Understanding your Sports General Liability Policy
The each occurrence limit under a General Liability policy for a sports or recreation organization such as a team, league, camp or recreation department should be at least $1 million at a minimum. The limit is expressed as a combined single limit for both bodily injury and property damage liability.
The each occurrence limit is the amount of coverage that will apply to any one occurrence (incident or accident), even if it results in more than one lawsuit. For example, in a bleacher collapse incident involving multiple injuries and lawsuits, the entire $1 million limit would be split between all claimants.
Many facility and field owners now require facility users to provide evidence of a $2 million each occurrence limit before they are allowed access. For this reason, a sports or recreation organization may want to consider carrying a $2 million each occurrence limit. If this option is available, the additional cost is normally 20% of the underlying $1 million limit.
If limits higher than $2 million are needed, the best way to accomplish this is to request a quote for an Excess Liability policy which can be purchased in increments of $1 million. The minimum premium for each additional $1million increment will likely be in the $750 to $1,000 range. The actual premium may be higher than the minimum premium, depending on the size of your exposure basis. (Ex: number of participants or teams).
