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?

I think you may be missing some of the expenses that go along with the hall hire:

• insurance
• first aid courses and supplies
•DBS
• An annual census of members may need to be paid.

things can be expensive but all volunteer activities will be ran on the minimum costs possible.

DC does plenty of activities. We pay £11 per session/ week for rock climbing, the same for gymnastics. £7 for science and engineering and £8 for swimming

Using the numbers someone gave above

Easily be £200+ for hall hire
£880
Equipment might not need replacing every month but allowing for a pot to be available as and when might be, what, £80 if broken down
£800
Insurance, just making some figures up and looking online came out at around £60 per month
£740
Training for staff, £100 pro rata per month
£640
DBS checks are £18 per person, so say it's got to be done for 5 volunteers, £90 every three years but needs the money in so if it happened that month
£550
Membership to an organisation at £100 potentially for each month
£450

Some people might be paying per session and only do 1 per month so if 10 are doing that then that's now £830 (and that assumes there are no others only paying £22 as they come to 2 sessions or paying £33 as they come to 3)
£380

Some banks now charge per transaction and for having a club account. £5 for the account and then any other costs
£375 and then any other costs

Recommendation is to have at least a month's costs in the bank at all times too, so if monthly costs are coming in at, what, £600, then that needs maintaining too

And that's just me making random guesstimates at some of the costs required. I will have definitely missed some and be undercosting some