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Board weighs ticket‑processing fees and activity fee changes as district adopts new ticketing platform
Summary
Administrators presented options tied to a new Bound ticketing platform (90‑cent per‑transaction processing fee). The board asked for a financial breakout comparing costs of athletics and activities to revenues and requested options to charge card fees only while keeping a cash option.
The Watertown‑Mayer school board spent a large portion of its April 27 meeting reviewing how a new ticketing platform could affect ticket prices and activity fees.
Athletics and activities director Mr. Samansky described the district’s move to the Bound platform, which can provide card readers and online ticket management but charges about $0.90 per transaction. He told the board that under current ticket prices — $5 for students and $7 for adults — the district would have paid about $6,460 in card processing fees last year, and total gate receipts were reported at about $71,050 across seasons.
Board members asked whether the district could pass the card processing fee only to card purchasers, keep a cash option at the current price, or shift ticket prices. Mr. Samansky and other staff said the system likely can add the processing fee to card transactions and that the district planned to continue offering a cash option. For example, one board member suggested keeping student cash tickets at $5 and adding a card fee (e.g., $6 cash / $5.90 card) so card users cover processing costs.
Administrators also noted that activity fees for participation have not increased in about 12 years; current activity fee receipts were reported at $134,95 (transcript figure), with about $5,000 waived in fee assistance last year. The board directed administration to prepare a detailed athletic/activity budget (total costs such as transportation, officials, coaches and equipment versus revenue from fees and tickets) and to present specific implementation options for charging card fees only, incremental fee increases, and scholarship/waiver mechanisms.
The board approved the nearby girls soccer co‑op with Mayer Lutheran during the same athletics discussion and asked staff to return with clearer cost‑recovery and revenue‑projection data ahead of any policy change.
