Play ball — for a price. New athletics fee coming to Tacoma Public Schools
Want to play sports at a Tacoma public school in the 2025-26 school year? Get ready to pay.
Tension has risen among teachers, support staff and the district’s administration in recent months as Tacoma Public Schools continues to grapple with its budget deficit. The News Tribune’s Isha Trivedi reported in May that the district recently made sweeping cuts, opting not to renew the contracts for 105 provisional employees and making changes that “directly impacted” 118 education-support professionals and 30 office professionals/professional technical staff.
Another item passed by the board at the May 22 meeting: a “pay to participate” fee for athletics participation in the district’s high schools and middle schools.
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, student-athletes’ families will be charged $90 for participation in each high school sport and $50 per middle school sport. Prior to the change, a $30 ASB card covered the cost of participating in sports for the entirety of the school year.
“I knew in the back of my mind Tacoma was going to have to do something eventually,” Mount Tahoma High School athletic director Rhonda Stinson told The News Tribune on Thursday. “(TPS administration) has done a great job supporting athletics. … I knew eventually something was going to have to happen, with budgets getting smaller and smaller.”
Costs for everything in athletics have risen, namely transportation, equipment and officiating costs, but there’s concern from some that the timing isn’t ideal, as families continue to feel the squeeze of rising grocery, gas and housing costs.
Silas athletic director Johnny Lee shares some of those concerns.
“People are struggling,” Lee said. “We’re just trying to make sure we keep people active. The more kids that are active, the better off they are. If we’re putting up barriers, that might actually push those kids elsewhere.”
The “pay to participate” fee has an annual $400 maximum cap for families. Students who qualify for Free or Reduced lunch will be exempt from fees.
Stadium High School football coach Pat Johnson has two daughters in Tacoma Public Schools’ high schools. They both play three sports each.
“I think the writing was on the wall of how expensive things are getting to maintain, as far as facilities, referees, equipment, jerseys and all that,” Johnson said. “You can’t want all that stuff and not have the money to do it.”
Johnson said his biggest concern is whether the new fee will hurt participation numbers.
“I just want to see that it doesn’t hurt that kid who’s on the bubble of whether he or she wants to play or not, then it tips over to, ‘Hey, I don’t want to pay for it because I’m gonna be a backup or I won’t be that good,’” Johnson said. “As coaches, we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Stinson, the Mount Tahoma athletic director, feels educating parents on the options they have will be important.
“My only concern would be families not reaching out to ask athletic directors questions,” she said. “There’s a family cap if you have multiple kids. There’s funds to help. Each school has invested funds. If you need help, ask. I don’t want families to not have their kids participate in sports.”
Tacoma Public Schools Superintendent Josh Garcia said in the May 22 meeting that students will be allowed to participate even if they don’t qualify for the Free or Reduced lunch exemption.
“No student will be denied participation,” Garcia said at the meeting. “If a family comes to us and says, ‘Hey, we don’t qualify but we just can’t afford,’ we’re not going to turn a student away.”
Lee, the Silas athletic director, understands the reality of the district’s budget situation and the rising costs of athletics.
“Costs are going up that are just uncontrollable,” he said.
He also understands the financial struggles families face on a daily basis in the midst of those rising costs.
“To sit here and throw this out here, it was kind of like a curveball,” Lee said. “Lots of folks didn’t necessarily pay attention to it because of what’s going on in our country and in our district. The attention was going to teachers and staff cuts in our district. I think more people would’ve spoken out about it if they would’ve known about it.”
The fee structure is expected to bring in an estimated $260,675 in annual revenue, broken down as follows:
- Foss: $13,970
- Lincoln: $23,671
- Mount Tahoma: $24,051
- Silas: $47,718
- Stadium: $74,446
- All high schools total: $183,859
- All middle schools: $76,816
- Total: $260,675
Tacoma Public Schools stated the revenue generated will be used exclusively within the Athletics & Activities Department to support and sustain student programming.
The News Tribune reached out to other Pierce County school districts on Thursday. The University Place School District, the Peninsula School District and the Clover Park School District replied, saying they do not require fees for participation in athletics beyond the minimum ASB fee. The Puyallup School District, however, does have participation fees. They’re the same as Tacoma’s new fees: $90 per season for high school athletes and $50 per season for junior high athletes.
The immediate concern with the new fee is whether it will hurt participation numbers. The long-term concern is whether the fee will become a slippery slope, jumping up quickly in cost in the coming years and never going away.
High school football practice begins in Washington on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Other fall sports begin practice on Monday, Aug. 25.
This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
