Is Hockey Becoming too Expensive For Upcoming Hockey Players?
I can speak from experience, playing hockey for about 13 years and still going. I'm 17 years old and I've been playing hockey since I was about 4 years old. I have been through and have seen the increase in expenses that my parents have had to pay for me to keep playing hockey, this comes from the prices of hockey gear to the expenses of the travel and the team fees to play hockey. But is this increase pay to play hockey turning down families and young kids from playing hockey?
There have been many families that have had to sacrifice everything they had to have their kid continue and play hockey. Most notably is Columbus Blue Jackets forward Matt Duchene, Matts parents were asked about the sacrifices they had to make for Matt to keep playing hockey growing up, their response was “ We’ve probably spent over $300,000 for Matt growing up for just hockey”.It was an investment they made hoping for their money to be returned with Matt playing in the NHL. Luckily for them, it did happen and Matt is making millions as we speak. But what about the parents that invest money into their kid and they don't get the scholarship or make it pro. This happens to many families, they sacrifice so much but they don't get the end result they hoped for, but from almost all families and from personal experience of teammates, they enjoy the journey and they enjoyed their kid staying fit and all the laughs they had at the tournaments, going to different states and to different cities to play other teams. But these enjoyable moments came at a great cost and a cost that more ordinary families don't have the extra cash for. So what makes hockey so expensive?
There are many aspects to what makes hockey so expensive. The biggest part is the fees to play for that team. I can say for Illinois that playing high-end hockey costs about $8k-11K a year and that is excluding the travel fees. Travel fees at the end of the year come around to another $3k, this is from the transportation and the hotel rooms. Then comes hockey gear. Hockey gear in the past couple of year has increased drastically, in hockey, there are many pieces of equipment. Starting with the jock or jill, shin guards, hockey socks, hockey pants, chest protector, elbow pads, hockey jersey, gloves, helmet, and skates. with additions of a mouth guard and a neck protector. Having all of these in your hockey bag with a hockey stick also, makes your wallet a bit lighter.
But there are other options for the families that don't have the financial abilities. Park district hockey and high school hockey is something that many families take into consideration. Park District hockey or “House Hockey” is a minimal cost hockey program that you play local teams within your city. I had a phone call with my park district about the hockey they had which was Niles Park District and they had to say about what kind of things they offered for low-income families and here is what they had to say “ Here at Niles park district we offer hockey for a yearly cost or seasonal of $600–800 depending on how old you are, we serve as a primary option for low-income families that love the sport of hockey and want their kids to be involved, we try and schedule games that are within close proximities and have a practice or two a week and games on weekends which are most suitable for everyone, we, unfortunately, don't provide free equipment , but the Chicago Blackhawks try hockey is an option that we recommend that families pay a small fee and the Chicago Blackhawks which is Chicago’s pro hockey teams pays the cost”. https://learntoplay.nhl.com/blackhawks
I also had a sit down with Preps varsity hockey forward John Panos, who plays high school hockey for Prep which is a combined team of Prospect High school, Rolling Meadows, and Elk Grove High school. “ We do a lot of fundraising but not for our team, we do it for others, I asked can you elaborate more on that, he said we do pink at the rink for breast cancer awareness and we do the local toy drives for charity, while we have many kids that are fortunate to play hockey, we all come together and help others outside of the hockey world and try and give as much as we can, because that's what the sport of hockey has taught us and formed us to be”. Hockey players, even though we go through a lot financially and mentally, we still have empathy for others and is why the sport is still growing and still becoming one of the most popular sports in the world and one that is being attracted by everyone.
So is the price really turning down kids? Or are others just not looking at the more options they are given? Leave a comment down below!
My work cited:
Hull, Jeff. “NHL Hockey: How Much Are, a Child’s Hockey Dreams Worth?” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/1533035-nhl-hockey-how-much-are-a-childs-hockey-dreams-worth.
Benson, Josh. “Rising Costs of Youth Sports Extinguishes Dreams of Young Athletes.” WFLA, WFLA, 27 Sept. 2018, www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/rising-costs-of-youth-sports-extinguishes-dreams-of-young-athletes/1479709691.
Cole, Cam. “The Cost of Hockey: Nowadays It Takes Money, and Plenty of It, to Play Our Game.” Toronto Sun, Toronto Sun, 18 Dec. 2015, torontosun.com/2015/12/18/the-cost-of-hockey-it-takes-money-and-plenty-of-it-to-play-our-game/wcm/79391d0a-f4db-4f62–9b2f-b6493a5d3156.
User, Super. “Niles Park District.” Niles Park District — IceLand Skate, Park District, www.niles-parks.org/facilities/iceland-skate.
Jordan, I. “Learn to Play Hockey Gives Kids an Opportunity to Skate through Life.” NHL, NHL, learntoplay.nhl.com/blackhawks.
“Home.” PREP High School Hockey Club, AHAI, www.prephockeyclub.org/.
