Kids Tournament Entry Fees

imnofish · January 22, 2016, 01:43:21 PM

Same feelings here about the youth hockey. Too much $ and the schedule is absolutely insane. I had middle school students playing up in Superior on a Sunday night, getting to bed well after midnight, then falling asleep at their desks on Monday. Many of them experienced a significant drop in their GPA during hockey season. Just way too much for them to handle and way too expensive for most parents. Maybe that's why our high school team is now a co-op of SEVERAL schools and it still has a small roster. Their example should provide a cautionary tale for all sports programs, IMO.

bkraus · January 26, 2016, 02:43:37 PM

I would bet a huge bulk of the cost comes from custom trophies. I remember when we were kids, the champ got a medal the size of a quarter and everyone else got ribbons. That was perfectly fine to us. I'm ok with every kid getting some type of award, but these custom trophies are out of control.

bigoil · January 26, 2016, 10:22:52 PM

Local wrestling club - free to be part of club, pay entry into 4-5 tournaments and provide the uniform.

Local club basketball - $110 for 7 tournaments and $65 for uniform (don't need a new one every year).

Most club hoop tournaments are between $175 and $300 for a team. 10 kids per team. Most admissions to club hoops is $4 adult various for kids. Most are WIAA refs.

Handles II · January 27, 2016, 11:08:00 AM

Bigoil,
You think that most wrestling clubs are free to join? That's cool if there are some out there, but I'm not aware of any that don't at least charge $20-25 per child. Let's not forget a $40 USA card to participate in many, if not most of the tournaments out there.

Having kids that do both sports; family of four.

Basketball traveling team $90 for 8 tournaments x 2 kids = $180. Admission average $3 per person (2 adults, 16 tournaments (8 for each kid) = $96. Total cost for two kids in travel team basketball $276

Wrestling - $20 per child + $40 per child USA card = $120. $13 registration per child x 8 tournaments = $208. $3 admission ( 2 adults, 8 tournaments total) = $32 tournaments. Total cost 2 kids in wrestling = $360

So based on my experiences (yes, mine, not everyone's). Basketball runs almost $100 cheaper per season. Granted, wrestling is easily worth $100 more to me than basketball, but that might not be true for another parent who is crunching the numbers.

bigoil · January 27, 2016, 11:11:19 AM

Quote from: Handles II on January 27, 2016, 11:08:00 AM
Bigoil,
You think that most wrestling clubs are free to join? That's cool if there are some out there, but I'm not aware of any that don't at least charge $20-25 per child. Let's not forget a $40 USA card to participate in many, if not most of the tournaments out there.

Having kids that do both sports; family of four.

Basketball traveling team $90 for 8 tournaments x 2 kids = $180. Admission average $3 per person (2 adults, 16 tournaments (8 for each kid) = $96. Total cost for two kids in travel team basketball $276

Wrestling - $20 per child + $40 per child USA card = $120. $13 registration per child x 8 tournaments = $208. $3 admission ( 2 adults, 8 tournaments total) = $32 tournaments. Total cost 2 kids in wrestling = $360

So based on my experiences (yes, mine, not everyone's). Basketball runs almost $100 cheaper per season. Granted, wrestling is easily worth $100 more to me than basketball, but that might not be true for another parent who is crunching the numbers.

Sorry, Our club is free, they provide uniforms and entry fees to I believe 4 or 5 tournaments (not a USA card).

Handles II · January 27, 2016, 12:07:00 PM

That's cool bigoil, and I should say that I forgot that my kid's club does cover costs to I think 4 tournaments as well. Certainly not all do. The reason why I didn't think about it is generally we haven't taken advantage of that, either because the weekend/location doesn't work, or we simply pay the registration cost. I'm ok with the club keeping a few extra bucks in those situations.

imnofish · January 27, 2016, 11:23:05 PM

It's great to hear of any clubs that can (and do) help defray the costs for youth sports participation.

babywhales · January 28, 2016, 10:47:11 AM

We use the monies from our annual Tournament ($17 registration and $2 at the door(free USA coaches, under 12 and seniors)) as a way to keep cost down for club registration.

The number one goal of our club is to make wrestling accessible and affordable to our community. The tournament money is used specifiable to reduce Club registration fees.

Our Club charges:
$50 for K-2. You get a USA Card ($40), 12 weeks of 1 practice per week, 4 K-2 Clinics, 2 Tournaments and a Club T shirt.
$65.00 3-8 gets you a USA Card ($40), 16 weeks of 2 practices per week, 4 Club Paid Tournaments, plus fees for regionals and anyone who qualifies for state and a Club T Shirt.

I coach Football and Baseball traveling all over and have had kids in soccer, karate, etc I have yet to see or hear about a sport or club providing a better valued deal in our area.

We have discussed WIAA Officials in our club. We have not made a decision but have leaned toward adding them to the older age full mats. We currently have two very good long time coaches as the Officials on the Full mats, as such, I ask myself: Are we trying to keep up with the Jones? Or are we actually providing a better product? If so is the incremental benefit worth the cost associated with it?

wrestlingdad · January 31, 2016, 12:51:37 PM

Great topic! Very interesting to hear how other clubs run their club tournaments and club entry. I think we are all trying to accomplish the same thing. To give kids an enjoyable experience and skill set so they develop a love for wrestling.

Our club is located in North East Wisconsin(NEW). We charge $10.00 per kid for 12 weeks of practice (2x per week). They also get a t-shirt, entry to 2 club sponsored tournaments, and 1-2 dual tournaments. We also have a free late season practice session that runs 2-3x per week the month of March for kids looking to continue practicing. This session is more intense than our regular season youth practices to get kids ready for regionals, state and nationals. We do ask parents to volunteer to work at our youth tournament, and explain that the tournament helps support wrestling K-12 in our community. While we struggle to get people to take on leadership roles, we have a wealth of volunteers to work in some capacity at our tournament.

With regard to our tournament we charge $15.00/wrestler. There are WIAA refs on each mat, we have a Bellin trainer on the floor, champ t-shirt for winner, and trophies for all places. It is a track model tournament, so we try for 5 man brackets when possible.

When my boys started wrestling back in 2002, tournaments were typically $10.00. Most around NEW did not have WIAA refs or give out a t-shirt for the champ. Both add cost to a tournament. In the last 14 years we have raised the cost of our tournament 2x. Went from $10.00 to $12.00 to $15.00. Three things contributed to those increases: adding WIAA refs instead of HS wrestlers, champ t-shirts, and supply cost going up. Over the last 14 years our tournament proceeds have remained basically the same each year. These proceeds allow us to purchase wrestling mats for K-12 use, bring in 1-2 clinicians each year, invest in our MS and HS programs, and keep club registration costs low.

Compared to other sports my boys have competed in, the cost of wrestling is probably the smallest, except for maybe track. Baseball, Basketball, Football, and martial arts are all more.