for kids from low-income families, do some travel teams offer steep discounts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think ABGC is only $500/year. Some of those kids are ridiculously good and could be playing on top teams at more expensive clubs.

How does ABGC manage to pull this off with respect to balancing their budget?

Is the $500 fee only offered to a small subset of each team?

[Anonymous]

Alexandria does 25% off with free/reduced lunch, and additional aid if you qualify.

[Anonymous]

The standard for basically all the clubs is free/reduced lunch. If your family qualifies for that at school, they'll help.

[Anonymous]

I believe just about all clubs have financial assistance plans if you meet the qualifications and can provide proof. Some clubs have an installment plan which makes the fees more manageable than having to pay upfront for two kids.

[Anonymous]

Yeah that sounds able right. Clubs can get away with it cause parents are willing to pay for it.

Anonymous wrote:The problem I have with getting assistance for my DD is my family roughly makes $120,000 a year. This does not qualify for any help from the clubs. Below are the fees I struggle to pay each year, as someone not qualifying for help

Club Fee - $3,000
Team Fee - $800
Uniform Kit $350
hotel cost for 3-4 travel tournaments - $1,500
1 Plane trip a year - $800
Cost associated with each trip $400 each - $1,600
Shoes - $250

Quick yearly Guess = $7,400 is on the low side of my soccer budget...TF this is so stupid

This is a lot of cost to absorb for a youth soccer team for a blue collar worker..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem I have with getting assistance for my DD is my family roughly makes $120,000 a year. This does not qualify for any help from the clubs. Below are the fees I struggle to pay each year, as someone not qualifying for help

Club Fee - $3,000
Team Fee - $800
Uniform Kit $350
hotel cost for 3-4 travel tournaments - $1,500
1 Plane trip a year - $800
Cost associated with each trip $400 each - $1,600
Shoes - $250

Quick yearly Guess = $7,400 is on the low side of my soccer budget...TF this is so stupid

This is a lot of cost to absorb for a youth soccer team for a blue collar worker..

Be happy your kid isn’t a goal keeper. Trying buying multiple sets of gloves each season at about the same cost as shoes in some cases.

[Anonymous]

Any club that doesn’t offer a scholarship program is not worth anything. You’ll have to submit your taxes but can get up to 100% off club dues. This can sometimes include uniforms and sometimes not. I’ve seen a lot of clubs make the families purchase just the uniforms so they have some skin in the game. Seen a lot of players given uniforms play a few games and then never come back. This also has nothing to do with skill level.

[Anonymous]

OP, $3800 seems high for club and team fees. Our all-in club-wide (includes tournaments) is about $3000. $250 for cleats is just unnecessary. If DC wants to spend that, time to earn the money or at least some of it. What tournaments are you doing that total $3900 in hotels, airfare, and "expenses" in addition to the $800 "team fee" ($4600 overall)? How old is your child?