Figuring out the true cost of a Youth Sports Website

Comparing features of a league website for baseball, soccer, or any youth sport is the easy part when evaluating league websites!  ClubSetup looks forward to be evaluated from a feature standpoint against our competition!  Our innovative and user friendly sports website framework facilitates easy upgrading, insuring your site always has the latest features.  As you can tell from looking at our website, we highly encourage youth sport organizations to sign up for a free evaluation league website.

Figuring out the true cost of what a league website is going to cost your organization is the BIG challenge!   Most league website vendors leave out a "few" important details when it comes to the true overall cost.  Worse yet they pass fees on to unsuspecting league parents that occur during online league registrations. 

ClubSetup has a cost plus transaction rate of 15 basis points above the interchange rate, .07c per transaction with NO credit card downgrades and a flat $4 fee per player that registers online with the system.  Do you currently use a "free" website from Eteamz, Leaguelineup, Home Teams Online or another vendor.  ClupSetup's cost is the lowest in the youth sports league website field. 

One of the tenets of economics is “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” The underlying concept is you cannot get “something for nothing.” The phrase originates from 19th century American saloons attracting drinkers by offering them a free salty lunch. The catch was, in order to get the “free” meal, you had to purchase a drink. Some saloon keepers were even prosecuted for false advertisement.  Ironically, this type of advertising campaign is still prevelant in the youth sports marketplace.

Maybe the phrase should substitute “League Website” for “lunch.”  The economic theory, and also the lay opinion, that whatever goods and services are provided, they must be paid for by someone - i.e. you don't get something for nothing.   If you’ve ever downloaded a free youth sports website, what comes with it?  Ads.  Yep, you’re paying for your website every time you have to wait for ads to show on your website.  What else comes with the "free" league website and who pays for it?

Let us help explain what these costs are and what to look for and how to get the best overall deal for your league management system.

A BIG HIDDEN cost is when league website vendors mark up credit card rates 1 - 2x  for online player registrations.  This extra cost will represent an additional $3 - $5 per registration ($100 Registration).   The league doesn't pay for this cost,  but your league parents do!     These extra fee's add to the overall cost of your league website.   When you see website vendors marketing "free" websites you will now understand one of the ways they make their money.

Trying to understand the credit rates and fees charged by your credit card processor and marked up by your league management vendor is a complicated challenge which plays into the league management vendor favor.  Understanding Internet Merchant Accounts and fees will help you figure out the true cost of your league management solution.  

Internet Merchant Accounts are used by online sports registration systems to process online transactions on your league website.  These are called Keyed Accounts because the user needs to key in their account across the Internet.  The transactions are referred as card not present transaction (CNP) because the credit card purchase is made over the Internet where the physical card has not been swiped into a reader.  Rates charged by credit card companies tend to be a bit higher with these transactions because of the risk of fraud.   Visa/MasterCard publish monthly interchange rates.  These rates are in the following 3 categories used for Internet Merchant Accounts:

Some vendors will mark up the interchange rates by using a Flat Fee where they mark up each of the 3 rates.   A fair flat rate for Qualified would be 2.25% plus .10c a transaction.  A downside of this method is that you can not take advantage of the low rates for prepaid debit cards and will pay a big mark up for debit cards.  For Mid-Qualified a fair rate is 2.50% plus .10c a transaction.    For Non-Qualified a fair rate would be around 3.0% plus .10c a transaction. 

Some vendors use Cost Plus which is the published Visa/MasterCard interchange rate plus a mark up fee.   This mark up is just added to the rate of whichever card (including prepaid debit cards)  is being used.     A fair mark up on Cost Plus would be 50 basis points (.50%) plus a .10c a transaction.   

A really big hidden cost is called Credit Card Downgrades.  Most league management vedors fees add another 1 - 2% on top of already marked up rates.   It is real important to ask your vendor if they have Credit Card Downgrades.   These downgrades apply to rewards cards and non standard transactions or about 50% of all credit card online sport registrations.  There may also be extra fees associated with your merchant account such as a set up fee, a yearly merchant account fee, monthly fees, and a charge to re-activate the merchant account if you turn it off after your season.

• Forcing unwanted advertising on your site.  The league website vendor, and not you, could easily get paid thousands of dollars per year using your sports website.  This is YOUR website, not the vendors site, and you should control what is displayed on your site and not the vendor.  Using a solution like ClubSetup will allow you to receive these fees and to control what content is displayed on your site,
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Some vendors control your online registration funds for 2+ weeks at a time and thus receiving your interest!  If your vendor is handling your league funds you are exposing your organization to major risk.  A couple years ago a large league management vendor defaulted and wiped out many youth sports organizations.  Do not let a league vendor handle a penny of your funds!

Charging set up fee's to get your web site active and activating online sports registrations,

• Having recurring yearly fee's for your site,



There are no setup or annual fee's for a customized website.  You control and profit from any ads on your website.  A free merchant account that deposits funds nightly into your account is included.  League Fund Raising tools, Free hosting services on Amazon ec2 cloud servers, Free e-store.  All of our features are included standard!  

Many online registration providers charge inflated processing rates on any transaction processed through your site. At ClubSetup we don't skim profits by charging higher processing rates.  Instead we pass the lowest processing rates in the industry to you.  Our rates are always just 15 basis points over the stated VISA or MasterCard interchange rates.  Aren't sure what that means?  Click Understanding Credit Card Rates for a more detailed look at Clubsetup's processing rates.