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If you have young children or grandchildren, you may know the answer to this question.
How much do families spend on their children’s sports activities? 🏈🏒🥍⚾️⚽️
The answer is a lot, often thousands of dollars a year. I know that from experience in our family. My children each spend four thousand more or less for their children’s equipment, team fees, travel costs and in some cases lessons.
And then there are the fund raisers each team conducts. Ma and Pa are a go to source which is fine with us, but maybe not for those retired on a tight budget.
There is social pressure to participate in a different sport each season of the year. Baseball used to be spring and summer. No more, now there is “Fall ball” too. A good little league bat costs $200 or more.
When I was a kid the equipment was a broom stick and a pink rubber ball. We never heard of soccer (or proper football). Never mind soccer, what about lacrosse? A mid-range lacrosse kit of equipment runs around $300. And then there is field hockey. A mid-range stick can be $250.
The only travel we did was climb the fence in our apartment’s back yard to get to the local park or walk a half mile with a wood bat, ball and glove to a (dirt, not artificial turf) ball field. Where we live now I can easily walk to four artificial turf football, baseball, soccer/ lacrosse fields all equipped with night lighting, electronic scoreboards and grandstands. One has a snack bar. And you wonder where your property taxes go.
Today travel teams actually travel. Two of our grandchildren have traveled from NJ to Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland with their teams.
According to New York Life’s Wealth Watch Survey, on average, parents report spending about $3,000 per year on children’s sports. The Aspen Institute says the average is $1,500 per child – that’s for average income households. The number climbs with family income.
In addition to the cost, there is a tremendous time commitment for the child and the family, not to mention the pressure – sometimes extreme – to win. I’m not opposed to sports, but I think it has gotten a bit too high on the priority list for children.
The ever pragmatic me secretly wonders, does this spending on sports mean less saving for retirement-or more credit card debt for many families trying not to disappoint their children? 🤑
My wife Suzie and I cover all the costs for our grandson’s sports equipment and club memberships, which runs about $2,000 per year. But what really frustrates me is the replica jerseys for the professional soccer teams he follows. He supports two teams—Liverpool FC and Real Madrid FC—and each team has three different jerseys: home, away, and third kit. This costs around $2,000 total, and to make matters worse, the professional teams release new designs every single year. The only saving grace is that it makes birthday and Xmas present selection easy.
The same with professional sports teams here in the US.It’s a money grab by the teams.
A perfect example from last week. My baseball team the Red Sox won a game to qualify for the playoffs. The local broadcast network was not able to cover it as Apple+ had the game as part of their contract.
What is even worse video forever will show that the team was wearing GREEN uniforms not their traditional classic whites with red and blue.
When texting this rant to my adult son I typed I guess I am officially an old “cudger” now.
Join the club lol
Kids sports are over the top today! The money and time commitments for the traveling activities/sports can consume a family. I coached youth soccer for kindergarten age, and even there I had parents upset over not practicing enough, or not having practice in the rain (for 5 and 6 year olds)! Coaching youth track and field I saw ridiculous levels of poor sportsmanship over not ‘winning’ by some kids and parents also. The kids that showed promise at those young ages very rarely progressed into the top athletes either. So much changes as kids grow and develop. At the time I wanted my kids to do well of course, and although they weren’t the best athletes once they decided what sport they wanted to commit to and work at, and then physically grow into, they did quite well. It is easy to get caught up in the competitive frenzy but in hindsight it is most important to have fun and make friends and not worry about how ‘good’ you are – at younger ages for sure.