OT: Youth Hockey is the "most expensive" youth sport

Crazy hockey dad here.  between my 6 and 4 year olds we usually have 10-12 icetimes per week and also do a backyard rink in the winter.  I'd say I'll likely drop about $10K this year.  God knows what that will be when they get older. 

I should mention that I'm not pushing them, they love the game and my 4 year old will often cry when he finds out he doesn't have hockey that day.  Insert Canadian joke here

High level humble brag here. Bravo!

I'm the parent of a son and daughter who were "good" at their sports - competing in individual (swimming) at the Junior National level, and in soccer at national level (but not part of MLS Development programs).

The costs for any sport can reach "very high" levels - part of that is coaching and local facilities.

IMO, hockey - gear, ice time, travel, etc. - ALL contribute and accelerate.  

My perception is - in the case of hockey, there was travel (which I perceived as unnecessary) for young boys - under the age of ten - to "hockey centers" - on a monthly basis.   The line I used to draw was - is it a plane trip, or five / six hours in the car.   I was surprised that that level of youth (U10) in hockey - was getting on a plane on a monthly basis.

*** Feel free to ignore this post if you're a parent with FU money. ***

Finding an activity where your child can flourish is very important, but it's easy to get the sense that millions of parents are doing lousy ROI calculations when the time and $ commitments of travel teams, etc., are considered.

With ROI, I'm thinking of the families who don't understand the long odds of getting a "full ride." (At big schools, "scholarship" athletes in non-revenue sports often get mere fractions of a scholarship.)

Never mind the perils (physical, mental) of concentrating too much on a single activity.

For any sport, it depends on the level of competition.  The number given seems reasonable for house hockey.  Once you get into travel it is probably close to $10K, and easily closer to $20K for AAA.

Also, for specialized positions (like goalies in hockey) there is also a lot of individual coaching and camps that add to that cost.

CJRockford Junior plays Squirt (10U) hockey for a house team.  I think the league fees were about $1,600 plus another $200 for the uniforms.  That’s for the sweaters (jerseys to you non-hockey people) and game socks. Add another $200 for warm ups, to wear to the rink and we are at $2k before any equipment upgrades.

He needed new shoulder pads and knee/shin pads this year, so there’s another $350. Plus another $15 every 2-3 weeks for skate sharpening.

That doesn’t include any travel expenses, which are actually quite a lot for a non-travel team.  We are in Rockford (near Grand Rapids) but we have teams from Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Cadillac and even Traverse City in our division. Meaning we get to drive up to 2 1/2 hours for a 40 minute hockey game just about every weekend.  Plus 3 tournaments that require overnight hotel stays.

Having said all that, it’s worth every penny.  He loves hockey, makes awesome friends, stays active and it definitely keeps us all busy!

This week on Which Rich Dude has it worse....

After reading this I had to do some research and see if the buckeye ( puke) league was still around.. Sure enough it's live and kicking. My oldest daughter plays travel soccer and we travel to surrendering states.. I think I'm gonna call my parents and thank them again. One kid playing travel sports is hard enough But 2 ( brother and I ) both playing hockey , often in different cities. wow  

I will put the cost of competitive cheer up against hockey any day.

Woof. Soocer parents here. And I'm happy where I'm at with fishing out cash/experiences. The friendships matter the most, whether they work out or not. Kids being able to be kids is all that matters.

I live in Buffalo where everyone plays hockey.  (We can see Canada across the river for those who don't know.)  My kids did the intro to hockey program a bit late when they were 8 and 6.  We started looking at the cost and the ice times, and my kids lack of interest and decided not to push it.  Who wants to spend $5,000 a year to get up at 4 AM and drive to a rink 20 minutes away.

Top level competitive soccer (1 kid on semi-national team) for me is $3500 per kid.
That does NOT include travel.  Daughters reg away division is the entire midwest, and includes a florida tournament.

Oldest daughter in college now and sports have thinned for the other 2 but at one point I had 3 kids playing 5 sports.

Soccer
Lacrosse
Softball
Swimming
Skating

Our girls program up here has paid coaches for the U13 AA and A teams. One of the best programs nationally with many of the girls going on to scholarships, and a half dozen or so representing Team Canada, so maybe I get it? Though it's the lower level teams that subsidize the elite teams, which I philosophically take issue with. 

