What thing was ruined because it turned into a rich person's hobby?

[NewLion]

attending Premier League football

I live in NZ ,where we once had zillions of sheep. Not as many sheep now and the cost of wool is just ridiculous. If you can find a pure wool garment for sale in a shop you need to take out a loan to buy it! Merino is the exception, it can be expensive but can also be cheap.

Playing in a band. It used to be making a racket in a garage with your mates . Now it’s rich kids paying £££ to “ study” how to be in a band . Which largely seems to be about making / selling content .Soul destroying

Driving to the nearby national park for a walk. Over run with people , can’t get free parking anymore, car parks cost a fortune and i can’t afford the diesel to go there. Would cost me £30 to go for a walk!

Funny, I saw this on AskReddit a few days ago...

I'll also say riding. To an extent. In the 70s I l lived in a council estate, my Dad worked in a factory and my Mum was a cleaner, but they could afford a weekly or fortnightly lesson for pony mad me. I wasn't the only one where I lived. And then once you got to 11ish you could work at stables in exchange for rides, all that's stopped now. It was definitely more affordable for many ordinary working class families than it is now.

Kids/teens drama groups. They used to be run directly by local theatres, arts centres etc by someone who actually worked there. They'd either be free or have a nominal pocket money level charge, 50p or so. Lots of improv, experimental, drama focussed activity. The purpose was arts outreach and providing opportunities. Now they're all run by businesses, obsessed with naff musical theatre, and too expensive for many.

Vinyl is making somewhat of a comeback, and a good way to support directly is via Patreon or Bandcamp. We need to support artists however possible. I try to only use Spotify for older legacy artists.

The global economy

Definitely the theatre…I won 2 lottery tickets for £25 tickets last year, to add a ticket on for me (2 DC) it was £150!

I’m always surprised by how much clothes costs now, I was really shocked about it in Tesco last week.

Anything horse related is obscenely expensive now…£20 for a half an hour group lesson.

quite!!

When I was younger, we could lead tiny children in lessons - £1 per hour or 50p for half an hour. Lessons were £10 each.

Some miserable git (also parent) grassed on them for child labour and not paying minimum wage FFS

Totally agree.

You want to take DC for a little picnic, walk & playground plus mandatory ice cream it can be well over £40.- in our area... and going to the park is considered a cheap day out.

Reading books - they've shut all the small libraries in my city. You have to go into the city centre - so pay for the bus to get there or pay extortionate parking. It's office hours opening too.
Books aren't "pocket money" prices anymore.

The cheap groups definitely still exist. I attend our local church for £2.20 per child which includes hot drinks/pastries for adults and healthy snacks for children. I've been to 2 others within the last 3 years at £1 or £2 at other churches or community centres. This is in generally expensive Surrey!
However I did notice huge snobbishness from my NCT group about these. I suggested going several times but they all preferred to pay £10 a class for baby sensory.

May I suggest the opposite of this thread. F1. Used to be a rich man's sport then DTS meant a huge rise in fans. Prices have skyrocketed.could never afford it either time

Buying your teams football top each season. We’re looking at ~£75 for Premier League/Scottish Premiership teams now.

Charity shops. Although there are always some that are still cheap - where I live they sell stuff that’s in obvious second hand condition for the same price it was usually sold at in the shops.

Staying in a hotel. You could used to stay in a reasonable ‘Jury’s Inn’ type place for about £70 on a Saturday night. Premier Inn would be £30. Now whenever I have to stay in the Premier Inn I’m paying well over £100 a night and it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s central London or Abergavenny on a wet Wednesday…it’s still bloody expensive.

Running. It’s rare to see anyone out in any trainers, shorts and an old T-shirt. They all have fancy gear.

Gardening.

Seed prices are so expensive now. I try to save my own (with mixed success).

Yes - also Airbnb. I used to take my 3 DC away for short breaks in half term in the UK on top of our annual summer holiday. It only cost a couple of hundred quid.

Can’t afford it any more.

It's definitely enough to price people out and make the theatre an occasional trip.

Decent stalls tickets for a W/E musical used to be £40 in the mid 90s, they're now anywhere from £100-£350!

Look at seatplan. You can see pics from every seat - sometimes what’s classified as restricted actually isn’t really or it has no impact on that particular show.

Yes this!
I SO want to take my family to see ‘A Christmas Carol’ but for 5 of us it would be almost £1000. If I could get cheap crap seats behind a pillar for £200 I might, but like you say even the crap seats are £5-600.

Pet ownership. I have always had dogs but couldn't afford to meet a dogs needs financially now.

The farmer at the bottom of my land moved in with his daughter and left three cats and I've been feeding three of them now for the last two years because they were in a pitiful state. The food cost alone is massive but if any of them got ill or injured, I have no clue what I would do. I'm on a small fixed income.

All the good stuff is sold online now from charity shops. I no longer bother to even look in. It's very disheartening.