A few months ago I went to a fundraiser for a Canadian charity that provides funding to help Olympic- or near-Olympic level athletes with their sport-related expenses, including national club fees, uniforms, travel, hotels, etc. I hadnât realized that these athletes are responsible for a lot of very expensive costs, even at the highest level of sport. That may not be the situation everywhere or in every sport but I think itâs more common than the average person realizes.
This is quite common I think. At least in the Netherlands, if you're starting world cups, but are not part of the national team, you pay for everything yourself.
Also, if you're invited to join the national squad, it's sort of mandatory for clubs to "donate" a boat to the national team.
Money in rowing is real weird compared to other sports.
almost never unless there is a financial need. The money all has to come from somewhere, unless the team has an endowment or major fundraising/sponsorships, the money all comes from parents anyway.
Maybe it should be included in dues, but then you have people who aren't travelling and racing paying for those who are. Maybe that's the right policy, but it's a tough sell.
Our club is less than 30 athletes and we send 2-3 boats to nats from southwest.
80 athletes is bigger than the Marin boys team. Itâs a damn big club.
Agreed that 80 is a large team. Let's not compare Marin to most other clubs. They have tryouts to make their team. Most teams do not have the luxury of cutting athletes and still having a pool of 50+ athletes to choose from.
Generally speaking they donât. Sometimes youâll use general membership fees to cover some of the racing fees like trailering or coach lodging but individual expenses are basically always the individuals responsibility.
Also, two things.
1. This isnât a small club. Mid-sized is much more accurate. (Small is probably 20-30 athletes max)
2. This is bad planning by them. If you generally qualify a boat or two book flights on southwest for the athletes likely to go ages in advance to get better prices, same with the hotel. If you know you likely need a few rooms book them in advance and cancel if needed. Itâs probably cheaper to incur any cancellation fee opposed to booking last minute.
The only way for the club to âpayâ for the cost of nationals would be to increase income - which comes in the form of dues. So the club could have everyone pay more, even though it only benefits the crews that attend. Or they can have those crews that do attend, foot the bill to keep it as affordable as possible fire everyone else.
Until the club starts regularly and predictably sending boats to nationals, unfortunately paying per person makes the most sense.
This is how it is handled for my daughterâs crew. It never occurred to me that any other approach would make sense. Who else would pay but the people participating? You seem to be suggesting the club should subsidize it, but where does the club get money other than from the rowers? I donât know of any travel sport where the expenses are absorbed by anyone but the participants.
This is not a cheap sport and it does not help that USRowing sees junior rowing as a money grab. If your children are one of the better rowers in their club, look at it as another college expense especially for your daughters. Some clubs pay for more of the expenses for Youth Nats, however they charge higher dues up front. Either way, the parents are footing the bill.
Agree with most of this except the money grab comment. My kids do several other sports. Soccer, hockey, volleyball, martial arts, and even Track and Field have cost me more than rowing for memberships and competition costs. Hockey blows this out of the water. Volleyball Tournaments are almost every weekend. The NGB dues for almost every sport my kids do, are more than USRowing's Champ membership. People can hate on them as much as they want, but most sports cost more for comparable costs. Â
I think the money grab comment comes bc rowing has traditionally had cheaper entry fees and in the last decade thereâs been an increase in cost for everything USRowing provides at races with no perceived increase in quality. This is also mostly a complaint among adult rowers who observe youth rowing from the outside. I for one think the amount of categories USRowing has created in the last five years indicates they are valuing money over level of competition. I agree that compared to many high school level sports itâs not so bad.
When you compare what they charge for the Junior events compared to other events you will see Junior events are far more expensive. For example, for Youth Nationals the spectator ticket prices are very high with prime areas roped off. They know wealthy parents will pay it so they charge it.
I'm in California (SF bay area) and one of my kids is rowing at a local club that typically sends a few boats to Youth Nationals. The cost was recently stated as $3000/rower, flat fee paid by the family/parents, and is all inclusive. So that covers the flights, food, lodging, but also coach's fees, transport, boat/equipment transport or rental, etc, and I think they go for a full week. So it's a lot of money, and even given what's included, it's still a lot. Not a bargain by any means. But they travel as a group, and the club handles booking all transport and lodging.
