USA Swimming is proposing to increase the dues paid to the national governing body by member clubs, an increase USA Swimming says would be the first since the mid-1980s.
The dues increases appear in the latest USA Swimming Board of Directors meeting minutes from the April 26 meeting of the Board. The Board of Directors approved the proposed increases, and the House of Delegates will officially vote on the move at the United States Aquatic Sports Convention in September. The proposed increases would go into effect during the 2021 membership year.
The increases are pretty dramatic, with most clubs seeing dues triple and first-year clubs seeing their dues increase to more than seven times the current amount.
| Category | Current Dues | Proposed Dues |
| Club Dues Per Year | $70 | $250 |
| First-year clubs | $70 | $500 |
| Seasonal clubs | $40 | $70 |
On the other hand, USA Swimming says that the services it provides to clubs have also increased dramatically since the 1980s. USA Swimming Chief Operating Officer Mike Unger passed along this list of new or improved services to member clubs:
- Club visits/consultant services
- Improved insurance
- Safe Sport
- SWIMS database – times tracking
- Video review to athletes
- Deck Pass
- More competitions
- Athlete Leadership workshops
- Club Excellence and related funding
- Club Recognition
- Swimposiums
- Club Portals
- Swim Biz
- Club Presidents’ Workshops
Unger said that while club dues have remained the same for more than 30 years, athlete dues have increased several times since then (in 2003 and 2014, for example), and that athlete dues were starting to approach the same levels entire clubs were paying. (Athlete dues actually increase every year, but in 2014, the rate at which they increase went from $1/year to $2/year).
Based on 2018 statistics which show USA Swimming with 3,034 year-round clubs (four of them new clubs) and 118 seasonal clubs, the new dues would constitute an increase of more than $500,000 in revenue for USA Swimming. Under the current structure, USA Swimming would have brought in $217,380 in dues from member clubs; with the proposed increases, USA Swimming would collect $767,760 in dues from the same number of clubs
This might doom our club! We are a small rural club that has to pay big bucks monthly just to use a pool. We live month to month on dues and the coaches and the board pay out of pocket just to keep the club afloat. Swimming will die in this town if this happens
Our LSC is going to pay out a substantial amount of dollars to assist with travel expenses to Olympic Trials and other National Meets as athletes attempt to get to OTs next year. Rumor has it that we will go onto the red next year… Which probably means they will significantly decrease reimbursable expenses.
The hidden gem in this is the fact that a lot of the LSC’s are already tacking on additional Surcharges to their Club registrations. In our LSC to register a Club, it’s already over $100. And I’m sure there will be no freeze on raising that up proportionally to double gouge the teams even with this significant hike from National office.
If we had some clear definitions of where exactly this money will go, both Nationally and at the LSC level, people might feel OK about it.
At the LSC level it seems it’s just an arms race to see which one can put the biggest number in the bank. I would like to hear about an LSC… Read more »
For what it’s worth – and this is just context, not justifying the increase – but USA Swimming did cut “salaries and wages” by more than half-a-million dollars from 2017 to 2018. So, there does seem to be some concerted effort to reduce the spending on home office staff.
So no clubs have ever increased their fees since the mid-80’s? If clubs want USA Swimming to pro-rate the club fees based on the membership size of the club, then clubs should pro-rate their membership fees based on the size of a family’s bank account.
Sad part of all of this is that it doesn’t matter what we write here. In the end, USA Swimming is slowly ruining the sport that used to be accessible to families of all walks of life. They are making it an elite sport with ridiculous rules and regulations, driven by, yep, insurance companies. Sadly, people tend to blindly follow like a herd of sheep or are just discouraged by speaking up because it makes no difference if you express your disagreement. They will keep stealing your $ as long as they can.
when is enough, enough? how about, instead of taking more money, do a better job of budgeting. the website is still awful. OME is the worst thing ever. the list goes on and on….
USA Swimming is such a joke. Thieves in disguise. They only have to say, contact your LSC. Slowly ruining the sport, becoming an elite sport, run by incompetent management. (I get FOUR rules book for many years now, 1 per member, but sharing the same house, my kids…they can’t figure out ONE per household will suffice?)
This is an increase of $120 per year for a whole club team. It doesn’t seem like that much in the scale of a club team budget.
Not sure that I follow your math?
Whatever the increase, the point is that it has a disproportionate impact on smaller teams, and there’s a question regarding what exactly the team itself is getting back from USA Swimming. The increase in funding seems to just be used to create a larger USAS organization (with nice offices!), which then needs to justify it’s existence via increased regulations and oversight. No bureaucracy will ever legislate itself out of existence, or vote to reduce their funding. Ever.
Oops I made a typo I meant $180 and the $250 is a per year dues right
Oh man. First the MAAPP debacle and now this??? According to MAAPP, 18 year old swimmers on the same club team can’t even text the kid they carpool with to practice if they’re still only 17. Assistant coaches who are still training and thus still USA swimmers themselves can’t even meet alone with the head coach to discuss practice planning.
“USA Swimming is committed to safeguarding the well-being of all of it’s members, with the welfare of its athlete members as the top priority.”
Uhmmm…USA swimming is committed to covering it’s own arse and lining its coffers.