I think my point was missed.
Im sure comp hockey players pay for skates, sticks ect. We have a huge hockey influence here in Alaska. I do know parents of kids who do comp hockey, and they tell me anywhere from 7500 to 10, 000 or more.
But they are a team, and as such have sponsors.They dont pay for ice the same as fs do, they split it with the team.The kids do have to stay in the same hotel but they have a bunch of kids share a room.They wear team clothes with the names of sponsors.Yes, they wear nice clothes to a game but they can wear them anywhere.Yes, they go to camps in the summer but so do figure skaters.
I think comp fs is alot more in the long run,unless you just stay in state and do local comps.
ymmv

You're very lucky then. Not all teams have sponsors by any manner of means.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

You know, I can see why you would say that! My daughter's friend was in dance and was on a competitive team and honestly, it WAS expensive. The costumes were expensive, the shoes were expensive, pictures, ect. So I guess it is all relative.

My sister in law is 17. She is in a HS Show Choir and it is very expensive. The costumes, the trips for competitions, not to mention it is expensive for us to go to some of her shows! We paid 50.00 for my dh and I to see their special C'mas program! Anyway... atleast they are able to have fund raisers, but I do know my MIL still pays a lot for SIL to do this. Not to mention she also takes dance lessons and private singing lessons! I think it is all relative.

When people find out that my daughter skates, they usually comment about how expensive it must be. One lady at work said, "Wow, you got your daughter involved in one expensive sport!" Yes, yes I did, but she loves it!

She has tried gymnastics and also loved it, but again, it too can turn into a very expensive sport. She has mentioned dance and once again, it can also be a very expensive activity to be involved in. I think no matter how you look at it, these extracurriculars can be very expensive.

Anyway, we are at the very begining levels of skating, so I am sure we will feel the costs more and more as she gets deeper into it.

I've been pricing hockey equipment for my son. YIKES. Yes, it is more expensive then what I paid for my daughter's skates. I got up to 250.00 and that was because I was lookign at stuff on clearance and at this stage of the game, he doesn't need a specific jersey or specific brands or colors ot match a team. We're thinking about putting him on a pee-wee league in the fall and that alone will be around $350.00.

I don't know the exact costs of the travel teams here, but my daughter's friend's brother is on a travel team and they definately pay a pretty penny to be on the team. It's definately NOT cheap. EEK.

Synchro can be outrageous. The one year I did it, several of us joined late (they desperately needed members or they wouldn't have a team) so we were cut a big break on some stuff. The way did things, jackets, costumes, etc. belonged to the team so they didn't have to be purchased every year. That was a big help, especially since as a Senior my teammates and I had to have short and long program dresses. For practices we had matching leggings and tops. We generally slept three skaters and a chaperone or four 18+ skaters to a room.

A student of mine is doing synchro this year and I know it's been a big eye-opener to her mom. She said every few weeks there's another cost- team breakfasts at competitions, tights, an extra hour of ice time they managed to pick up. Nothing huge, but over the course of a season it does add up, especially on top of the travel costs. And this is for a Beginner team- no Sectionals, no Nationals. The mom was when I told her that, starting at Juvenile, there are years when they might have to fly to not one, but two competitions if they qualify for Nationals.

__________________
Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Im not lucky. I didnt say my two skaters had sponsors. I said the comp travel teams all have sponsors. Even the mites here have sponsors but then we live in a city that has lots of hockey.

I can see why ice dance, pairs, interpretive, syncro and powerskating cost lots of money. But why does freeskate cost so much when in its name it says free?













ROTFLOL


Come to matter, what about the so called freedance?






Just kidding! No skating is free.

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

If you read what I actually said, instead of what you thought I'd said, you'd see I said that not all teams have sponsors. I mentioned nothing about your skaters! You - i.e. your rink and those who skate there - are lucky if where you live the hockey teams have sponsors; that is not necessarily the case across the globe.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

It is for most travel comp hockey teams in the usa. As I said even the younger non travel comp teams have sponsors of some kind ie docs, dentists. Its not my rink, its at all rinks.
Sorry I didnt undertand you, just not sure how I am lucky because a hockey player has a sponsor.But either way I was just saying hockey is a team sport where figure skating isnt.

