It's a weekly ritual for regional sports fans: calling up the local high-school activities hotline to find out where and when teams are scheduled to play. In the future, there may be another message on the recording, one that precedes information about kickoff times and rainout dates.
There may be commercial advertisements on school-sponsored activities hotlines.
"Opportunities are out there to make a lot of money, to get people to sponsor things," said Phil Levine, Oakton's assistant director of student activities.
Oakton is the first regional high school to offer ad space on an activities hotline. The athletic booster club is running the promotion, and the money raised through the ads will go to the school's activities and athletic teams.
Oakton ran an announcement in its game-night football program touting the sponsorship opportunity. According to the ad, sponsors pay $18 a weekday during the week and $25 for Fridays for commercial space on the hotline. Levine said there is a higher call volume on Fridays in the fall due to regional football.
Those rates may fluctuate during the year. In the spring, for example, the activities hotline is updated and called frequently because of inclement weather.
The hotline ads are to run between 10 and 15 words, and will appear before information about activities is relayed on a recorded message.
Although the school has only attracted one sponsor this season, Levine sees it as an exciting opportunity to raise funds year-round for the athletic program.
LEVINE SAID he came up with the idea after thinking about his time as an intern for the George Michael Sports Machine, which runs a scoreboard hotline that has advertising on it.
"Leave it up to Phil to come up with something like that," said Cindy Waddell, Madison's athletic director.
Waddell's school has accepted advertising on its baseball and football field fences. She said she had not considered adding commercials to her activities hotline.
Paul Jansen, director of student activities at Robinson, said he only does trades with local businesses, such as Outback Steakhouse dinners for Robinson teams in exchange for advertisements at games.
Jansen said securing additional funding through corporate sponsorship could lead to a slippery slope for athletic programs. For example, if high school sports prove financially self-sufficient, the county could turn around and ask them to begin paying for officials. If that happens, schools could seek more sponsorship, the county could pass more expenses to the schools, and so on.
Jansen said sponsorship of athletic programs is a reality, but cautioned that it could go too far.
"Nobody wants these kids to be walking billboards," he said.