The 2025 Fall Sports Season brings a change to viewing Virginia Beach District sports. Now, students and adults must pay to attend regular-season Virginia Beach Varsity and Junior Varsity District games and meets that were previously free. These new admission fees have been put in place for field hockey, indoor track, swim & dive, junior varsity soccer, and track and field. 

Tickets for varsity events are $5 for students and $10 for general admission. Junior varsity games are $3 for students and $4 for general admission. 

Students and parents can purchase a 25/26 Digital Season Pass, which gives access to all regular-season games in the Beach District. This pass has seven variations, with five different Family passes (ranging from three tickets to seven tickets per family), a Couples Pass, and a Single Pass. Each pass has unlimited uses throughout the 2025-26 school year. 

These passes are options for families with multiple children playing sports, as well as for students who regularly attend games. Friday Night Football games are a weekly occurrence of “high school culture,” so the pass is a way to save money if students are frequenting games. 

Gianna Ford, a senior at Princess Anne, said, “I don’t see the point in paying five dollars for a game that was an hour long,” speaking of attending a field hockey game this season.

The increased overall costs of high school sports have brought on this change. All revenue generated goes to the VBCPS Central Office athletics fund, which in turn supports the existence and growth of sports within our district. The Central Office uses this money to fund the pay for police officers, CHKD trainers, referees, custodians, and staff helpers.

Part of the money also goes to paying for rental fees of non-VBCPS sites, such as the Sportsplex and Sportscenter, as well as landscaping costs for sports fields. Equipment and facilities, as well as maintaining amenities such as stadium lights, goals, and nets, are significant expenses for the district. Paying for these tickets reconciles these costs.

Now that almost all sporting events charge admission, students, parents, and relatives may be further deterred from attending games. Erin VanHouten, a parent of a player on the Boys Varsity Volleyball team, expressed dislike for the new costs: “Some parents can’t even afford to buy extra equipment for their players, so how can they afford tickets to every game?” 

Shanna Klute, another parent of a student athlete at PA, agreed, “I can see how others having to pay for multiple sports tickets could be difficult, and depending on their personal situation, it could become more challenging.”

Although the school does benefit from the money made at sporting events, putting a price on watching high school sporting events may not be the most equitable method for the community as a whole.