To hate that so many sports are so expensive?

[SwumMum]

DC had swimming lessons through a local competitive club from tiny. Almost without any real thought they've just stayed with the club, entering squads and taking part in galas and competitions. They are not in any way exceptional for their ages and whilst they enjoy it, they have no intention of competing in a more serious way.

The fees have ramped up slowly over the years, with occasional shocks such as an expensive gala or a particular piece of kit that had to be bought. We have just absorbed these costs but when we didn't have to pay through lockdowns we really noticed how much better off we were.

The club have now announced a 90% increase in membership fees that will be taken as a lump sum, plus an increase in fees per month too. This amounts to hundreds of pounds extra and we just can't pay. Along with lots of other families, we will have to leave the club and, due to a lack of local options, the kids will stop swimming.

We had a similar experience with gymnastics many years ago - the fees and kit costs were just an ever upward trend, out of all proportion to the benefit or enjoyment the kids got from it.

I work with someone who has a DD who plays tennis competitively and they fund the cost of training and competitions with a holiday home they rent out, and say there's just no way they could do it if they hadn't inherited the property when they did.

There seems to be such a financial barrier to accessing sports - there are so few pools and leisure centres where we live. No schools have really good sports provision and to pay for private clubs is prohibitive to all but the most wealthy.

AIBU to hate that for so many DC, sport is out of the question because of cost?

Are there really no public swimming pools anywhere near where you live? They tend to be affordable for children. It's always going to be a lot more expensive if you are going to a private club as you are paying for facilities such as nicer changing rooms. My London Borough doesn't offer free swimming but a neighbouring borough offers free swimming to residents at certain times.

The gymnastics club where I live offers ‘gym for all’ which is about £30 a month plus £20 a year British gymnastics membership. If they got scouted to the elite squad, costs and hours and kit go up, but thankfully my children do it for the fun /friendship/fitness. So it’s any old leotard/shorts and T-shirt’s and 1 x per week sessions. I suppose it helps that I’m not looking for them to have a career in gymnastics. Definitely shop around and if their is genuinely no affordable sports near you- write to your MP.

Taking children swimming isn't as easy as it sounds.

First you have to find a family session. For scho aged children, this is twice a week.. Saturday and Sunday afternoons, for 2-3hrs. Better for younger children, there's a few midweek ones as well. But after school iylts lessons then adult only in the evenings, or swim teams or water polo.

Then there's the cost... its £4.50 a session here per person for a normal pool. More for the one with slides.

Enough adults. 1-1 under 4. 2 children per adult over 4. Technically over 8s dont need an adult... unless they can't swim.

Then your non swimming children are only allowed right at the shallow end.

*there

Tell me about it! My daughter's sport is horse riding She rides every day. We are in London and keep our pony at a big famous riding school. The cost is absolutely crippling. I kept trying to get my daughter into athletics (£3 per week at local excellent youth club) but no, she had to choose one of the most expensive sports in the world 😣

I don't know how Team GB does so well at the Olympics, as most sports seem inaccessible

Interesting that a PP found cricket cheap and cheerful. If you take the out-of-pocket costs it can be, but the whole picture is somewhat different. The sport itself would be the first to recognise it has a grass-roots participation problem, and that realistically unless you come from a cricketing family or go to a public school then you will probably never play the sport at all.

A lot of money is distributed down through the club system from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which subsidises age-group stuff. Almost all clubs will also have their wider non-playing membership base paying subscriptions, profits from bars and catering on match days, function room hire, and - if my local club is anything to go by - plenty of advertising and sponsorship. The subs you pay for your child are virtually tokenistic and if you never buy a piece of kit new then of course it's going to be cheap.

But, that ECB money has to come from somewhere. In 2005 the ECB sold its soul to Sky and every single bit of live England cricket went behind a paywall. It was and is widely recognised within the sport that almost no cricket-mad child would go without watching it on TV if they could afford it and, since Sky does not do a cricket-only package that means paying not just for cricket but for Premier League football and everything else. It made professional players richer, it made some clubs richer, and grass roots participation continued declining anyway. That's what makes age-group cricket cheap if you can access it.

Access provides another problem. ECB money is conditional on offering children's cricket at all age groups, use of qualified coaches and so on. Some bigger clubs can easily offer this. Other, smaller ones, could not and have gone to the wall or have stopped age group cricket. Others have had to get ingenious: my local one took the ECB money for offering the All Stars Cricket programme for 5-8 year olds when it came out in about 2017, but put the sessions on at 6am on Sunday mornings which - unsurprisingly - nobody signed up to.

