Or is this children's sports club reasonably priced?

[powerof10]

DS is 8, likes sport, is getting interested in clubs, competition etc.
I'm sporty but new to the world of organised sport for kids. From my experience I expect sport to be a cheap hobby.

E.g. For my sport (running) my £90/year club subs gets me 4 club sessions a week, free entry to 30+ races a year, club gym, cheap bar. Juniors pay £20/year.
Where I grew up sports clubs were run by parent volunteers or by members for members, costs were nominal. E.g. Junior membership at the local tennis/squash club was £40/year for use of courts, clubhouse, organised sessions run by older kids, local leagues. (yes, that was 90's prices, but costs now are £40 for U11s, £70 for 11-18, £170 adults).

Last week DS went to a taster session at a club (for a sport I'm unfamiliar with) and loved it. It was an indoor winter training session with around thirty 8-12s, lots of skills, drills, run by volunteers in a hired hall, no expensive equipment. All good grassroots sport stuff.

But... the club are asking for a Direct Debit of £36/month (£432/year!) or £11/session. I think at his age the only session this covers is this 1 hour session a week, term time only.
I think this is a LOT! I was expecting to pay around a fiver a session. But AIBU and out of touch? Are my experiences unusual? Is it normal to expect to pay this much for organised kids sport now?

What’s the sport?

it does sound expensive tbh.

Super expensive. My son does mixed martial arts at £50/month for 5 hours of coaching each week across three sessions, rugby which is £110 a year for two 1.5 hour sessions per week, and judo which is a fiver per 1.5 hour session.

Is it football? My friends who are now footie mums seem to get rinsed at every turn.

It is expensive. But it depends on how much the hall hire, equipment, insurance, coach training etc costs.

A fiver a session would be cheap for kids' sport near me, and I live in a fairly cheap area in the north. I pay £30 pcm for 1 hour/week of dance for one DC, £34 pcm for 90 mins/week of a team sport for another DC. I'm assuming both will ramp up as they get older, if they stick with it of course.

Oh I missed that it's term time only, sorry. That changes it a bit.

Very expensive. My DS rugby is about £80 per year for 2 hours training every Sunday. His martial arts, £5 per 1 hour session.

But the one you viewed has lots of kids so they must be doing something right.

Our local gaa club is £10 per year.
The local soccer club is £25 per month.

Both 2 training sessions per week plus matches.

Very expensive! We pay £75 a season for DC's sport.

It's expensive.

Dance is usually expensive but I'd say £8 per hour but you pay termly is a typical price.

It does sound on the expensive side...but not totally outlandish.

Ds played a sport and it cost me £30 a month but that included two training sessions a week plus a match most weekends.

That sounds about right if it requires a decent level of instruction.

Are you in the UK? I'm in Europe, but that would be normal-cheap for us . The last three activities have been €32/month for 1 hr a week, €410/year for 2x1.5hrs a week, and €60/month for 2x1.5hrs a week.

Kids football is £30 a month here if they are in a club setting - two trg sessions a week run by volunteers. More money for a class type course thing as least £5 a session

Race bmx is £5 per trg session then yearly club fees (for use of the track) and cycling licenses which is cheap

Can we play ‘ Guess the sport?’

Basketball?
Indoor winter Cricket training?

it does seem alot for that many kids and one hour trading.

£8 an hour is expensive. My DS swims which is majorly expensive at £107 a month but as he trains a lot of hours still comes in at only £1.91 an hour.

Badminton or Skiing would be my outside guess.

I'm going for cricket.

You’re out of touch. My DD does group athletics and it’s £50 per month. She also does another sport and I’m charged £60 (group)/80 (private) per week. Plus equipment, clothing, etc. all adds up to bloody expensive but while I doubt she’ll be the next Shiffrin, she’s very good for her age and she enjoys it immensely so worth it.

Cricket here is £10 a week for winter nets. 90 minute session.
Football is £150 a season including kit and subs. Not a fake academy, just training one a week and then matches in a league.
Hockey was £250 for the season but £100 of that was membership to the club and seemed to go on funding the first teams bar.

Difficult to say without knowing what the sport is. Is there a lot of equipment to buy & maintain? Is it stored offsite in a rented lock-up? Do the volunteers have their training / accreditation costs covered by the club? Do they have their membership of the governing body paid for? How much is the hire of the hall? How much is the club's insurance costing them? How many volunteer DBS checks are they paying for every year?

Is it cricket?

It's the term time only that's makes it average out to be more expensive but I don't think your previous experience is that average so will skew it a bit too.

Depends so much on what costs are involved, hire etc as those types of costs have gone up a lot since covid. The clubs we do most have nearly doubled their fees since 2020 and still have huge wait lists.

Our DC (similar age to yours) do 3 sports, costs us at least £3k a year in total

My 7year old does swimming £34 per month for 30 mins a week which I think is extortionate and dance which is £30 a term so I think that's probably the going rate

In my experience, team sports are much cheaper. My dc have done individual sports and they're extortionate. The club fees are on a par with what you're suggesting, but there's also equipment, competition entry, individual coaching, plus you have to cover coach's costs for competitions. Dd used to represent GB (not as impressive as it sounds when you look at the very low numbers of teen girls participating in this sport in this country)
but because it was a minority sport that doesn't get a lot of lottery funding, parents have to cover international travel, hotels etc.