Aiken County youth football parents voice concerns on field cost

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Kids in Aiken are having a hard time playing their youth football games, all because of money problems.

The youth football team has two options. Pay thousands of dollars in maintenance fees to Aiken County to use the local high school or drive to Wagener-Salley.

When a new factor came into play this offseason, parents were ready to throw a flag.

“For years, this is all we’ve known. Now they’re going to something completely different,” said Center Chief Parent Diane Shealy.

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Aiken’s Youth Football League wanted to use the field at South Aiken and Aiken High School for 32 nights this season for a total of 128 hours. But it’s expensive, amounting to more than $90,000.

“Where we come from, our team does the best they can. They can’t afford that,” she said.

Aiken’s Advisory Council granted a waiver for the rental fee, but that still left the league with a $26,000 tag for utilities, toiletry items, and custodial fees, leaving the Chiefs out of a game field.

“They have scattered us out to Wagner to Ellington to Citizens Park, and you know, trying to find those fields, in the beginning, was one of the big issues. We kind of have to defend ourselves to see our children play for their games,” she said.

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Wear and tear on the tires and the kids.

Linda Williams is another Center Chiefs Parent. She said, “A lot of parents are saying they’re not gonna let their kids play football next year. My kids don’t like that. My daughter wants to do cheerleading next year, and I don’t know, because I don’t know how the traveling is gonna be.”

Shealy says without football...

“We don’t have anything. It’s going to make them grow up to get into trouble, do things they shouldn’t do, instead of having their mind focused on ‘we have this to look forward to after school’,” she said.

The City of Aiken has been working to right the situation for the teams. The city permitted the use of Odell Weeks center and Generations Park for games this season.

Statement from ACPSD Chief Officer for Operations and Student Services Dr. Corey Murphy:

In the interest of equity, the rental fees for all Aiken County Schools have been standardized across the district. We benchmarked several like-sized districts in SC when revising the schedule. The revised schedule was published in the Fall of 2021 and each school has received training on the pricing procedures. In this instance, a representative of the entire league wanted to rent 2 varsity football stadiums capable of hosting 4000 guests each (Aiken High School and South Aiken High School), concession stands, and also utilize the field lights (when needed) for 4 hours each evening. The football schedule sent to Aiken High School requested a total of 32 evenings (3 games each night) for a total of 128 hours this season. The request for South Aiken High School was similar in scope. According to our standard fee schedule, this would total $45,432 per stadium each season.
A request for a fee waiver was submitted to and granted by the Area 1 Advisory Council. All of the field rental fees ($32,250 of the $45,432 total) were waived. The remaining fee of $13,182 are for non-waivable expenses such as utilities, consumables (toiletry items) and custodial fees to clean up the concession, field, and restrooms.
This equates to $412/night or $137/game to rent a 4000 seat venue with lights, restrooms, and custodial services.
This fee only applies to those teams attempting to use our varsity stadiums for games and practices. The fee for using an elementary or middle school field can be completely waived in most cases. Some Aiken youth teams have already made arrangements with area elementary and middle schools to use their fields. We are also working with the City of Aiken to provide Perry Park and Beverly D. Clyburn Generations park for the youth league as well.
Area youth teams in North Augusta, Silver Bluff, Wagener, and Ridge Spring all have made other arrangements and have not historically utilized ACPSD fields. The town of New Ellenton has partnered with New Ellenton Middle School and made substantial investments and improvements to the New Ellenton middle school field and press box. As such, their fee is waived as well.
The fees that the high schools must charge are not sent to the district. Those funds are used by the school for field maintenance, custodial pay, and to support the athletic program.
Aiken County Schools understands the importance that youth sports play in the overall success and well-being of all of our students, athletes, and their families.
Dr. Corey Murphy

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