LAKE ORION, Mich. (WXYZ) — From the fees and the gear to the hotels and flights, many families are forking over big money on travel sports.
According to the New York Times, it's a $40 billion industry. I talked with a couple of parents about the real costs involved and got advice from a financial advisor on how to budget it all.
Watch Alicia's report below
“When you signed up your kids for travel sports, did you have a complete understanding of how much it would cost?” I asked Jeremy Sarnovsky, a Lake Orion father with two kids in travel sports.
"Yes and no," he replied.
I asked Sarnovsky of Lake Orion has two kids in travel sports. His son, Max, plays travel hockey, and his daughter, Savannah, plays travel softball.
"With softball, thankfully, the organization was very clear about how much the cost would be to start the season," Sarnovsky said. "They offered us the ability to find sponsors to kind of offset the cost. Hockey was a different story. We knew what the basic cost of the ice time would be. However, tournaments are added throughout the year that you have to pay for it. You don't know until, you know, kind of the last minute what you're going to be paying for.”
"How much are you paying for travel sports on average a year?" I asked him.
Probably between $10,000 to $15,000 a year between hockey and softball," he replied.
Sarnovsky said there are the upfront costs for participating, and then, there are the hidden costs.
“You have to pay for your own hotels, all of the dinners and meals on these trips, and then equipment," Sarnovsky said. ”You're paying $500 for the nicest bats or $500 for the nicest hockey stick. Equipment is really just a huge cost that a lot of people don't take into account."
He says to afford it all, they've cancelled several vacations and their lawn service, while also making other financial sacrifices.
“We're not putting as much into savings anymore for sure. We have found ourselves using credit card a little bit more than we would like.”
I asked Jennifer Bloom how many kids she has in travel sports.
“I have one right now, but I have a few that are coming up," Bloom replied.
Bloom has an 8-year-old who plays in three travel sports, including golf, and she says that costs can be deceiving.
“Every other day, there's a flyer about an extra clinic, an extra practice, an extra camp that's going to give your kid a better chance of making a better team or staying on those teams," Bloom said.
Bloom understands the pressures on parents. She's a financial advisor with Bloom Advisors in Farmington Hills.
She says families should avoid sacrificing emergency savings and retirement contributions, and ignoring overall financial stability, just to keep up with youth travel sports.
“When you hear parents say, ‘Hey, we're doing travel sports because we're hoping to get a college scholarship,’ what would you say to them?” I asked Bloom.
“I always say to them be careful using that ‘I’ word, that it's an investment in their kids' future," she replied. ”I do not believe travel sports is an investment in your kid's future in the traditional sense of investing. The better investment is to invest in a college fund, to invest your own retirement, to make sure that your family's finances are on a really good path.”
So, what's her advice to parents?
- Talk to other parents who have kids on travel teams about the costs before you commit
- Examine your family budget to see what you can reasonably afford
- Research if there are scholarships or sponsorships available
- Consider a savings account for sports-related expenses
"So, I would encourage families to sit down with their teen and figure out, can they shovel snow? Can they mow a lawn? Can they babysit? Can they referee at games? Can they use birthday money, Christmas money, holiday money, and can they save that and start building towards an account that's going to help pay for some of these activities?" Bloom suggested.
”For big tournaments for hockey, we've done neighborhood bottle drives," Sarnovsky said.
Sarnovsky said his daughter's softball team also sells sponsorships to offset costs. He said it's all worth it to get his kids active, outside, and part of a team working towards a common goal.
If you're thinking about getting your kids into travel sports in a few years, Nerd Wallet recommends setting up a sinking fund; that's where you regularly set aside money for future expenses. You determine the target amount, divide it by the nuymber of months until you need it, and add that exact amount to your regular monthly budget, preferably deposited in a high-yield savings account.
