Dixie: Before You Apply for Coverage

What you need to know before you apply for coverage

Apply under the name of your league instead of separately for teams for maximum protection

If you are a multi-team league, you should apply for coverage under the legal name of your league and report and pay a premium on behalf of all of your regular season teams prior to tryouts. If you make the mistake of applying separately team by team, there is no way to extend General Liability insurance to cover your league as an entity and its board members and officers.

You need to buy Accident and General Liability insurance on 100% of your regular season teams before tryouts to protect yourself and to comply with Dixie rule book tournament insurance requirements for travel teams and tournament hosting

If you purchase Accident and General Liability insurance on behalf of 100% of your regular season teams, you will automatically meet the Dixie rule book insurance requirements for your tournament teams and will sail through the credentials committee meeting. And, if you host an official Dixie tournament, you will automatically meet the insurance requirements for hosting.

Don't try to game the system by under reporting the number of teams on your application in an attempt to save money. This will jeopardize the payment of your claims and will hurt the integrity and competitiveness of the Dixie insurance program.

Whenever a claim is submitted, your claims adjuster will verify the age groups and number of teams for which insurance was purchased prior to paying a claim. The claims adjuster will check your website and/or social media, as well as make an inquiry with Dixie headquarters and compare the age group and number of teams against what was reported on your application. Under-reporting may result in claim denial. Also, failure of the carrier to collect the appropriate premium for the risk exposure will degrade the loss experience of the program resulting in future rate increases.

Which of the 5 insurance policies do you need? Most leagues need all of them.

Without a doubt, you need to carry Accident and General Liability insurance to protect your league and teams and respective directors, officers, staff and players. Not carrying these two policies on all teams in the league is the equivalent of managerial negligence.

Leagues also need to carry Directors & Officers Liability insurance because of the escalation in lawsuit types that are not covered by General Liability such as discrimination based on race, sex, age, or handicap; failure to follow own rules or bylaws when making a decision such as player eligibility dispute; and wrongful suspension or termination of staff or players.

A Crime policy is a must for leagues that maintain bank and credit card accounts. Any league that does not have appropriate financial checks and balances on these accounts is ripe for insider embezzlement, use of league account to make personal purchases, or theft of equipment.

Any league that has significant equipment values at risk in the event of fire, wind, outsider theft, or vandalism should purchase Equipment insurance.