Ensuring the safety of the participants and protecting the property from damages are two of the most essential reasons that administrators of educational athletic departments should have established policies, Lopiano said. “No matter what the purpose of the outside group’s activity, it is important for the educational institution to ensure proper protection of its property and management of liability risk associated with such activities.”

Many of these issues are covered in Lopiano’s sample policy, under “General Use Policies.” She advises host schools to clearly establish in writing that renters are responsible for following posted fire and safety regulations, and that renters provide their own insurance and announce emergency procedures.

Benedetto said she appreciates schools that have developed policy guidelines for athletic facilities’ use, but, when necessary, she proposes changes and adds items she feels should be included. “In most cases, we use a standard contract that the venue provides,” she said. “We make revisions with additional information that changes from event to event. We have asked to add certain stipulations that cover us if the venue is negligent.”
She added that the school or college usually provides the security personnel, which is typically included in the facility rental fee.

Ruedlinger said YBOA takes responsibility for the safety of players by providing trainers at national tournaments and using 911 “because most of our facilities are within five or 10 minutes of an emergency call to the paramedics.

“When using a school facility, we highly recommend that you have either the boys’ or the girls’ basketball coach, athletic director or someone else from the school to serve as the site director,” he said. “This gives you protection in case something happens. If there is any damage by YBOA, our insurance policy covers us and the school.”

Schedules & Fees
Scheduling is an area that poses some of the greatest potential for conflict between an educational facility and a sports event, so Lopiano recommends that schools develop strong safeguards to protect themselves from over-scheduling and limit their liability if they need to cancel an event for any reason. For example, guidelines should make it clear that the school decides when weather conditions warrant cancellations or suspension of events. Right-to-cancel clauses are strongly recommended for all school athletic facility use policies, she added.

One way that Benedetto works to avoid conflicts is by trying to schedule all COA Cheer and Dance events at least a year in advance. This is sometimes difficult because she must wait for the athletic department to finalize its schedules, she said. In general, she advised maintaining a good relationship with the facilities manager to better deal with problems that might arise. “We have been moved due to a conflict,” she said. “But the university was very flexible and moved us to a week later, which worked out much better for both of us.”

Benedetto has found that rental fees vary depending on the size of the school, location of the school and the time of year. Again, cooperative arrangements can be beneficial, she said. “We sometimes co-host events with the local cheer program as fundraisers for their squad. At these events, most of the schools will donate the building for the day, but will charge for expenses like clean-up and heating/cooling.”

Ruedlinger said his group assumes the cleaning responsibilities at YBOA events. “We always make it a point to leave the facilities as they were when we started. This is very important because we feel that we are a partner with the school that we are using. Our people are expected to respect and follow our guidelines or their teams will not participate.”

Concession sales often offer a way to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with a school and potentially reduce rental fees, Ruedlinger said. “At our national tournaments that we host in Polk County, Fla., we let all the schools that participate with us have the concessions. They do real well in running the concessions and making income for their various sports organizations.”

Lopiano said facilities managers at high schools and colleges need to make very clear that certain activities are prohibited on the premises. While some of these rules—such as no alcohol or controlled substances, no fighting or gambling—may seem obvious, others—such as prohibitions against climbing walls and using flammable subtances—may not be as well understood. Still, all are important safety issues and the consequences for violating these rules should be severe, she said.

Lopiano also stressed the importance of school officials to have legal counsel review any written policy guidelines for using athletic facilities and to make sure that all elements of the policy conform to institutional policy and to applicable local, state and federal laws.