Vent: Admissions fee for youth sports games

[midwestmama]

Here to commiserate. We also are charged for middle school and high school sporting events. Seniors age 60+ can get a free limetime pass, so that is good for most grandparents to be able to watch their grandkids for free. DH and I pay $5 each for each game to watch DS play football. Not sure yet what HS baseball admission fee will be. For football, at least DS has been starting, so he plays a lot of the offensive drives. I would not be happy to pay the fee and then my kid doesn't play the entire game.

[shauni27]

Sept 13, 2024 16:41:23 GMT -5 @villainv said:

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.

I was talking about this with my friend who has a daughter playing varsity volleyball, a son playing middle school soccer and two step sons also doing various sports. She goes to every event she can (only problem is two games/events at once in different locations) because her parents never went to hers. I was saying when I played soccer in HS my mom came to exactly one game and she sat in her car and watched from across the field. It just was not a thing back then.

Sept 14, 2024 6:52:45 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

It’s stupid and someone should be auditing where the funds go. Growing up the only that had a fee was games at the stadium.

A local city facility got in a lot of trouble for the way they were charging admission for events. It was a big deal once someone finally started digging instead of accepting the status quo.

I am pretty sure this is how it is for us locally (my kid is in 2nd so not relevant for us yet). We have gone to a few football and hockey games for our friend's kids (HS aged) and we have to pay like $1-2 per person to go in to the stadium. 

[hermione]

We pay to watch tournaments but not league games. We pay $100 per sport to play. It doesn't strike me as odd - the money goes towards uniforms, paying referees, etc.

[pixy0stix]

I'm going to say what I always say in these threads - lobby to pay more taxes to help defer the costs for your schools. The money has to come from somewhere to keep schools running, and sports is an easy way to raise/collect it. The money may not be put back into YOUR kids' sport, but it may be going elsewhere. If it's going into the general fund then it might be going towards funding an art teachers salary, or a lab for science class, etc.

You always have the right to ask where the money is going, but try thinking outside of it benefitting your own kids. This is a product of underfunding education, not greedy school administrations.

Club ball is different because at that point you're funding salaries since in general it's all private.

[mrsukyankee]

I can't even imagine this. I wouldn't have been able to play sports as a middle and high school student in the 80s if there had been a charge like y'all have to pay for your kids. And I would have lost out on a lot due to it. This is basically making sure poor people can't play sport unless they sacrifice a lot, which might include parents eating or other such things. (and yes, in middle school, my parents did have some nights when they didn't eat so they wouldn't have been able to scrap up money to have me play sports).

[glitzy07]

I'm coming at this from a hockey lens, which is already a cost-prohibitive sport.

I'm paying $2k per season for my son's youth hockey right now (he's 11) but not paying to get into any games or tournaments. Once he gets to high school, the fees are something so low comparatively (like $200 a season), so I will happily pay to get into games because we'll be saving money.

Obviously this isn't true for other sports in other places and it's super annoying to be nickel and dimed to death, but I understand why they have to charge.

[muffin0]

We don't pay for middle school sports, but we do pay to get into games. That money goes to the school and I assume covers the fees the county charges to keep lights and AC on for longer than normal. It's not much it's like $3/person. I would be more annoyed if we had to pay to play, but then also charged for watching. 

Club Volleyball we pay for tickets per tournament, but that makes sense because we are not playing at our own facility. 

[muffin0]

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.

Yeah - volleyball for Mini Club it's essentially $250/month (3 - months) and regular club $450 month (Oct - June) Plus we have to pay for all tournaments, and hotels for when they are out of town or out of state. We are one of the cheaper clubs in the area. 

The amount of feet pic jokes we make in our parent group chat... 

[sadlebred]

Sept 16, 2024 8:33:01 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I can't even imagine this. I wouldn't have been able to play sports as a middle and high school student in the 80s if there had been a charge like y'all have to pay for your kids. And I would have lost out on a lot due to it. This is basically making sure poor people can't play sport unless they sacrifice a lot, which might include parents eating or other such things. (and yes, in middle school, my parents did have some nights when they didn't eat so they wouldn't have been able to scrap up money to have me play sports).

The answer is really somewhere in the middle. In my state, school sponsored athletics (NOT private sports teams) can request that dues be paid. BUT they can't force anyone to pay them. Players can still play even if they can't pay the dues. Moneys are made up elsewhere--like the entrance fees, Athletic Booster clubs, etc.

[sparkythelawyer]

Our school only charges the visiting team :-)

[jlt19]

Sept 15, 2024 20:02:49 GMT -5 sent said:

Sept 15, 2024 19:24:02 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

One game per year of your own kids soccer games?

Watching games and matches of any sport makes me want to scratch my eyes out. Even if my kid is in it. It's not my thing. 

If my kids were super sad about it, I would suffer through it but I haven't seen them particularly care. 

I can see if they don’t care, but mine act like I’m abandoning them if I miss something. Probably my own fault for setting a bad precedent.