Once young cricket players get more serious, the cost does add up. Sharing bats, pads and helmets is one thing when you're in the under 12s, but by about Colts level serious players need to bat consistently with one that is that is weighted and balanced to their preference. Realistically these are going to start at about £150 and can easily cost double or triple that. Gloves, pads etc all add up. A titanium grill helmet runs well over £100. Sure, you can buy cheaper stuff from Sports Direct but it's just not very good: heavier, less protection and so on.

A ball used at club level is £20 plus, and stays 'new' for about an hour. If you want to practise bowling with a new ball that adds up...

The biggest cost of course is time. Cricket realistically is all day every Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer. That means no Saturday job, reduced family time, etc etc etc.

I've thought a lot about this issue generally, although specifically in the context of music, because of the ever-increasing gap we see at post-secondary entry level among those whose parents could afford private training, and those whose parents couldn't. Often in the name of accessibility and fighting against elitism, standards in the school system are lopped and lopped, with the result that the school system can't prepare students for post-secondary study, with the result that the field becomes ever more inaccessible to anyone but the elite...and with the best will in the world, we just can't just let everyone in and get them caught up at university/conservatoire. We don't have the time, and the students (who generally have to work when they should be practising or studying) also don't have the time. So if society actually values accessibility as much as is claimed, then it needs to put its money where its mouth is, and fund accessibility at primary level. How exactly this could be accomplished, I really don't know...but it's very frustrating to see students with natural talent struggle so much, because they are being expected to cram into two years what they should have been learning more gradually and thoroughly over at least 10 years.

Horses come up often in these threads as a particularly expensive sport, especially at competitive, beyond-weekly-group-lesson level. That's indubitably true, and is obviously a huge barrier for very many people. Geographical location is also a huge factor. However, in some other ways, horse sports in the UK are more accessible than some other competitive sports: for one thing, there's less of a clock ticking, so there's many people who start up as adults, and can still hope to become very proficient, and can still compete (if they are so inclined) against younger riders/both sexes.

Comes back o suces relying on Opportunity, Effort and Skill. Doesnt matter how skilled you are initially, with out the opportunity you on be an Olympian or on a National team.

I'm always amazed parents are so keen to get their kids into activities at so young. With 3 kids it is just unaffordable. They also get so tired. Mine started swimming at age 6 and progressed rapidly. £25 a month at the local leisure centre. They do Junior Parkrun which is free, and the youngest does football £25 a month and rugby PAYG £2.
So far the child benefit sort of covers it all. But soon my bigger two will start piano and gymnastics. I guess we will pay for that with the savings in childcare.
I just tell them they can try things but not all at the same time. We can only really fit in or afford 2 activities each at any one time, including swimming.

Not read the thread but lessons at my local (council but run by Everyone Active) leisure centre cost £47 a month. The older kids and adults get an hour for that, but the usual lessons are 30 minutes, I don't know if they are cheaper.

My son's athletics club is about £100 a year due to needing to hire the track etc but my running club is £35 a year. However, both run by volunteers whereas I assume the swimming clubs pay their coaches? However, a 90% increase sounds ridiculous unless the pool is taking the mick with increasing hire charges?

@LynetteScavo

My DC had to stop tennis lessons because we would have had to join the tennis association (or similar?) and I just couldn't afford it. They were never going to be the next Tim Henman, but I think if they'd continued with lessons they'd be half reasonable at playing a social game with friends for fun. One of DSs friends continued with tennis and is pretty good, but DS can't give him a challenging game, so it's not as fun as it could be.

It's a shame.

I think Football has been made more accessible to all though.

This is where there are problems, what were they trying to get you to join? Junior LTA membership is free, even the top level is £15 a year (and most juniors don’t need that) The same with clubs that make you become a member before you can have lessons - shop around, not all clubs do that. For most kids membership is just an extra charge for nothing.

@gogohm

If you want to swim there are public pools or try wild swimming - we swim in the sea year round

Public pools rarely have a time when you can just go swimming. Our local pool is lessons & then club sessions everyday after school - there is no time set aside just to go for a swim. We might swim in the sea but we don’t have one in London!

The same with clubs that make you become a member before you can have lessons - shop around, not all clubs do that. For most kids membership is just an extra charge for nothing.

A tennis club that we visited had the rule that a child and one of their parents has to be a member before the child can have lessons there.

My son has played tennis since he was 3. The costs are astronomical. Coaching at his level now is around £800 a month. Rackets £170 each, and they need 3-4, stringing £13 a time at 1-2 week intervals, shoes £70-80 a time every 6 weeks or so. That is before tournament fees and travel costs are factored in. Its just such a shame that kids with real potential are falling through the net simply because parents cannot afford it.

