Create a Travel Soccer Budget Today – Easy Template

The need for team budgets in youth sports has never been more prevelant. Today’s sport landscape requires more than just organization on the field. Use this free tool as a template for your budget.

Club Sports are expensive today and the team budget for a travel soccer team is an important part of the yearly plan for a team.  The coach should have an idea of what they want to accomplish during the season and the manager is vitally important to helping create the budget for a successful year. A manager can assist the coach by providing a template to plan out the year.

Importance of the Budget

The budget serves many organizational functions for a team.  First and foremost it forces the team leadership to come up with a plan for the year.  This may seem trivial at first, but it is imperative that the year is mapped out to set the proper expectations for the team (specifically the parents).  The budget also creates transparency for parents so that they know what the money they are giving to the team is being used for.  It also allows the manager to plan fundraising efforts after a review of the proposed budget.

Parental Funding of the Budget

The parents are the funding source for youth sports and money can become an issue if not handled properly by the team leadership. It is important to not continuously ask parents for money during the year, so a properly planned budget minimizes the amount of requests for funds that will be made from parents.  The parents will appreciate the clear communication and lack of repeated requests for funds.

You are generally better off estimating a little high, versus a little low.  Better to refund or carry funds over to the next year than having to ask parents for money at the end of a long season, especially if the year did not go well.  As the manager, you do not want to get stuck with money coming out of your own pocket.

Contents of a Budget Template

 A typical budget should contain at least the following:

1.    Ref fees for League/Season games;

2.    Ref fees for friendlies/scrimmages;

3.    Tournament fees;

4.    First Aid Kit;

5.    Equipment for newly formed teams such as, a bench, team canopy, etc.

6.    Miscellaneous administrative matters such as coaching supplies, paying for a coach night in a hotel for out of town tournaments, etc.;

7.    Team bonding, non-soccer items such as pizza parties, circus trix, rock climbing, etc.

How to Complete the Budget Template

Most information needed to complete the budget can be found on the internet by looking at individual tournament websites (entry fees), league sites (ref fees), and online retailers (supplies, coach expenses, benches, first aid kits, etc.). It is important to use a template to assist with the framework of the budget.

An example budget template may be reviewed here or downloaded here.