Cost of sports in your area

[Jaime4004]

I've never added up DS's competitive gymnastics costs, never wanted to know. But now i'm curious. It's $4700 for the year, plus uniform. DD's dance was about $2300 last year, lucky for me, she is only taking one class this year at about $60/month.
My favorite is rec soccor and basketball. $40 for the season!

 

[bethy]

Our HS has a crew team, $200. Ds17 rowed his freshman year, but it was too much with spring soccer. The girls varsity crew coach is a friend of ours, and said he'd put dd14 on the team (she dances and runs scored every day, so not possible), since she only weighs 85 pounds, and has great rhythm. I'd love it if she rowed, especially with such a low cost.

Wow! That's great! Our public schools just don't have that kind of money. Anything to do with boats is always expensive. Plus you need waterfront access to row and that's pricey in our already high COL area.

On the positive side, the club has a really low coach to rower ratio. Plus the training is at least 15 hours per week nearly year round. So that's a pretty good value IMO.

 

[bethy]

Our HS has a crew team, $200. Ds17 rowed his freshman year, but it was too much with spring soccer. The girls varsity crew coach is a friend of ours, and said he'd put dd14 on the team (she dances and runs scored every day, so not possible), since she only weighs 85 pounds, and has great rhythm. I'd love it if she rowed, especially with such a low cost.

Wow! That's great! Our public schools just don't have that kind of money. Anything to do with boats is always expensive. Plus you need waterfront access to row and that's pricey in our already high COL area.

On the positive side, the club has a really low coach to rower ratio. Plus the training is at least 15 hours per week nearly year round. So that's a pretty good value IMO.

 

[mjkacmom]

Wow! That's great! Our public schools just don't have that kind of money. Anything to do with boats is always expensive. Plus you need waterfront access to row and that's pricey in our already high COL area.

On the positive side, the club has a really low coach to rower ratio. Plus the training is at least 15 hours per week nearly year round. So that's a pretty good value IMO.

Super high COL area, but our River (couple of miles from the HS) is a polluted urban river, that is not property anyone wants - lol.

 

[PrncessA]

The upfront cost seems to really only be a fraction of the costs in my experience! My daughter (8) does cheerleading and tumbling. She does tumbling 3/4 of the year it runs about $540 a year for once a week. She is at the point where we are about to move her to twice a week, which will really increase that cost.

For the other 1/4 of the year she does cheerleading for football. Upfront cost: $240 Fundraising: $120 Shoes: $50 Spirit Wear: $120 Extra bows, t-shirts, Pep rally socks, homecoming gifts, Misc. expenses: $100+ (I've lost count!) Competition entrance fees for DH, me and DS: $90 Plus the amount of time it takes for 2-3x's a week practices and driving to away games. She really wants to eventually join the competetive cheer squad based at her tumbling class, that is thousands of dollars! They are one of the squads that go to Disney World each year for competition.

We spent easily $1000 on DS's travel basketball team last winter, this year he didn't make the team he wanted so we are doing an in house league. I am thankful this drops the cost to $90!

 

[abcboys]

Wow! I guess I've been lucky my kids have never done expensive sports. Currently youngest son plays football. The cost was $60 and that included all his gear except for shoes which he already had a pair. Oldest son does high school cross country and that is $75. This is the first year there has been a charge for school sports since the schools did budget cuts and implemented sports fees. Just needed running shoes. Little League baseball every year is $60 and I found a nice bat at a yard sale for $5. He's used the same mitt as last year. Spring/fall soccer was also $60.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Swim team - $60 per kid, plus a $100 per family fee that's refundable if you work 2 events (we do)

Volleyball - $25 (includes tshirt) plus $50 fee that's refundable if you work the "home" tournament (we don't).

Bowling - $7 per week, per kid. Believe there's 30 weeks total. Also $5 each for USBC membership, and typically one or both girls will qualify for the Pepsi tournament. That's only about $20, but can be as much as a 4-hour drive. We've never spent the night, however.


Edit: thankfully, neither of our kids have shown any interest in traveling leagues. I'm quite certain DW & I would both nix that idea.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

My kids both ride horses, so $400/month plus fees for shows. One does dance which is $50 a month. Everything else they do is a school activity, so free or really cheap (at most $150/semester).