Some of the GTA boys teams start at $12k once you make the team and fees add on from there. Pretty crazy overall.

Laughs in ski racing. 

I have 3 in Hockey.  It is expensive, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  Soccer has been a lot more than what I expected.  I think a lot has to do with Hockey being coached by dad's right now and soccer being coached by people as coaching careers.  I know my brother pays a fraction of what we do on the other side of the state for soccer.  

Youth sports in general is very expensive and I had no idea how many options our kids would have for each sport, with so many clubs to choose from.  Every parent in a different sport / dance seems to be gone for weekends to travel too, which is newish too. 

Hockey is a fun youth sport to watch for me.  Great action, kids are moving fast, physical, I wish I could have played as a kid.  Good luck to all the parents trying to keep their kids in sports and having fun and enjoying the experience.  I know I only have a short time before all this will be over.

The thing I've always focused on with my kids is they do something they enjoy and understand that if they aren't the best that's fine.  The goal is to have fun and not see it as some ticket to college or financial salvation because outside of extreme cases the ROI on it just isn't there.  Yes, if your kid turns into Mahommes then the $100k you put in now will pay off.  But the VAST majority of kids aren't ever going to play the sport in college, let alone the pros.  And for a lot of kids the schools where they could compete aren't necessarily schools you'd want to attend.  

I remember a story around the Varsity Blue scandal where they interviewed a bunch of parents from the rich suburbs of DC and NYC about their kids all playing lacrosse and the parents said they thought their kid would get a scholarship to an Ivy and instead their kid didn't get an offer to anywhere other than some dIII school in Iowa and the parents never were going to send them there.  And the kids didn't really seem like they enjoyed lacrosse or crew or whatever, and instead had they just invested the tens of thousands they spent there in college funds they'd be further ahead.

So yeah, if you really like hockey then just treat it as an activity for your kid and enjoy it.  But way too many people think their somewhat-athletic 8-year-old kid being the best soccer or baseball player in his league translate to stardom when we've got literally millions of people in this country (as well as abroad) that you have to be better than in order to even go up the ladder for a shot at the pros.

I heard it smells the worst too, with wrestling a close second.

My daughter's travel volleyball team runs us around $4-5k/year. She works and pays for a lot of it herself, so that helps. We also get substantial scholarships for her, so the cost would likely be doubled or more if we didn't have that and take every cost saving measure we can to make things cheaper when we're on the road. It's hard to get to places like Boston, St. Louis, DC, Orlando, Atlanta, etc. every other weekend for 6 months on the cheap, especially when some are stay-to-play and you have to stay at the Omni or something insane like that.

I've no idea what other sports cost, as this is all she's ever played, but our son will be starting travel baseball soon so we're about to find out.

When my D was a rising high school senior she went to two out-of-town summer soccer camps.  Enjoyed both, air travelled on her own, really enjoyed the overall experience.  She wanted to see how she stood against other players.  At the end of both camps in her one-on-one review with the head coach, both told her she would never play D-I soccer but that she could play and start on any D-III team she wanted.  They both offered to write letters of recommendation for her.

She ended up going to an Ivy and played on the women's club rugby team, ending up as captain and club president.  Never looked back.  Now an MD.

In my experience with a wide variety of high school sports, you can spot a D-I player in a minute and there are VERY few of them.  Most parents never figure that out.

I volunteer coach 2 of my kids' comp soccer teams. My older kid played on a team for a couple years that had paid coaches and amazing facilities, but it was a terrible team. Obviously a feeder team for the top ones that traveled. I very much prefer our club now - inexpensive (comparatively, under $1,000 a year including kit), lower commitment, competes and plays really well, but not at the very top level which is fine... I'm not under some impression that any of the kids are going to get on scholarship, let alone pros. It's a nice happy medium.

This isn't anything new.  Back in the 80s I expressed interest in hockey, my parents told me it was too expensive. 

I'm sure the price listed above in the quote doesn't include "monthly fees". I know of families who have given up their weekends and $10,000 easy just to play club soccer. The youth sports industrial complex is absolutely out of control.