Vent: Admissions fee for youth sports games

[meanie]

I'm sure lots of you are in the same boat, but I just need to vent.

DD is playing volleyball, games are held at a local public school. There is a $100 fee to play and coaches volunteer. There is an admission fee of $5/adult and $3/child to watch them play - so for us it will cost $13 a game to watch her play for maybe an hour. games are 2 - 3 times a week.

Our own town does the same for sports games - my H called about a year ago to ask where the money went. At that time the money was going to whatever group was collecting that night - usually a club or the PTA. Now it goes back into the school budget, which legally is how it should work in MA.

A fee to watch your own child participate in an activity that you already pay for them to participate in is ridiculous to me. What if you don't have the money? If a parent shows up and doesn't have cash do they just....sit in the parking lot? 

We will obviously still go and begrudgingly pay the fee, but the whole system sucks.

[erbear]

That's crazy. I would be very very annoyed by that. We've only ever had to pay at championship level games.

[egishere]

What grade is she in? Here, we don't have to pay to attend middle school games but we do have to pay for HS games.

[cjcouple]

Wow! That's frustrating.

It's common to charge for high school games here but not middle school.

We also don't pay to play. We fundraise, use concessions, etc.

[bears]

You have to pay to watch MS and HS games. The money goes towards the athletic program.

[meanie]

Sept 13, 2024 15:57:49 GMT -5 egishere said:

What grade is she in? Here, we don't have to pay to attend middle school games but we do have to pay for HS games.

6th, I'm used to paying for HS football games but this took me off guard when I got the email from the school. Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks it's weird!

[hbomdiggity]

The ones I’ve been to have a Venmo option, so there is always a way to pay.

Some also offer a monthly/annual type pass. But that only works if they are all offered by the same organization.

But yes, it’s ridiculous. It’s one thing in HS when you may have members of the public coming to watch. But nobody is coming to watch 8-12 year olds except the families already paying.

[eb777888]

Yeah, that's a regular thing for the public schools around here. It's insane!l I'm always seeing comments on the city FB groups of new HS parents that were unaware. They are PISSED.

[sometimesrunner]

When DS plays bball it regularly costs $15 for adults and they make siblings K and up pay, as well. It makes me FURIOUS. I always walk up to the counter with DD and say “1 adult” and they don’t question me. This is the only time in my life I don’t pay the proper amount for DD. We are in a LCOL area, too so it’s just absurd.

[Tacocat]

It’s the same where I live. My DD is in competitive cheer, so not only do we have to pay a monthly fee for practice 3x a week ($220/month!) but we have to pay to get into 8 competitions to watch her team. This year they also did a cheer camp that was another $195 for 3 days! I can’t believe how much sports cost these days. There’s also a traveling cheer team that goes to nationals in Florida. Once I saw the fees and costs of travel I said absolutely not. There’s probably so many families that couldn’t afford this and it’s only middle school. It gets even more $$$ once they are on JV or Varsity.

[Deleted]

Normal.

When I was in HS, my parents just didn’t come to all the games, and especially didn’t go to many of the away games. But it was the ‘90s so I think there was less social pressure for parents to be at every game. We generally either carpooled or they picked me up at the school after the game.

[mccallister84]

We paid $90 for DD (then 1st grade) to do the school play last year plus maybe $50 for meals during the two week tech week (although technically this was optional) and then $12 a ticket per performance - of which there were three. And I guess we didn’t need to go to every performance but she was 7. I did not grow up where I live and everything school sponsored was free for students to do and get into.

[turkletsmom]

DD (7) cheers for the playground 7/8yr old football & basketball teams. Home games are free for parents and siblings but away games (which are just a rotation of the other local playgrounds) are $5pp. Cash or venmo. I paid $140 for her to cheer but it included the uniforms, pom poms and a bunch of other stuff. I was surprised about the entrance fee, but this is our first dabble into youth sports outside of the YMCA, so I didn't know what was the norm.

[mccallister84]

Sept 13, 2024 16:35:55 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

It’s the same where I live. My DD is in competitive cheer, so not only do we have to pay a monthly fee for practice 3x a week ($220/month!) but we have to pay to get into 8 competitions to watch her team. This year they also did a cheer camp that was another $195 for 3 days! I can’t believe how much sports cost these days. There’s also a traveling cheer team that goes to nationals in Florida. Once I saw the fees and costs of travel I said absolutely not. There’s probably so many families that couldn’t afford this and it’s only middle school. It gets even more $$$ once they are on JV or Varsity.

My niece does this and it’s insane. My favorite is that the competitions span two days. They do the same routine twice but know you have to pay for the hotel and admission for two days. Seems like they could simplify it all and do just one day. They also need to stay at the team hotel which is usually more money than any other local hotel.

[InBetweenDays]

Here it is sport dependent and only in high school. We pay for varsity football (we don't have a stadium at our high school so it's played at a stadium downtown) and basketball, volleyball and other indoor sports. But not for any other field sport that I've been to (soccer, lacrosse, etc) unless it is a championship game.

[Tacocat]

Sept 13, 2024 16:48:58 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Sept 13, 2024 16:35:55 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

It’s the same where I live. My DD is in competitive cheer, so not only do we have to pay a monthly fee for practice 3x a week ($220/month!) but we have to pay to get into 8 competitions to watch her team. This year they also did a cheer camp that was another $195 for 3 days! I can’t believe how much sports cost these days. There’s also a traveling cheer team that goes to nationals in Florida. Once I saw the fees and costs of travel I said absolutely not. There’s probably so many families that couldn’t afford this and it’s only middle school. It gets even more $$$ once they are on JV or Varsity.

