How much are you paying for your sports management software?

Chances are that most every sports organization uses some type of sports management software program. It is also very likely that those groups are not fully aware of what those systems cost and what they should be paying. The result – most are currently paying ABOVE market rates.

In order to fully understand what a sports organization is truly paying, let’s use an example from one of the leading providers. In this example, the association registers once per year at an average cost of $100 per player and has 500 players. The fee assessed by this sports management software provider is $29/month plus $3 per transaction plus 3.99% of each transaction. In this scenario, the real annual costs are as follows:

·       Merchant Costs (for credit cards) = $1,995 (500 players * $100 * 3.99%)
·       Fixed Merchant Costs = $1,500 (500 players * $3.00)
·       Monthly Fee = $348 ($29 * 12 months)

So, the total sports management software cost for this example organization is $3,843. What will shock most is that this is a whopping 7.7% of the gross registration revenue. Put another way… $7.70 of every registration goes directly to the sports management software company. That likely puts sports management software as one of the top three expenses for the organization (along with equipment/uniforms and umpires/referees).

Every company wants to stay in business which means they need to charge for their product/services. The question for board members is “what is a fair rate for sports management software?” The answer to that depends upon the value to derive from the software itself. If your software gives you registration and little more, then you are probably vastly overpaying to rent the “cash register”. If your software is cumbersome and/or requires you to use other programs (email, rain out hotlines, scheduling software, umpire/referee assignor, etc.) then you are really deriving very little value. If you have to wait 2+ business days for a company to respond to a support request…the value is reduced even further. Let’s face it, most sports organizations are run by volunteers who have regular day jobs. Thus, the time they work on running their sports league is on nights and weekends. The support hours should match the need…not Banker’s Hours.

What should a good sports management software program cost and what should it contain? We will answer those questions in the next article in this series entitled Sports Management Software - What Should It Cost?

Dan Ptak is the Founder and CEO of Jevin – the longest existing sports management software company in the world. Jevin’s innovations have helped drive the technology behind this market and continues to make the life of the volunteer board member better.