***Please Note: These numbers were generated using our 2021 Budget. Yearly costs may fluctuate from year to year based on current National Fees, equipment costs, or new fees (such as processing fees, or volunteer background check fees)***
Region 73 AYSO is built ENTIRELY on volunteers. That’s right, even the person creating this post isn’t being paid a dime. Why do we do it? We do it because our kids love to play soccer, and volunteering a bit of our time helps ensure they have a fantastic soccer experience! But I know what you might be thinking……wait a minute, I pay $155 (assuming you capture the Early Bird Savings you may $15 less) every year for my child to play Region 73 AYSO soccer……if nobody gets paid, where does that money go?
AYSO NATIONAL FEE
Region 73 AYSO is just one region – we are part of something much bigger…..AYSO National. Right out of the gate, $20 (9.81%) of every player’s registration fee goes straight to AYSO National to keep the organization running. They also add Volunteer Fees for all of our adult volunteers (board members, coaches, referees, etc). These are for background checks to keep our children safe. Recently the fingerprinting background check was added which is once for each volunteer as long as they keep volunteering with AYSO. These background checks are California mandated.
UNIFORMS
Most of our divisions get brand-new uniforms every year. The uniforms include a dry-fit jersey, shorts, and socks. These uniforms are the players to keep. At our region we do not re-use uniforms as each year new teams are formed.
FIELD EXPENSES
Region 73 AYSO currently reserves 18 soccer fields of various sizes for the region. The Kaiser Permanente Bakersfield Sports Village Complex is home to 12 full size soccer fields of which Region 73 takes 8 and creates the 18 soccer fields for the various age divisions. Region 73 is responsible for maintaining the 12 Soccer fields of the sports complex under license.The field expenses are the part we spent on our regional soccer program and used to ensure our soccer fields are mowed (contract) and painted (by a volunteer). In addition, we provide janitorial services to clean the park toilets at the fields for our players and parents.
EQUIPMENT EXPENSES
Part of your registration fee is used to provide/maintain our soccer equipment from year to year. Remember those 18 fields? This means we have many goals to maintain and replace (as needed) along with nets. Each year we provide our volunteer coaches with equipment that contain the items they need to coach their players. We certainly try to reuse any items that we can but let’s be honest, nobody wants a used whistle.
AWARDS, VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION
At the end of each season, the kids are given participation medals and a little treat for playing with us. We currently rely on youth volunteers to referee our games. As a small incentive, we give these youth volunteers the opportunity to earn small awards if they spend their Saturdays refereeing our children’s games. We are working diligently to find and train adult referee volunteers to help.
VOLUNTEER TRAINING
Finding volunteer coaches, referees, and board members would be impossible if they had to pay for training out of their own pocket. I mean who wants to PAY to volunteer, right?? This is why a portion of your registration fee is set aside to provide training to our volunteers. These AYSO training opportunities give coaches and referees the chance to develop their skills and provide the best soccer experience for your child.
CONFERENCES/MEETINGS/ SECTION/ NAGM
AYSO is a large organization and although we serve our communities the best we can there is an overall National program which keeps AYSO consistent overall.All regions are served and supported by Areas and Areas are supported by Sections and Sections are supported by the National organization and the AYSO programs.
This ensures that training of volunteers and the setup of regional soccer programs are coordinated and the same. The program promotes a consistent and high quality soccer program to enrich children’s lives. This enables AYSO players to play in various tournaments outside their regions with similar / same rules in AYSO and other USSF soccer programs.
These programs include section meetings, training sessions, tournaments, special soccer programs and require participation of all regions and are not free. Since Covid the expenses for participation in these programs have considerably increased and our regional volunteers do their best so our region benefits from these National Programs. We can do more like organize our own tournaments, introduce Xtra soccer, AYSO united (club), more volunteer training, summer soccer training for players and more if we have more volunteers to help coordinate and support.