I saw a t-shirt a few years ago saying "If it's called free skating why's it so damn expensive".

I really regret not buying it now, but at the time I'd just bought $400 odd dollar boots for me and another pair for my sister so my credit card was feeling a bit maxed.

Then again by the sounds of it, I actually have things pretty good here.
I'm at a council rink and I get unlimited ice time for £40 ($80) a month. That at least keeps one portion of the equation under control. I've not quite worked out why none of the rinks in north america seem to be doing that sort of deal. I skated in Texas the other year, and I begruded the cost of ice time, and my sister skates in Canada and she begrudges it. She's finally decided that one of the local private rinks which is slightly further from home is the best bet. She knows there's always public which is always nearly empty between 9 and 3 every weekday for $4.50. She can skate as long as she wants for that, and it's emptier than the freestyle sessions which are all only an hour long.

I understand your frustration. Skating is a very expensive sport!

__________________
Giaz.
scene chav gonna tear you down .. because i'm gonna come and get you!
take the pee, and i'll hit you where it hurts with my toepick.

OMG!!! I want one of those!!!

I don't know if that quotation is copyrighted or trademarked, but anyone can buy a printer transfer sheet for a few dollars, print anything they want to it from their computer, and transfer it to a shirt.

Oh that's a good idea!

None of the hockey teams at my US rink have sponsors; the parents either shell out the money themselves or they do fund-raising things like raffles or candy sales to reduce the costs. The school teams get some funding from their schools but even they shell out $$$ in athletic fees and transportation fees, etc.

It's the Little League (baseball) teams that collect all the local sponsorships from pizza parlors and coffee shops.

My cousin's sons switched from hockey to soccer just because the hockey fees got too expensive for the family to afford.

i'm subbing because we are fairly new to ice skating and love it. However, I have 3 skaters and the fees, coaches, skates, and even the gas and competition fees are getting to the point we just not able to keep up. I am trying to come up with creative ideas to keep them skating, I already work, and can't work more and be expected to drive them around all week!!! My 12 yo volunteers her time at the rink on the weekend and is allowed to skate for free during that time, and during the week, we don't do the expensive freestyle ice, but do the cheapskates. She will soon be at the point that it's not feasible to do this anymore.

so any ideas people have would be great! I understand other sports are expensive too, but once you have a few skaters, it's gets crazy! And we are buying our boots off ebay, trading dresses, etc. already which helps alot.

I feel your pain! I don't have any suggestions, but I do feel your pain. My daughter's coach just suggested we give ballet lessons a try. ACK, more money! My youngest son is taking hockey lessons and will likely play on a team in the fall. I will have to buy him all the gear to go with it! My 2 skaters own their own skates and my daughter has a couple dresses, but she will need a competition dress in June. OY!

Anyway... good luck!

Well you could give one of them up for adoption.

More seriously, do you have "work trading" websites over there? The way they work is like, you get X points for doing something, like, painting somebody's house. Those points are taken off the account of the person whose house you painted. Then, suppose somebody is offering ballet/music lessons for 0.25X amount of money, you can pay with the acquired points for those...

Have you talked with your coach(es) about your situation? Most coaches appreciate honesty about your time and money commitment. Maybe they don't know that you're getting stretched out in many ways, and can suggest strategies (sharing a lesson with another skater, carpooling with another skater to get to competitions, not going to some competitions,cutting back on privates and giving the kid specific "work-ons" instead; eliminating, for example, in Canada skills lessons for a bit and just doing freeskate to cut down on coaching costs) ... they want, usually, to keep you in the sport, and believe me, they know how expensive it can be.

They're also a great source of "one of my other skaters just outgrew his/her Coronation comets and I know you could pick them up for X$".

Generally, they don't want to be nosy, but, in my experience, the really good ones respect parents who are upfront about their ability to commit to the sport (both "right now" and "in the future") so that the coach can make plans going forward. For example, perhaps they're expecting you to be able to afford to go to a competition in X city, and are working towards that. Finding out at registration time that you can't go means wasted time,money, and effort, and it's not effective. And so on.

