How much do you spend per sport in a year? Or per kid for a year?

[Anonymous]

Kid is just starting to have strong preferences. I’m wondering when parents complain about expensive sports like lacrosse, ice hockey, equestrian… how expensive are we talking? And what are cheap sports, soccer and basketball?

What do you spend on that makes it expensive: gear and equipment, camps, team fees, coaches…?

Also wondering what you found worth the money (best quality playing equipment? Specialized practice equipment at home? Private coaching sessions?).

[Anonymous]

My kids play travel baseball and softball. Bats and gloves are $300 to $500 each. Travel team dues are about $2,000 per year. Private lessons are $75 to $100 per hour. They both take hitting lessons and one takes pitching lessons and one takes catching lessons. Travel uniforms are expensive. Hotels and flights or has are expensive. Fast food and take out that we eat more because we are always on the go adds up. I haven’t added to all up but probably $15k or more per year for each. They each play a rec sport, too, though that’s cheap.

[Anonymous]

We all make different amounts OP so the amount other people spend had no bearing on how much you spend. You do what works for your kid and family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids play travel baseball and softball. Bats and gloves are $300 to $500 each. Travel team dues are about $2,000 per year. Private lessons are $75 to $100 per hour. They both take hitting lessons and one takes pitching lessons and one takes catching lessons. Travel uniforms are expensive. Hotels and flights or has are expensive. Fast food and take out that we eat more because we are always on the go adds up. I haven’t added to all up but probably $15k or more per year for each. They each play a rec sport, too, though that’s cheap.

It’s $1000 for one baseball and a pair of gloves??

[Anonymous]

Soccer. Club fees, camp, tournaments, uniforms, travel ~ $8,000. And she’s only 11 and on the second team. 😳 I will only continue this if she makes the top team when they bump to a full field next year.

Top team HS players in our club gunning for college easily top $10,000 as their tournaments are national and 3+ days. Ours have been regional with hotels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids play travel baseball and softball. Bats and gloves are $300 to $500 each. Travel team dues are about $2,000 per year. Private lessons are $75 to $100 per hour. They both take hitting lessons and one takes pitching lessons and one takes catching lessons. Travel uniforms are expensive. Hotels and flights or has are expensive. Fast food and take out that we eat more because we are always on the go adds up. I haven’t added to all up but probably $15k or more per year for each. They each play a rec sport, too, though that’s cheap.

It’s $1000 for one baseball and a pair of gloves??

NP here. Not batting gloves! Fielding gloves!

USSSA bats can be over $300 and when you have to use a different certification for bats (BBCOR), those are generally more expensive than USSSA bats.

Fielding gloves can definitely range in price to upwards of $300 as well. If you play two or more positions, your gloves are different. My son plays first base and pitches and he has two different gloves for that.

[Anonymous]

Equestrian you can spend endless amounts. A decent competitive hunter/jumper horse will run well in the six figures, and many show barns require you to have at least 2. Just the winter circuit show expenses run $100k/horse.

I compete on a more modest level in dressage. Each show weekend costs me around $2k and I show 5 times per year. My horse cost mid-fives and my training costs are around $700/month. Horse care about the same because I am in a lower COL area.

[Anonymous]

It varies by year and depends heavily on the level of the team and the amount of travel. I seem to spend less than a lot of posters. DS plays travel soccer. I just added up last year and it was about $5500 all in for soccer (club fees, uniform, GK gloves and extra training) but that was a team that was lower level and only did local tournaments so no hotels and flights. Also DS doesn’t do any camps. This year we moved to a much stronger team with real travel so our costs will increase by about $1500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids play travel baseball and softball. Bats and gloves are $300 to $500 each. Travel team dues are about $2,000 per year. Private lessons are $75 to $100 per hour. They both take hitting lessons and one takes pitching lessons and one takes catching lessons. Travel uniforms are expensive. Hotels and flights or has are expensive. Fast food and take out that we eat more because we are always on the go adds up. I haven’t added to all up but probably $15k or more per year for each. They each play a rec sport, too, though that’s cheap.

Ditto and those costs sound about right. Slightly less now for my older one who is a freshman in HS (finally can use same bat and glove for awhile and school season is cheaper and a break from travel fees)

[Anonymous]

We are on the first team for soccer, approx $3000 for the season (fall to spring) - includes 3 local tournaments, 1 out of state. Uniform kits are about $400. About $1600 year for private and small group training. Travel to tournament probably $2000 in plane tickets and hotel for kid and parent chaperone.

I don’t think I’d count summer camps because I spend same amount on soccer summer camps as I do for my other kids non-sports related camps. In other word, we would still spend on some summer camp even if they weren’t soccer camps.

We spend less on another kid that plays travel but not at all the highest level bc they don’t go anywhere for tournaments. Otherwise, club fees for that is less than $2000k but they also have one less practice a week.

[Anonymous]

Even the same sport varies a huge amount.

Rec basketball is about $100 a season.

But aau can be a couple hundred a month, plus travel to tournaments, plus $150ish for uniform, and even charges to attend the tournament your kid is playing in.

[Anonymous]

Gymnastics, one kid - Xcel recreation competition track, about $6k a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics, one kid - Xcel recreation competition track, about $6k a year.

What do you spend on that makes it expensive: gear and equipment, camps, team fees, coaches…?

That is mostly the monthly cost for the team at the gym which includes meets. Then there are additional costs for leotards, warm-ups, backpack, choreographer, sometimes private lessons. All the meets so far have been driving distance but some teammates have chosen to stay in a hotel overnight because of early start times so that would be extra.

[Anonymous]

Dance. $15k a year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We all make different amounts OP so the amount other people spend had no bearing on how much you spend. You do what works for your kid and family.

It’s this. We had an away tournament this weekend and I don’t even include hotel, travel or food costs in my mental calculations on what we spend. We like to travel and it’s not a burden. N for others, this would be a huge factor. Same with camps. They went to camps for childcare when they were little. I don’t think about it if they go to 1-2 expensive away sports camps now.