Can we discuss the cost of competitive sports?

[Anonymous]

I am a gymnastics parent with Arlington. The proposed fee increases will raise rates significantly with some parents paying nearly 12k a year (not including meet fees, uniforms, hotels, plane tickets etc). So easily another 5k in some cases (current rate is over 8k a year)

But it got me thinking what do folks pay for other competitive sports. I know individual.sports tend to be pricy (competitive rock climbing and archery are close to $500 a month/6k a year).

But what are folks paying for team sports. Just wondering what folks really pay out there. Do people regularly pay 10k plus for just the sport (so not including equipment, uniforms, travel)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a gymnastics parent with Arlington. The proposed fee increases will raise rates significantly with some parents paying nearly 12k a year (not including meet fees, uniforms, hotels, plane tickets etc). So easily another 5k in some cases (current rate is over 8k a year)

But it got me thinking what do folks pay for other competitive sports. I know individual.sports tend to be pricy (competitive rock climbing and archery are close to $500 a month/6k a year).

But what are folks paying for team sports. Just wondering what folks really pay out there. Do people regularly pay 10k plus for just the sport (so not including equipment, uniforms, travel)?

I'm sure some do, but I'll throw this out there for soccer which is one of the most popular. Just paid $3195 for ECNL (widely considered the top level girl's platform) for U13 for next year. Our club seems to be a bit on the cheaper side, but say 3000-4500 before travel/uniforms is about the going rate.

[Anonymous]

We took a hybrid approach with our baseball player son.

We specifically picked club teams that didn't travel for tournaments (made significantly easier when Patriot Park in VA opened) or just went to Richmond like once per year...until it became clear our kid was recruitable by end of HS sophomore year. The local teams were probably $2,500/total for a year plus another $1,000 for training.

For one year, our kid played for a national travel team, but that was really one major tournament in FL in the Fall and then tournaments in Atlanta/Alabama in the summer after junior year. So, all-in that team was probably like $7,500 (including all travel costs) for one year.

[Anonymous]

We do travel hockey, and it cost about $14,000 last year. This included fees and travel to in-season tournaments. We also do things on the cheap side, so will drive for anything under 8 hours, there are many families that choose to fly more frequently, so could certainly be several $K more if you choose to do that. In addition, this does not include anything extracurricular like occasional clinics/skills sessions, HS hockey, spring/summer tournaments/camps

[Anonymous]

I have a son that plays Select soccer that charges 1600 per year and little league baseball which is about 150 every spring and fall and is on the ski team in WV which costs about 1200 per season. (Son is 9)

The soccer uniforms are around $100, I think. We buy the cleats when he outgrows them. I can't remember right now. Baseball gives the kids a hat and jersey each season. We buy new baseball pants and cleats when he outgrows them. We bought the ski race team jacket for $275. We own a place in WV so it doesn't cost us every weekend we are out there.

Soccer only has 1 or 2 tournaments where we need to travel and stay overnight. Baseball doesn't have any right now. We only do the ski races at our home mountain. We could travel but he does the ski team for the practices and the comraderie.

If it were up to my son he would also join flag football and basketball. There are only so many hours in the day/week/season and there would be conflicts, so we limit his participation. He did do a flag football pod where he got together with some coaches 1 per week to scrimmage with his friends who were a part of the pod.

For us it isn't too outrageous yet.

[Anonymous]

Travel softball: $1750 / year not including gear and uniforms (that was ~$300?) or hotels. We don't have a ton of uniforms and don't have a dedicated indoor facility. We do a middling number of tournaments. Dad coaches with all the pros and cons that come with it.

Organizations that have a facility, buy more uniforms, do more tournaments, and travel more are more expensive. I have heard of up to $5,000 per year for just local-ish travel. I don't pretend to know what the showcase teams that go all over every summer cost because my kid is very far from that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do travel hockey, and it cost about $14,000 last year. This included fees and travel to in-season tournaments. We also do things on the cheap side, so will drive for anything under 8 hours, there are many families that choose to fly more frequently, so could certainly be several $K more if you choose to do that. In addition, this does not include anything extracurricular like occasional clinics/skills sessions, HS hockey, spring/summer tournaments/camps

OP here, I heard hockey was pricy too! Sounds like hockey is up there with individual sports. Why idea why is pricey compared to other team sports? Limited facilities? More specialized training?

So you have parent or paid coaches? I feel like soccer and baseball use a lot of parent coaches whereas gymnastics, etc uses paid. Wondering if that is similar in hockey.

[Anonymous]

Re hockey, yes, limited facilities for sure. Ice time is expensive. The price toggles up and down a lot based on tournaments attended and how far away they are. To get to better competition, you are having to go far away.

[Anonymous]

The more expensive the facilities are to run, the higher cost the sport. Hockey and figure skating and gymnastics need very specialized facilities.

[Anonymous]

We’re a competitive swim family. Our swimmer is an age grouper, so still young and not practicing every day. We spend about $4,500-$5,000 all in for winter and summer rec swim seasons, meet fees, equipment, occasional private lessons, and other miscellaneous. Costs will go up as he swims more and starts wanting to buy tech suits. And if he gets really good we’ll have to factor in the cost of travel. But generally, there’s enough swimming competition in this area you don’t need to travel far to find it.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and OP -competitive gymnastics is an expensive and elite sport, and there is zero reason for the county taxpayers to be subsidizing this at the level it has been.

Either pay the cost, or go for one of these allegedly cheaper private options that didn’t exist last week when your boosters were fighting to save the program, but apparently do exist now that you don’t want to pay something closer to the true costs of staffing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and OP -competitive gymnastics is an expensive and elite sport, and there is zero reason for the county taxpayers to be subsidizing this at the level it has been.

Either pay the cost, or go for one of these allegedly cheaper private options that didn’t exist last week when your boosters were fighting to save the program, but apparently do exist now that you don’t want to pay something closer to the true costs of staffing it.

I didnt mean to start and argument. I also never said i wasn't going to pay or was not able to pay. Just curious what folks pay for sports and look at what a participation landscape would be with higher fees.

The argument was never that private gyms dont exist, it was that they dont have spots available. That is still true. Especially for boys gymnastics. Where there is only one gym within the beltway that can take a handful of kids at higher levels. The next closet gym only takes top level atheletes and requires homeschool (or at the very last only going to school a half day)

But anyway, that was never the intention of this post.

[Anonymous]

Field hockey is maybe around $4k/year.

[Anonymous]

This thread reminds me of how off the rails youth sports has gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread reminds me of how off the rails youth sports has gone.

I have the travel softball player. Rec is about 1/3 the cost if we play all available seasons, and also about 1/3 the practice and game time. So...proportionate.