My niece does this and it’s insane. My favorite is that the competitions span two days. They do the same routine twice but know you have to pay for the hotel and admission for two days. Seems like they could simplify it all and do just one day. They also need to stay at the team hotel which is usually more money than any other local hotel.

Omg that’s crazy! Luckily my DDs comps are one day and awards are given out at the end. The days can be long, but I’m glad we have another free day of our weekend. That’s ridiculous to travel and be expected to stay overnight in an expensive hotel!

[maudefindlay]

Even our elementary schools charge, but they have a family option so you won't pay more than $10.

[flygirl]

At least where I live, they charge starting in 5th or 6th grade because while large crowds aren’t going to see 6th graders, they need to pay for coaches for all sports as some can’t be volunteer. It’s very hard to get a tennis coach, dive coach, golf coach, etc and while football brings in a lot, they have a lot more costs as well. Our school has a yearly pass for all sports which is nice.
I volunteer to do concessions at some events and it’s funny how people will complain about the $7 entry fee, but don’t bat an eye at a $3 Diet Coke.

[sdlaura]

We’ve never paid admission fees for any of our kids’ sports except once when DD played softball at a super fancy stadium venue where all the fields were themed as mini MLB team fields. My kids play softball, soccer, basketball, and baseball - oldest is on a 14U team.

There’s a big controversy near me over a complex of sports fields that are in a fancy residential neighborhood and used to be polo fields but are now used as a soccer tournament venue and they charge a lot for parking there, which has been a source of contention. Neighbors’ complaints over the traffic and parking issues have been the subject of articles in the national news.

[sugarbear1]

(I am a teacher, but I also own, with my brother, a company. We make equipment for an established, but also rapidly growing sport.)

I am a board member of our industry trade association and we were discussing avenues for growth at our last meeting. My son plays travel baseball (I spent $11k last year, though that was a big year and likely won't happen again) and I was telling all the other industry leaders (my brother is 50 and we were the youngest people in the room) how much money folks will spend on youth sports. It is outrageous. ONE piece of our equipment can be as much as $65k and we do get parents who just buy one for their kid's program. It's wild. The other board members could not believe what I was telling them, in terms of the baseball and soccer parents that I see.

[1confused1]

My son plays travel baseball, we often have to pay for the tournament and then a gate fee which can run up to $80 for a week pass. It’s insane.

[shortstax]

Our district offers an annual pass for all athletics for $100pp. Consider HS football games alone are $10/person, if you’re planning on attending any additional events, it’s totally worth it.

I hate that it’s so expensive for kids that just want to watch their friends.

[sandandsea]

Sports and activities cost the schools money. So the way I see it is the participants can pay more to participate or the schools can charge for spectators or the schools can cancel activities. Some schools do big time fundraising to pay for their sports too so I see it as a pick your poison situation. Our middle school asks for a donation from every student of $60 to support all clubs and then an additional $200-350 donation per athlete per sport they join. They don’t charge for spectators at middle school sports but do for high school.

[7costanza]

We had to pay to watch my then 10 year old sing the national anthem with his choir a HS basketball game. No one told the parents about the cost and it was cash only so a lot of the other parents just waited in the hallway. Other than that we’ve never had to pay to watch kids sports, but we’re definitely not at any kind of elite level. I can’t remember if my parents had to pay for entry to dance invitationals when I was in HS, but they didn’t go to all my performances anyway. I do understand it at the HS level, but paying to watch your kid so something you’re already paying an arm and a leg for would be upsetting.

[EvieEthelGarland]

Sept 13, 2024 17:11:37 GMT -5 sdlaura said:

There’s a big controversy near me over a complex of sports fields that are in a fancy residential neighborhood and used to be polo fields but are now used as a soccer tournament venue and they charge a lot for parking there, which has been a source of contention. Neighbors’ complaints over the traffic and parking issues have been the subject of articles in the national news.

Are these the ones in Del Mar that are a private business?  I'd be annoyed, but I'd be more annoyed that my town/city didn't fund rec fields in the parks department.

[sju]

DD is in HS Marching Band and performs at each football game (home and away).

We pay $200 a year for the band fee, plus instrument rental, entrance and parking fee for each game we want to attend. The parking fee (normally $5) goes to a club I believe. I don’t know where the $10 entrance fee goes to.  The fees may be waived to students based on financial need.

They are traveling out of state this year so there’s fundraising happening. It’s a very big band.

[penguingrrl]

I have to pay $5 per person to enter football games to watch my kid who is in marching band (and is drum major, which is the equivalent of team captain). It annoys me that I have to pay when the group I’m going to see doesn’t get a share of the revenue. And annoys me more that I’m paying for a sport I actively disapprove of (so don’t feel tackle football should exist given what we know now of the safety). But I also don’t want to miss watching my kid conduct and lead the entire marching band and our school won’t fund band at a level that allows them to do competition marching band, so football games it is.

[sadlebred]

Even back in HS during the dinosaur age when I was there students and everyone had to pay to get into games. I think it was $1 for students for everything except football, which was $5. Adults were more; all students/kids were $1 if they were over the age of 7 or something.

Of course back then like @villainv said parents/siblings didn't go to every game or performance. Most friends I had in the marching band might have their parents come for Homecoming and the final game.

[gretchenindisguise]

The worst for us is theater. On top of the production fees we pay $25-35 per ticket. So if my parents come, we are spending $175 to see their show. 🤦‍♀️

[CrazyLucky]

DS is in indoor percussion and marching band. The competitions are all about an hour away and most cost $12-$15 each to get in. Except the big championship, which is $30 per person per day for a three day competition. To watch your kid's group play for literally 4 minutes. I hate it! I'm ok with $3-5, but not $12-15. So I'm just sitting here and commiserating.