs low for their member schools that host events.  The third party sanctioning fee's being enforced by the FHSAA this season across all sports are a means of keeping costs low for member schools and generating revenue from the multitude of events that are sanctioned by the FHSAA, and not hosted by member schools which leads us to the definition of host school in the eyes of the FHSAA.

The FHSAA wants to know where the liability lies.  Which entitiy is carrying the applicable insurance coverage for the event?  If it's a member school, there normally isn't third party fee's associated with sanctioning.  For everyone else starting most recently with the start of the 2014 school year, that means a third party sanctioning fee will need to be paid to the FSAA.  That means, "Colleges, Universities, and/or Third Party entities, including private corporations and non-profit organizations requesting to host events must enter into a contract directly with the FHSAA for sanction approval".

The fee structure is the same as it was during the 2013-2014 school year.  What's made it relevant is the enforcement of the fee's payable to the FHSAA versus the 2013-2014 school year.  The costs associated with receiving the sanction have made the costs associated with hosting a meet a heck of a lot more costly. 

SEE THE FEE STRUCTURE BEING ENFORCED BY THE FHSAA

This is where it's important to distinguish between the revenus sports, "deep pockets" and those on the fringe.  "Deep pockets" and "institutions" are in a lot better financial position to absorb the costs associated with the enforcement of the fee structure. Those on the fringe are faced with either raising additional revenue, transferring costs to the participants, or cancelling the event outright as it's no longer cost beneficial. 

The bottom line is third party events being contested now and in the future have gotten a whole lot more expensive to host.  Those costs will have to be managed one way or the other.  If the pockets are deep enough, we may not notice a change for that particular event and then again, we may in ensuing years.  It's also very feasible that registration fee's, parking fee's, concession fee's or any other multitude of revenue generation that can cover the enforced costs start to take hold going forward.  As we've seen already this year, meets may just decide to stop hosting events.  We've already seen the likes of Half-Mile Timing cancel meets versus passing costs along to attendees.  

That's not good for the sport and very hard to put a price tag on.

NEXT STORYLINE - FLORIDA'S HIGHEST RANKED BOY - LEON'S SUKHI KHOSLA