By Dan Hardenbrook
To help offset the rising costs of hosting home athletic events, the Newberry Athletic Department will have a slight increase in admission prices for home events during the upcoming 2026-2027 school year. Tahquamenon Area Schools students will be admitted for free.
Tickets will be $6 for adults and $5 for all non-Newberry students. To help offset the ticket increase and encourage higher student attendance, the TAS Board voted to make admission to home events free for all TAS students. In addition, senior citizens will be given a $1 discount. All active military and veterans will continue to receive free admission to home contests.
The decision was made at Monday night’s special meeting of the TAS Board of Education. The new fees go into effect with this weekend’s football home opener against Merrill.
A higher entry fee is not only being instituted in Newberry. Nearly every other school in the EUP Conference, which includes Engadine, Rudyard, Brimley, Pickford, St. Ignace, and Cedarville-DeTour have increased their fees in some way during the past couple of school years.
Newberry’s entry fees were unchanged many years, despite increasing demand and pay for officials. Officials’ pay rates are set and agreed upon by the EUP Conference, however many individual school districts have allocated additional funds or received donations to guarantee that they can lure officials to their events amid the statewide referee shortage.
The Athletic Department, TAS administration, and the school board all agreed that the fee increase can be revisited and adjusted if needed prior to the start of the winter sports season. The athletic department will monitor attendance trends and costs before reevaluating the fee structure for the remainder of the school year.
Family and student season and school year athletic passes will eventually be brought back, with pricing options and more information available soon. The TAS School Board also placed a cap on the cost for a family to attend. The family cap will be $24 dollars per event for the fall season.
For more information or to get on the list for season or school year passes, contact the Newberry Athletic Department at 906-293-3226.
