Unfortunately, it's quite common that activities that are not the most popular sports (basketball, football) are not given adequate funding, facilities, time, etc. When I was in high school, in cheerleading, we were told we couldn't go to all the away games because the basketball team/football team didn't want us on the bus with them, but they wouldn't pay for a bus for just us. I don't remember any games we didn't get to go to in the end, BUT...one speech and debate tournament stands out...
We had a VERY small budget and most meets were far enough away that we had to stay overnight, so we also had hotel costs. We had gone to Powell and it was storming something terrible. We got there late at night....somewhere around 11 pm I think, and when we got to the hotel, we just wanted to sleep, but the hotel was so gross. There was "condemned" tape around the back of the office area...we don't know what happened, but our bus driver's husband worked with drug addicts and she said the hotel employee who did the checkin was high as a kite. We were told not to leave anything in the rooms during the day because there had been a lot of theft in the area. My brother's room had one lock, which was broken. Ours, on the other hand had something like 7....and knife marks in the door. Technically, there WAS a TV...but it didn't work. There was some sort of white powder on the floor, and footprints in it, leading us to believe they had not vacuumed. One of the beds had a huge wad of hair in it, so we called the front desk to ask them to come change the sheets. When the gal got there, she said she couldn't change the sheets...all the sheets they had were in use. But, never fear....she had brought a wet washcloth, which she used to wipe the hair off the sheet (onto one of the girls' leg) and then left. It was freezing because none of us dared to get under the covers after that!! There were no vacancies at any other hotels, so we had to stay put.
We spent the next day in rounds. We had packed up all our belongings even though we would be returning that night, and we didn't leave ANYTHING in the room....we double checked. So our bus driver....we had a tiny team, so we had one of those bread box buses that seats like....12 people. It was fixin' to be a blizzard and the tournament was at the community college, so everything was spread out in different buildings. Our bus driver drove us from one building to the next, picking up kids from other schools who were walking because it was such bad weather....the whole thing should have been canceled. So we get back to the hotel that night, enter our room to find a pair of socks on the floor that had not been there when we left, and did not belong to any of us. It seems they may have been renting out the room by the hour during the day, which would explain why they told us to clear out the room, AND why there was hair in the bed. Just....so disgusting. But that's the only place we could afford with our budget of $40 per night per room and there was nothing anywhere else, regardless.
We finished the tournament and started to drive home. Everyone had eaten lunch at the taco johns except me, because I'm picky and wouldn't eat tacos. One girl ate a bunch. We got to Sheridan and stopped to eat at a JBs. This girl started feeling sick. We ended up in the ER because she got food poisoning. (everyone but me got sick the next day) The weather was getting really bad, we didn't know how long we would be there, the highway department had said no unnecessary travel, but our principal refused to pay for another night in a hotel and said we needed to come home. The girl is released from the hospital and we were sent on our way, into a blizzard, on a twisty windy road in the Bighorn mountains. Food poisoning girl had a trashbag, and the bus driver was white-knuckled....you couldn't see 10 feet in front of the bus. But the basketball team got to stay overnight in Douglas in a holiday in. There were 20 of them, 9 of us, they were closer to home, had NO ONE sick, and the weather in that area wasn't nearly as bad. But they got to stay, and we had to come home. By the time we got to Gillette, they had closed the road behind us....we were already on it, but they closed it right behind us, so when we got to Gillette, we had to stop. But...the principal was not happy and gave us a miniscule budget for a hotel that night. And because of the storm, the heat was out. My brother and I were the only ones who had blankets with us, and we had snacks....everyone else was starving. But at least we were safe and it was clean. We slept 7 girls in 1 room, all huddled up, the 2 boys in the other room. While the boys on the basketball team got to stay in a nice holiday Inn.
Administrators just don't seem to care about any activities except the ones that are very public and bring them recognition, in my experience. Our parents were all livid that he had endagered our lives to save some money, but what could they do at that point? It was done. And he was tenured and hard to get rid of. But if it's not an award winning team that they can take credit for, they would rather not "waste" any money on things like....dance floors, or mats, etc. Our school had no auditorium and our plays and musicals and band/choir concerts were held in the cafeteria or the gym. The district didn't want to spend the money for an auditorium for a small school. New uniforms for the cheerleaders? Nope....use the ones from 15 years ago or buy your own...the basket ball boys don't like the ones we got them last year, so the money is for them.
Glad I was never into any sort of sports in school!!