When a board compares software, the first question is usually “what does it cost?” and the answer is a monthly price on a web page. That number is real, and it is only one line in the budget. A league’s real cost of software is four things added together, and the biggest of them rarely shows up on an invoice.
This guide gives you a worksheet. It does not contain prices for any product, ours included. It shows what to ask, what to multiply, and how to put two quotes side by side so the comparison is fair. It is written for the treasurer or the board member who has to defend the choice at the annual meeting.
The four costs
- Subscription. What you pay the vendor to use the product.
- Processing. What it costs to take card payments, and who pays it.
- Volunteer hours. The time your people spend doing what software could do.
- Switching. The one-time cost of moving, which is smaller than most boards fear.
Add them over a full season, not a month.
1. Subscription
Ask for the price in writing, for your size of league, for a full year. Find out:
- Is it per team, per player, per league, or a flat fee?
- Are there tiers, and which features sit in which tier?
- What happens to the price if you grow by a quarter?
- Is there a free plan, and what does it leave out? Some products start single teams at no charge, with paid upgrades for things like availability tracking, practice plans and rosters over 15. TeamSnap’s teams page describes its plans, and its pricing page says clubs and leagues are quoted case by case (as of October 2026).
- What is the contract term, and how do you cancel?
Write the answer in one cell: Subscription per season = $____.
2. Processing
For a registration-driven league, this is often the surprise. Take your total fees collected in a season and multiply by the card rate.
The worksheet:
- Total fees collected through the system: $____
- Card rate, as a percentage, plus any per-transaction fee: ____
- Estimated processing for the season: $____
- Who pays: families, the league, or a split: ____
Ask each vendor for the rate in writing. TeamSnap states that it charges no administrative fee on registration and that processing fees pass to registrants by default, with admins able to absorb them, but it does not publish a rate on that help page (as of October 2026). So ask.
Then decide on purpose who pays. If families pay it, you may lose some goodwill. If the league pays it, you need to budget for it. In Bloomz the league chooses to pass processing to families or absorb it. See payments and the treasurer’s guide.
3. Volunteer hours
This is the cost that does not appear in the ledger and is often the largest. Estimate hours per season for each job, the way you do it now, and the way you would do it with better tools.
| Job | Hours now | Hours with software |
|---|---|---|
| Sorting children into divisions | ||
| Chasing unpaid fees | ||
| Forming teams | ||
| Building the schedule | ||
| Rescheduling after rainouts | ||
| Tracking coach credentials | ||
| Answering “when is my game” | ||
| Reporting to the board |
Subtract the right column from the left. Multiply by a rate. You can pick a value for an hour, or just count hours and ask: how many of these hours came from people who would have coached, run a field or simply slept? Volunteers do not leave a league because of the subscription. They leave because of burnout.
Be fair when you fill in the right column. Ask the vendor to show a real example of each job, not a feature list. For instance:
- Registration: a child on a birth-date boundary. See registration by birth year.
- Scheduling: your divisions, fields and blackout dates. See scheduling.
- Rainout: a field closed for a weekend. See rainout weekend.
- Teams: last year’s evaluation sheet. See balanced teams.
4. Switching
Boards overestimate this one. A league rebuilds registration, divisions, teams and the schedule every season. If you open next season’s registration in a new system, you are doing the same work you would do anyway, in a different place.
What switching does add:
- A few evenings from one organizer to set up the league, divisions and fees.
- Exports from your old system, which you should take regardless, for the books.
- One announcement to families, and a test with a handful of them.
- Photos and chat history do not move, so you save the ones you care about.
There is no TeamSnap-specific import in Bloomz. There is a general CSV import with column mapping and a preview before anything saves, which accepts the member export TeamSnap provides. Our team sets up your league with you. The switching plan is week by week.
Switching cost = ____ evenings of one volunteer + $____ in any setup fees.
Put it together
| Vendor A | Vendor B | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription per season | ||
| Processing per season | ||
| Volunteer hours saved (hours x value) | ||
| One-time switching cost | ||
| Season one total | ||
| Season two total (no switching) |
Look at both years. A tool that costs a little more in subscription and saves forty hours a season may be the cheaper one. A tool that costs more to leave than to join is a cost you will meet later, so check exports before you sign.
How to compare quotes fairly
- Same league size, same number of players, same collected fees.
- Same features. If one quote leaves out scheduling, add what it would cost to do that by hand.
- Processing in writing, with who pays.
- Term and cancellation in writing.
- Export rights in writing: members, registrations, waivers, payments. TeamSnap documents its CSV exports for members, registrations and transactions. Ask any vendor for the same.
- A trial with your own data before you decide.
About Bloomz pricing
Bloomz is built to cost less than TeamSnap in total, processing included. League pricing is not published yet, so we do not put numbers in a blog post. Ask for a quote, drop it into the worksheet, and judge it against what you pay now. The pricing page explains what is included, and the side-by-side covers feature differences.
What to bring to the board
One page: the worksheet, the two totals, the hours saved, and a recommendation with the reason. Add one line about risk: “If it does not work, we have the exports and can return at the next season break.” That sentence usually settles the room.
Start at Bloomz for Leagues or see the switching page.