 

[lovetheduck]

My kids both ride horses, so $400/month plus fees for shows. One does dance which is $50 a month. Everything else they do is a school activity, so free or really cheap (at most $150/semester).

Wow, that's a great deal for riding. I have a dd who is also a rider, my barn bills average $3500 a month before showing, vet, farrier, tack, clothes, etc. And that is after I bought the horse!

 

[jimandami]

DD6 is in her second year of competitive gymnastics and I think this year, we will spend around $4000 ($2400 for her regular classes, $200 leotard/warm-up, $800 meet fees, plus other leotards, and travel expenses). She is only a level 2 right now so I know it will go up substantially if she sticks with it. Thankfully, DS11 isn't very athletic and just runs cross country, which was $75 plus shoes.

 

[wilkeliza]

Wow and now I realize why I didn't get to play sports as a kid even though I desperately wanted to.

I will say my FFA expenses were ridiculous. At least at the end of that you get to see the animal or use it for meat depending on what you do.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

I'm really just curious more than anything. We live in Canada and things are generally more costly. My son is only 8, but has narrowed his loves down to just 2 sports. But he is all in and plays both house league and rep for both. In 2015 we have spent:

Lacrosse $650
$255 house league + $350 rep, no new equipment and no camps this year

Hockey $2110
$450 house league + $800 select + camp $300 + camp $360 + skates $200
Will probably need new shin pads, shoulder pads and stick, but may make these Christmas presents.
Will also do one away tournament in 2016 (hotels, meals, etc.)

Next season 2016/2017 he will not have to play house league if he plays rep, but the fees go way up over $2000. Yikes! I also expect lacrosse to get more expensive.

Hockey- peewee- house league - 2000.00 (fall) and 900.00 (spring) does not include equipment or tournaments.

Soccer- 8 wks- 50.00

Pre ballet and Tap = 45.00 plus equipment

Gymnastics - 1 hour a week = 90.00 daughter

Gymnastics - 1.5 hours a week =110.00 for boys gym.

 

[Xrayest]

My son is 14 and we reside in MA.

Sports costs are as follows: Baseball
$125 fees to play baseball on a local park league, regular season
$150 fees for All-Stars baseball once regular season is over. These fees pay for his entrance as a part of a team into various tournaments
$1400 AAU baseball, elite team. HE only did this for one season as DH and I felt it was WAY too much baseball and not all that "elite" for the price paid
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Ice hockey
$550 per season when my son played mostly as a goal tender. Now $1200 per season as he has decided to skate out. This is for a local rink league. (USA Hockey)

Sports in high school. He is a freshman this year.
Cross Country (running)
FREE, or perhaps even better than free. The school provided him with a pair of Brooks running shoes ($150), new, after he and his entire team were bused
to a running shop 35 mins away and fitted by a sneaker specialist who measured their feet, analyzed their gait, and fitted them accordingly. The
school also provided the running outfit for "meets", shorts and tank, wind pants, and a running jacket. All his to keep when cross country is over. This is
varsity as he made that team.

Ice Hockey
FREE. He does have his own equipment which is far from inexpensive. Try-outs are free and he made the varsity team as a freshman. Transportation to and from
games is free by school bus. When he has very early, before school practice at the rink - DH has to drop him off at the rink on his way to work, and he gets a bus ride from the rink to school. The rink is a 5 minute drive away from the high school.

Baseball
FREE also. Uniform included. Cleats we purchase unless the school decides to provide them - you never know. Transportation to away games provided by school bus
to wherever the away game is, and back to the school when the game is over.

All of his equipment throughout the years has been paid by us. Examples: goalie pads $1500, goalie helmet $300, hockey gloves $150, more sticks over the
years that care to mention ($$$), skates, blades for skates when just one blade broke but they have to be bought as a set , $100 (just for the blades, unsharpened)
catcher's equipment, composite bats, new cleats every year since his feet grew every year (hopefully stopped now), baseball helmets with a separate cage for it $50,
,baseball uniforms, "special" cleats for baseball that did not have metal spikes as he played one tournament on "turf" rather than grass and metal cleats were not
allowed. I am happy for some of the "free" stuff in high school sports and am not used to that. My tax dollars at work, I suppose.

DD17 has not played sports for 3 years - but did play ice hockey also ($1200 per year for tuition), danced since age 3 to 11, gymnastics, diving, horseback riding for 1 year. That was all a major expense, but it has been a while and I'd probably cry if I pulled out all of those receipts.

