The Great Falls Public Schools board voted unanimously during their June 13 meeting to add baseball as a Montana High School Association sanctioned sport for the 2024 high school spring season.

GFPS Athletic Director Mike Henneberg discussed the proposal during an April meeting and on Monday asked the board to approve sanctioning baseball.

He said he feels that Great Falls students should have the same opportunities as those in other school districts.

The MHSA voted in January to add baseball as a sanctioned sport though it’s up to individual districts whether to add it to their athletic departments.

GFPS considering adding baseball as sanctioned high school sport

Henneberg said that several other large Montana school districts were considering adding baseball but some put their decisions off until next spring. He said that by then, GFPS officials will have a better idea of the playing field statewide and whether adding teh sport will be truly feasible.

Henneberg said that his proposal is to add baseball in spring 2024 to give the district and athletes time to develop a solid program and to plan logistics. He said that it’s possibly that by next year, they may determine it’s not feasible to add baseball for GFPS students.

There’s “inherent risk” in adding programs, Henneberg said, but that he felts those risks can be mitigated and that there are “untapped opportunities” to enhance their revenue streams for baseball and other GFPS athletics.

“But if we’re in support, I want to be able to work toward that end,” Henneberg told the board. “If we’re going to do it, let’s figure out to do it and go.”

GFPS considering increased athletic fees to offset some budget shortages

In April, he told the board that he’d had positive feedback from the existing local baseball community for establishing a high school baseball program. At the June 13 meeting, he said he hadn’t heard anything to the contrary.

Henneberg said that cost estimates for the new program are speculative, “but until we dive into it and go, we can’t say that it’s going to even out.”

Among the revenue generating options, he said the district could look at increasing the fee for sports participation, which has been raised once since 1994 when they were implemented. Henneberg said GFPS still had the lowest costs of the other AA districts for participation fees.

The district also hasn’t raised ticket prices to sporting events for 20 years, he said, which is another potential revenue stream to support the district’s athletic programs.

He said that the district could also consider pursuing advertising revenue through an existing arena enhancement program and other advertising opportunities.

Henneberg told the board in April that the local Legion baseball program has about 42 athletes in three levels and the Babe Ruth leagues for middle schoolers have about 69 players.

The goal, if the district adds baseball, is to get 24-30 players per high school to have junior varsity and varsity teams.

Henneberg said that the local Legion organization and the Voyagers have expressed support for the proposal and he’s received emails from the public in support.

Adding baseball to the GFPS spring sports roster will have one-time start-up costs of about $20,000 per high school, Henneberg said.

He estimated those costs to include:

• uniforms: aout $8,000 per school
• equipment and gear: about $8,000 per school
• miscellaneous costs: about $4,000 per school

The annual expenses, Henneberg estimated based on what the district spends for softball, include:

• coaching salaries for each school, which is one head coach and three assistants for softball: base cost of $14,747
• transportation: $18,000
• field rental: $1,400 per school to use the city’s Multi Sports complex
• umpire fees: $5,400 for both schools, based on 2019 numbers, which was the last normal season
• gate workers: about $650 based on 2019 numbers

Henneberg estimates the annual cost around $73,000 for both schools. He said in 2019, the district raised about $5,500 in gate admission for softball games, which helps offset some costs.

Baseball facilities in the community include Don Olson Field, which is on city property and currently leased to the Legion program; the Little League fields at Westside and American complexes, both of which are large enough for high school baseball and have expressed willingness to provide fields in exchange for assistance with maintenance; and Centene Stadium, which would be available for games and cost about $100 to GFPS to cover the cost of the groundskeeper, Henneberg said.

He told the board that he asked Scott Reasoner of the Great Falls Voyagers for a draft memorandum of understanding of what facility options might be available at their stadium for GFPS and estimated costs.

Henneberg said that the draft included a cost of less than $200 per game to use Voyager stadium and the district estimates about 20 home games between that stadium and another.

He said based on the draft, the cost to use the Voyagers facility could be lower than what the district pays the City of Great Falls for use of the MultiSports complex for softball.

Bill Bronson, school board member, said he supported adding baseball, but wanted an update from Henneberg next spring on their progress and whether there were any indications that the district shouldn’t move forward.