The High Cost of Active Kids
I’ve written about this before, but I figured I’d rehash this topic, since it is nearer to my heart these days living on no income currently.
This past basketball season my estimate is that the total cost of one of my daughters playing for a competitive team with travel, registration and team fees cost about $1500 or so (that may be a little high), of which the Government is kind enough to give me a $500 tax credit (which I appreciate a great deal). This amount is actually quite cheap for a single child in a competitive sport.
Friends that have children that play competitive hockey are outlaying upwards of $5-10,000 a year in total costs, and higher in some situations. Figure Skating is a surprisingly very expensive sport for kids (costume costs, competition costs and coaching costs are enormous), as well. Other sports like Soccer, Football, Baseball and Volleyball I am sure cannot be that cheap either (I don’t have exact figures for those sports so I won’t comment, if anyone has any, please feel free to add them to the comments here).
We who keep our kids active are actually helping society to a certain extent by:
- Instilling a sense of team and community pride.
- Keeping our kids occupied (and thus not out spray painting our neighbours fences (hopefully))
- Showing the value of physical fitness
Yes, it does sound like I am blowing my own horn, so I’ll stop there, but I think organized sports or activities is a good thing for kids.
What do people do who can’t afford this stuff? I know Canadian Tire runs a program to help out and locally in Ottawa there are a few community groups that are trying to help as well, but I am sure that is just not enough.
If you want to help out in your community and you have the extra money, maybe find a family that needs this kind of help, and offer to sponsor a kid for a year, your investment might pay back huge dividends in the long run.
Why does it cost so much?
Most sports fees are so expensive for many reaons, but some I know of are:
- Very high insurance premiums since NO organized sport dare not have liability coverage.
- Maintenance of fields, parks, gyms and rental of these facilities.
- Fees to officials (not a very large cost, but still a cost).
- Profit (yes some hockey leagues are run as FOR profit institutions).
When did Recreation become a big business?
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May 6th, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Through the many years of my kids playing competitive basketball, the biggest cost for families was the cost of the parents transporting themselves to tournaments, paying for hotel rooms, and buying food in restaurants. The players themselves stayed 4 to a room and were often transported in a couple of vans. So, the actual player cost was fairly low.
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May 6th, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Also true, but that is kind of part of the expenses, although if you want to be frugal you can cut out that cost too.
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May 7th, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Profit (yes some hockey leagues are run as FOR profit institutions).
Quoted for Truth.
I know a guy who works for an average salary at a credit union ($50K-ish salary)that purchased an upscale condo in downtown Vancouver with a view of the water. What’s the relevance? He organizes one of these adult hockey (beer?)leagues. Enough said.
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May 7th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
[...] Cajun Man talks about the high cost of active kids. I hope this doesn’t stir up another debate between active and [...]
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May 8th, 2009 at 11:18 PM
[...] Canadian Personal Finance Blog discusses the high cost of active kids. [...]
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