 

[tvguy]

Wow, that's a great deal for riding. I have a dd who is also a rider, my barn bills average $3500 a month before showing, vet, farrier, tack, clothes, etc. And that is after I bought the horse!

Ouch. My wife had a horse 20 years ago. I don't think we spent $3,500 a year.....well, we did, if you count the payment on the Suburban to pull the horse trailer.

 

[lovin'fl]

My 2 DDs-16 play club softball. They are pretty competitive and have been doing it for 6 years now. They have a goal to play softball in college. One DD pitches and has to go to a pitching coach, they go to batting coaches, do conditioning and have practices. They now travel a ton, all over, to play in college showcases. They have to have cleats, gloves, bats, batting gloves, helmet, batbag and lots of other crap that has been added along the way (spinners, nets, tees, weighted balls...). There are uniforms and fan gear (like jackets and hoodies and such). There are hotel costs. There are team fees (this year for our team fees it's $1700 per kid...uniforms, gear, hotels, pitching lessons...etc are all extra). They also do college camps now too and that costs $80-150 (or more if overnight) per camp plus travel expenses. Probably looking at $8000 total this year for both my DDs. Earlier on it wasn't as much.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

Ice hockey was a HUGE expense. He played from 7/8 yrs old. First was rec at the local rinks. Buying gear every yr was only the start. That would be $1000 plus rec fees of about another $1000 for yr.

Then travel started..Florida Jr Panthers..Uniforms , new gear as growing, travel tourn in state as well as several out of state each season,was probably $5000 while he was young, by peewee we were well over 10k a year. It was bigger tournament, extra ice sessions, special training...

We called it a day after some good advise from a friend who was one of the coaches at the rink. He said it was ridiculous the money they now wanted for a maybe shot of playing at a good college. He had a successful hockey school in Canada before coming to Florida as well as had several students who play in the NFL so he explained his thoughts on hte young kids developing from FL compared to those up north. At the same time we had one of our clients who owned a pro hockey team and whos company still sponsors a known franchise of travel all because his kids loved hockey and played, did the travel thing and told us when looking back he felt they lost too much time as a family due to the crazy demands of hockey.

We stopped him right before HS and then he played HS for 4 yrs, now he plays mens league. Much less $ , lots of fun for him still. He also played roller hockey-lots of fun and way way less $.

I would say any of the sports that will impact your family life the same way you may want to rethink. Same with the cost. My sons have done other sports like golf, tennis, MMA, archery...nothing came close in terms of time and cost.

 

[hisgal2]

Sheesh! We are getting off easy! My kids (ages 7 and 8) both play soccer.....have since they were each 5. They just play with AYSO which has a fall and a spring season. We pay $45 for each kid and that includes the 2 seasons per year. As far as uniforms, you pay like $15 or $20 for it and then your kid wears that uniform until they outgrow it and then you buy another one. My oldest is just now outgrowing her uniform shirt....the shorts are fine....so I'll have to buy a new one in the spring, but getting 3 years out of a uniform is great if you ask me.

 

[superme80]

I just got an email that my son can sign up for a basketball league Dec-Feb. It will be $110. More than likely not doing it.

 

[emma'smom]

Soccer (u11 & U14):
Travel Rec- 95.00 per season (which includes two team practices and two skills clinics per week plus games) plus 75 for uniform
Club- 300.00 per season (two practices per week) plus 300 for uniform plus Tournament Fees & travel

Swimming:
375.00 per season plus family pool membership & 60.00 for suit/goggles, etc

Once my teen starts high school---It's pay to play (but under 300).

I guess we live in pretty inexpensive area!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

So glad my kids run! Loaned uniform in middle school, didn't spend money on racing flats (shoes), all it cost me was to drive to events but they were all local.
HS, $40 for the uniform but it's ours to keep and is the same one we use for Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track. Racing flats $50-$100, usually get at least 1 season out of them, sometimes 2. Warm ups are borrowed. Practice clothes are the same clothes they use for gym. School pays for entry fees. $12.50 per person for the banquet, and maybe $20-$40 for what ever we buy for a fundraiser. This year was the most expensive at $90 for a jacket but it has the boys name and year on them so I doubt they will buy any kind of letterman jacket.

My BFF on the other had. $1600 for Softball and they do no fundraising. Needless to say, her girls did not play ball this year.