Plus, it does give you a measure of the relationship between you and your coach - you should be able to talk to them about such things. Ask for a time when you can sit down and talk about finances.

Now: as to other money saving stuff: buy yourself a Bejeweller and learn how to do your own stoning. Saves me a fortune on competition dresses; and maybe you can "trade" with another mom/dad who can make dresses but doesn't like to do rhinestones and such? My daughter's dresses would cost me hundreds if I bought them with the stoning that I do, but, by having them made undecorated and stoning them myself with stones I buy bulk, they cost a fraction of what the other moms are paying (and they look darned good too, in the opinion of others - !) You can also take a relatively inexpensive off-the-rack or used dress and the same thing to get something that looks good and different.

and ... last but not least, when we were in the middle of the hockey/figure skating debate, I came across a newstory from Toronto Ontario about the cost of hockey: One mom with 3 boys in AAA hockey was dropping over $20,000 annually to keep her boys on the ice. This didn't shock the hockey moms/dads in my workroom - !

Skating is expensive if you do it seriously competitive (like Juvenile and up, shooting for Junior nationals). You can always regulate how much you want to spend but you have to be realistic that you won't get the big competitive results. Even without costumes and with minimal competitions schedule it comes up to 20-25K a year for Juvenile skater if your skater dreams big. And believe me costumes are the less expensive item there (Unless you need 1500 dress or two), it makes only a small dent. For DIY dress that worth $500 you will save about $250-300 because all other are materials and stones (I do dresses myself). And it is not counting trip to JNationals if the skater is good and lucky. It is usually includes 4 lessons a week, 3 X 45 min freestyle sessions a day 6 days a week, 2 off-ice/conditioning lessons a week, one group dance class a week, gas and tolls to get to the rink, travel, hotel and all the fees and coaching expenses for competing at Regionals, two-three other medium-to-long driving distance competitions. I have never seen anybody doing skating 2 hours a week, taking only two 1/2h lessons a week and having gone to Junior nationals. It takes what it takes, unfortunately. And you are shocked by 20K for the THREE boys in hockey...

I skate a bit at a rink in an economically disadvantaged area. They posted this page at their rink

http://units.sla.org/chapter/cdc/com...s/poems03.html

Notice the story of Mabel Fairbanks, who slept in the park.

Does this give you any ideas?

See also

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_am...abel_Fairbanks

I just posted

http://skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=25932

about ISI scholarships. There may be other skating organizations who give scholarships, if you are lucky and you plan to meet their criteria years in advance.

Seeing it listed like that is actually really, really depressing...

You are sooo right, Jumper! If your child is on the national elite track - forget about having a life outside of skating - and forget about having a bank account!!! I just wrote cheques for $800 - some ice and lessons for January - and my child didn't skate every day at that rink or with that coach!!!

Parents, and for the most part - skaters are really not aware of the total cost of making it to the national stage. It's not just the money ($25,000K and up) but the dedication, work ethic and family committment figure skating is for just one child. If the parents are not willing to find time in their 'family time' schedule for 3 sessions x 5-6 days a week, minimum 1/2h lesson 6 times a week in free skate only, ballet, pilate, yoga, off-ice jump class, stretching every day and little, if any time for other sports the parent might like -- or for lessons in skills, stroking, and $$$ for choreography, custom music and costumes...

And the other part - is that skaters and parents are often unable to see that no matter how much $$ they put into the poor child - it's not going to happen either!!

Let's see $20,000 for three kids in hockey vs $20,000+ for one child in figure skating............but then hockey doesn't have such an endless season as skating (yes I know there are summer leagues).

I'd rather figure skate!

Let me quote from a 1938 print book:

It seems this problem is of all times.
I'm quoting from "Ballet", first publication pelican special by penguin books limited. Now obviously skating is more expensive than ballet would've been (but then, they speak of two lessons a week! starting at around twelve!!! Remember this is 1938) but the rest sounds like it could still be today, LOL!