Swim Poll of the Week: Would You Support Event Fees to Save College Swimming?

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This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Tuesday, July 19, 2017, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products. In our last poll, we wanted to know: would you add a $1.00 event surcharge to help save college swimming?

The results are in, and…

Here are the answers:

Yes (70%)

No (30%)

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31 Comments

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Jackie Jeschke

6 years ago

YES

Allen Wone

6 years ago

$1 a meet maybe but not each event

John Grzeszczak

6 years ago

Patrick Brennan

6 years ago

Could someone explain why the age group swimmers are saving college swimming? Does college swimming not generate enough revenue to support itself? Besides, NCAA and NAIA are independent from USA Swimming. Someone please explain this situation.

Joshua Udermann

6 years ago

Reply to Patrick Brennan

College swimming is a non-revenue sport. For the vast majority of teams attendance to meets are free and any small revenue made at that meet is put back into team expenses.

Naveh Eldar

6 years ago

Reply to Patrick Brennan

We went to the women’s national championships this year, which was fairly inexpensive, and I was shocked at how few people attended. And most that did attend were mostly adults (family members). It for sure doesn’t generate money.

Rick Stanfield

6 years ago

Reply to Patrick Brennan

In answer to your questions. The actual article as you actually read is asking if folks in age group swimming would agree to help. I personally think that it is college swimming that should find ways to support the programs themselves. There are teams fundraising to endow programs as we speak. As for the second, absolutely not. Regardless, of whether or not teams charged for meets, there is no way they could possibly generate enough revenue to sustain even 1 swimmer. Almost every sport, save FB and Basketball, can not generate revenue to support themselves. I think the writers were just trying to generate discussion. From many responses, the article wasn’t actually read.

Amy Lee

6 years ago

My daughter swims at University of Maryland for winter fest….. and loves the pool.. They have no college team… So sad, club teams make more $

Kathy Brown Tatakis

6 years ago

Depends…

Pat Laughlin

6 years ago

Yep

James Bair

6 years ago

Nicole Helmen-Hendricks

6 years ago

Yes

Kira McDonough

6 years ago

YES

Tom Sacco

6 years ago

Yes!

Pete Gonzalez

6 years ago

Why would I pay more for foreign swimmers to come over and take the spots of local kids ???

Susan Bair

6 years ago

I would pay to fees!!!!

Lynette Besonday-Washburn

6 years ago

Yes why not. Football charges

Rocky Bowers Parra

6 years ago

Yes. Without a doubt.

Susan L. Lansbury

6 years ago

Yes!

Cindy Sater

6 years ago

Yes

Dirk G. Winkler

6 years ago

Yes

Sarah Zurn

6 years ago

As a former college swimmer who had their team cut (after my freshman year) due to budgetary restrictions, it was very difficult to deal with it. We raised enough $ for the next year, but that was it. I don’t necessarily think it should be USA Swimming or more so, age group swimmers, but something more needs to be done to support these programs to keep them going. I don’t want other kids to have to go through that.

Jim Richey

6 years ago

.05 per event

teams clubs hosts should be able to opt in or out at their discretion

NCAA gets no control of $ raised

pay the child’s age group coach the $1 per event fee

charge the NCAAs pet travel agent 25-50% of what they are forcing the programs to pay to go by air to the championships

charge the sporting goods consortiums 25-50% per suit that the NCAA swimmers wear in the season.

Susan Shern-macke

6 years ago

Absolutely

Kandace Datema

6 years ago

Yes

Amanda Lennex

6 years ago

Yes

Kathy King Petras

6 years ago

Yes!!! My rising 7th grader would love to swim in college. Take some of the money from football!!

Rick Stanfield

6 years ago

Reply to Kathy King Petras

Two things. 1. No one will ever take money from the only sport that will ever generate income. 2. Was not the question.

Brian Berrey

6 years ago

Yes

Gary Fahey

6 years ago

No. It is not consistent with USA Swimming’s mission to ‘save’ college swimming. USA Swimming should do quite the opposite as far as entry fees: work hard to keep them low to encourage greater participation in age group competitions, particularly among those who are economically challenged.

Age group swimming is not responsible for the collapse of these college programs. It should not bear the financial burden of carrying them. These schools have proven incapable of managing their finances to keep the programs afloat. That’s a shame. And it has nothing to do with the 9 year old girl I coach who’s racing in her Junior Olympics meet this weekend.

Frank Elenio

6 years ago

While the idea is certainly big hearted, it is actually counter productive in the long run. By burdening the swim world to single handedly fund a college sport, we are telling colleges that they can waste their money by using it elsewhere. Colleges take in plenty of revenue and can put a lot of it towards athletics programs. The issue is that maintaining a natatorium is expensive, so the solution is not to donate the money to schools, but for schools themselves to find ways to make natatoriums fiscally sustainable. For example, many schools make plenty of money by renting pools to club teams, dive teams, meets, and more. Age Group Swimming shouldn’t have to donate to it, schools should smarten up.