The University’s recreation department has restructured the payment model for its intramural sports programs, requiring students to buy individual memberships for participation rather than paying to register by the team. The department also changed the platform that hosts intramural games to a software called Fusion Play.
Erica Goode, U.Va. Recreation associate director for programs, said that aligning with industry trends and peer institutions was the primary motivation behind the payment change.
“Many schools nationwide, including most of our fellow ACC institutions, have transitioned to the per-person model, yielding overwhelmingly positive outcomes and feedback,” Goode said in an email statement to the Cavalier Daily.
The goal of the payment structure change is to eliminate certain obstacles to participation and foster greater engagement in intramural sports, according to Goode. Under the new system, teams are registered for free and students can join a team once they have purchased a membership, which costs $15 for the semester or $25 for the full school year.
Previously, each team captain was responsible for paying the team registration fee. Third-year Education student Liana Semaan said her team would decide to split the registration fee among themselves, a recurring cost that added up over time if students join multiple teams. Fees for teams ranged from about $60 to $70.
The University’s recreation department surveyed intramural sport captains about their opinions on the then-potential change in spring 2023.
Sinan Seslikaya, intramural volleyball captain and fourth-year Engineering student, said he is in favor of the change, but described its effects on intramural team captains as a “double-edged sword.”
“I don’t have to request money from people, but now I have to guide them through the system [to register] because it’s not as simple as it was,” Seslikaya said.
Under the previous payment system, team captains were responsible for collecting funds from players in order to pay the team fee, which Seslikaya said cost an average of $10 to 15 per person.
Seslikaya said he thinks the new payment system is better than the previous one, though he gets the most benefit from it because he plays multiple sports per semester.
“I have access to as many teams as I want, as many sports as I want to — it's saving me money,” Seslikaya said. “But I also know we have a few players who didn't like it because they were only going to play on this one team for this one sport for the entire year.”
Students who hadn’t previously served as team captains were not directly contacted about the change before it happened. However, every student who had participated in intramurals in the past was notified about the change via an email sent Aug. 18.
U.Va Recreation has already started seeing some of the effects of the new payment structure. Goode said results are currently looking good with registration numbers being on track with previous semesters. She also noted that 63 percent of students opted for the yearly pass rather than the single semester membership.
“As is customary with any new initiative, we are actively addressing a few minor challenges, but the reception has been overwhelmingly positive,” Goode said in the email.
Semaan said she was planning to limit the amount of intramural sports she played this school year because she didn’t want to pay individually for each one. With the new payment structure, she says that she feels better about playing more sports.
“Now I don’t have to worry about how many teams I'm on and I can just play on as many [sports] as I want,” Semaan said.
U.Va Recreation has also moved Intramural Sports towards a new software application known as Fusion Play, which will now be the platform through which students connect amongst themselves to form intramural teams.
“Our mission is to provide a platform where students and the broader University community discover connections and sources of inspiration to flourish,” Goode said.
With many intramural sports currently underway, registration will soon open for the 5on5 basketball, dodgeball, inner tube water polo and ultimate frisbee leagues.
Alex Buddendeck contributed to this article.
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