@Fizbosshoes

The same with clubs that make you become a member before you can have lessons - shop around, not all clubs do that. For most kids membership is just an extra charge for nothing.

A tennis club that we visited had the rule that a child and one of their parents has to be a member before the child can have lessons there.

Yeah, I know a couple of clubs like that, they are generally the clubs that think they are a lot better than they are. Not all clubs do it, so it really is worth looking at a few clubs before you decide.

@Murraysmum

My son has played tennis since he was 3. The costs are astronomical. Coaching at his level now is around £800 a month. Rackets £170 each, and they need 3-4, stringing £13 a time at 1-2 week intervals, shoes £70-80 a time every 6 weeks or so. That is before tournament fees and travel costs are factored in. Its just such a shame that kids with real potential are falling through the net simply because parents cannot afford it.

To be fair he must be playing at a pretty high level & having a lot of coaching for it to be £800 a month. Most kids don’t get to that level (not due to money just because they grow out of wanting lessons)

It depends what you are talking about though doesn't it? Just for participation, to keep active etc, sport is very cheap. Things like junior Park Run, local football, cricket and rugby clubs etc which are volunteer run are all free or very cheap. Governing bodies of tennis, cricket and squash have all heavily funded starter courses for kids that include kit. Our local authority subsidise basic swimming course as they know the local schools can't properly meet the requirement for swimming. Our local secondary school runs sports clubs for local primaries that are cheaper than the equivalent time at after school club. So basic access to sport is very cheap. But then to play competitively, at a relatively high level, of course there are going to be high costs. You need better facilities and higher qualified coaches rather than volunteers with basic qualifications. If you want an expensive hobby you have to pay for it.

I think a lot of it depends on luck due to area but the cost do rack up if you have more than one dc... Plus one off costs for kits and events.
I have one who does basketball (£20 pm), one football (£15pm) and one swimming (£25pm). My oldest two also have gym memberships at £12 pm each but this gives them access to the gym and all classes which they go to in holidays. My youngest has enough going on with swimming and whole class parties which suck in every weekend.

We have free swim sessions at our local pool for under 16s on Saturdays - the older two go alone or its a fiver for me if I want to take the youngest.

£100 plus a month but that's not bad going for 3dc I think.

@littleowls83 is right that it is about the level you do it at. The Saturday club that my DC started is £15/week for 3 hours. There is a lot of hype about how wonderful this is because it widens accessibility to the sport.

However, it's somehow even worse if a kid gets started, loves the activity, is talented and committed but then can't progress because the costs kick in.

@Murraysmum

My son has played tennis since he was 3. The costs are astronomical. Coaching at his level now is around £800 a month. Rackets £170 each, and they need 3-4, stringing £13 a time at 1-2 week intervals, shoes £70-80 a time every 6 weeks or so. That is before tournament fees and travel costs are factored in. Its just such a shame that kids with real potential are falling through the net simply because parents cannot afford it.

That’s surely not typical though? That must be at a very high level?

I don't know how Team GB does so well at the Olympics, as most sports seem inaccessible

I row competitively and coach. British rowing run a talent identification programme called world class start. There are ten clubs across the country that run these programmes. If you are between 14 and 22, and above a certain height and reasonably fit you can apply. No previous experience required. The GB Rowing Team employs a full-time professional coach in each Start centre who is responsible for the recruitment and development of athletes. As part of this development, all Start rowers attend regular training and testing camps to monitor athletes’ progression. Coaches reach out to local schools, unis and anywhere else where they think they can find suitable candidates. Pretty much all the kids are state school and often from disadvantaged backgrounds. They literally get everything paid for them including transport costs. Despite the perception that rowing is very public school focused and the boat race being full of plumy voiced Johnny Oxbridge types the sport at grass roots level is pretty accessable.

@Madcats : yes, I have read that statement and it also looks like it also covers the endurance training ranges that have the FINA mark- that will mean more expense if that kit is banned for 13/u.
From a purely selfish view, ours will be 14 so they can still wear their race suits - I am expecting SE to follow SS.

@DillonPanthersTexas I think rowing is a little bit different because it is a late entry sport and it is actually possible to go from zero to quite a high level quite quickly. Unless they single scull, it's also very unusual for rowers to own boats, which would be a huge cost.

In sports that are early entry, parents have to fund years and years of training and coaching before a child can be picked up by NGB funding.

There is a programme similar to World Class Start in kiteboarding called Kite4Gold. Kids from other water/ board sports can apply from 13 to be picked up by the programme. However, they have to own a board to move beyond the initial stages, and even an entry level board (which really wouldn't be good enough) is over a grand.