I’ve noticed lately that DS’s baseball games are far less entertaining now that’s his team of 6 years disbanded. It was definitely a social event for me and now it’s boring. I do miss DD playing volleyball, but I like playing it too, so that makes it easier to watch.

[wanderingback]

Sept 14, 2024 12:33:02 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

I think many people underestimate the cost of sports programs. I was on the board of our high school girls lacrosse program and am now on the board of the boys program. Since they aren't a school sponsored sport their registration fees are pretty high - around $500-600 per player. But that doesn't come close to covering the cost of operating the program. Field rental, uniforms (which last a few years but you often have to buy more because EVERY YEAR there are players that don't turn then in no matter how many times you contact them), head and assistant coaches (who usually only average $3000 each for the year), transportation for away games, refs, end of season banquet, lacrosse balls (my god the number is lacrosse balls we go through), nets for restringing the goals, etc. And yes scholarships for those who couldn't pay some or all of the registration fee.

I'm sure many felt the program was nickeling and diming them. But it was either that or increases the registration fees which may make the sport even more out of reach for some.

Yeah agree.
I think in general capitalism sucks but shit costs money.
The other option would be to increase taxes to fully fund schools and all after school activities and sports.

[onetruething]

Also in Mass and also get super annoyed by this. Especially for hockey which is a super expensive sport to begin with. To add insult to injury they also charge me for the younger siblings who are to young to be left alone but don't even watch the game. Plus it's just a pain because I never carry cash.

Last year they did a season pass for parents for $100 which I thought was reasonable. I hope they do it again this year.

[186momx]

Club gymnastics and there is only 1 meet that we go to that I roll my eyes at the admission. It costs $10 to park at the even center and they charge $30 cash for spectators older than 2. This is the one meet I actively tell people to not come to because it is ridiculous. I get the meet is a huge fundraiser for the gym but the rest of the meets we go to admission is less than $20 and they give kid/senior pricing. I will say it costs 10k to rent out the event center for when we host a meet and we still have to rent equipment, pay judges, and pay for awards so we have to charge admission and charge the girls to compete.

High school sports charge $15 a person to get in for football, basketball, volleyball games. Seniors and students get a discounted rate. You also can buy a season pass and yes you can buy VIP seating so you don't have to get there early to get a seat.

[jeaniebueller]

we have to pay to get into HS football games, and have to pay for my DD's dance recital tickets

[Jalapeñomel]

I think we need to make a distinction between sports at the HS and travel/intermural/non-school sports. Because I don't think they are the same...school sports should be available to all kids and families. If entry fees are cost prohibitive for HS sports, then that is definitely something that should be dealt with.

[fluffycookie]

We have to pay for HS hockey games - I think it's $7 and $2 goes to the rink and the rest to the school (I can't remember off the top of my head). DS does club tournaments in the off season and it's not uncommon to be charged 40-50 per person to attend the games for the 3 days.

[InBetweenDays]

Sept 18, 2024 13:21:12 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I think we need to make a distinction between sports at the HS and travel/intermural/non-school sports. Because I don't think they are the same...school sports should be available to all kids and families. If entry fees are cost prohibitive for HS sports, then that is definitely something that should be dealt with.

I agree, but I don't know what the solution is. In our district, most of the high school teams operate at a deficit so the programs are having to make that up either through fundraising or by the coaches and the parents paying for things themselves. This year the district has added an optional but suggested $200 athletic fee per student per sport (for high school). The coaches are all telling parents to absolutely not pay that fee because the programs will never see that money from the district. So yes, we could increase taxes to help spread that cost around and fund these programs at a higher level, but I don't necessarily trust our district to allocate those funds appropriately.

[fluffycookie]

Sept 18, 2024 13:52:15 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

Sept 18, 2024 13:21:12 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I think we need to make a distinction between sports at the HS and travel/intermural/non-school sports. Because I don't think they are the same...school sports should be available to all kids and families. If entry fees are cost prohibitive for HS sports, then that is definitely something that should be dealt with.

I agree, but I don't know what the solution is. In our district, most of the high school teams operate at a deficit so the programs are having to make that up either through fundraising or by the coaches and the parents paying for things themselves. This year the district has added an optional but suggested $200 athletic fee per student per sport (for high school). The coaches are all telling parents to absolutely not pay that fee because the programs will never see that money from the district. So yes, we could increase taxes to help spread that cost around and fund these programs at a higher level, but I don't necessarily trust our district to allocate those funds appropriately.

We pay a $250 registration fee to the HS which covers transportation and ice for practices and games.  We also pay a $200 fee to the boosters which covers replacement jerseys/socks as needed, jackets for the new players team, end of the year banquet for the middle school and high school teams, senior night, teacher appreciation night and food for away games.  We also do a bunch of fundraising to off set the costs as well.

[Birdie]

We pay $5/adult (kids free) to watch DS's 5th-6th grade football game. It doesn't bother me too much because it's going directly to the hosting school. The only time it bothered me was when our school originally didn't have any home games, so our high school wasn't able to earn any money. They eventually changed the schedule so we got one weekend to host.