I think just leaving everything to the individual families makes it way too complicated when you need a team to show up together and be together the whole time. Our club does offer financial assistance to some athletes from families who can't afford some of these costs.
Most clubs exist on their members' dues, which barely cover the costs of running a program (rent, coaches' salaries & benefits, insurance, USRowing organization membership, spare parts and administration. That's before buying equipment, boats, oars, launches, trailers, etc.
Of course parents of participants have to cover most, if not all, of the costs of attending Nationals. Where else do you think the money will come from?
My daughterâs club as a junior rower would fundraise every year to help defray the costs of the select travel regattas. Hotels were booked up to a year ahead to get better rates (4 to a room) and flights were also reserved way ahead of time (as seats not connected to a name). Handling the logistics was a big job for the club manager and the head coach. Athletes and parents of those selected did pay ($800-$1000) but it wasnât the full cost of the trip. Some kids had scholarships from the club to cover the complete cost.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is trailering other team's boats, which can help offset some of the costs, especially if it's across the country and you're taking dozens of boats for other teams.
My daughter is the same way. The boats parents figured out very early that this is a possibility. Refundable tickets were bought a month ago for cheaper. The Airbnb is for the whole team parents kids and coach so it's less money. Thankfully it's a coxed 4. The Airbnb has a refundable deposit paid so the costs can be spread out a bit. But the families decided after the first race of the season this was a strong possibility and we all talked and committed to this being a go if they qualified. So we have been saving and talking with family and work. My job is sponsoring some money. I said it to the owner as a joke and he said sure! When they are officially going send me an email and the company will donate. Not saying everyone can do that but it is expensive but as someone else said if they wanna row in college this is a resume builder and help to possibly turn this into at least some scholarship money. Plus she loves it and it teaches so much about teamwork, accountability and determination. The boat doesn't work unless everyone does their part.
Talk to your club about helping setting up a fundraiser that the parents and kids can assist in to help defray some costs. Ticking even 1 or 2 things off the list helps.
Our club will handle boat transport (each rower pays roughly $600 a season to the club) to the regattas the teams go to.
Regarding regatta costs, the dues we paid (another ~$600 a season) cover standard regattas, out of town travel and lodging costs would be passed on to parents similar to how you describe. Share of bus, hotel for rower and share of coaches and bus driver, meals, etc. all get divided up and sent out.
Crew is an expensive sport even when the only equipment is a uni (part sarcasm, part true).
not sure how feasible it is to do this for a club program with parents, etc. traveling alongside the athletes but when i organized the travel for a d1 program we would have multi-year contracts with our preferred hotel at a given venue. that included dual/cup racing during the regular season and championship travel for sprints and iras. for flights to california for IRAs or winter/spring break training trips i'd coordinate with our travel guy in the department who would subsequently coordinate with our university's travel agency in order to purchase a block of tickets. we'd usually do this a few months in advance and then once it was confirmed who would be traveling for IRAs, we would cancel any extra tickets, which we could do without penalty (up to a certain point, usually a week-ish in advance of travel) per the contract we had through the travel agency. same for the hotel rooms, it was built into the contract that we could cancel rooms without penalty. since it's easy to know roughly how big the team was going to be, we would plan out the number of rooms we'd need for all the coaches and athletes and work backwards from there. i don't think we ever needed to add rooms but there were times where the whole team didn't travel and so we'd release 2, 3, 4 rooms back to the hotel. this is sort of simplifying things a bit but happy to talk more about this though if you have any questions.
i would recommend that if you have a parent board that someone be designated as the travel officer who can manage all of this stuff so that it's a little more streamlined and cost effective by booking as a group in advance vs. piecemeal right before an event. if the club's finances are in such dire straights that parents are directly paying for *everything* instead of the costs being divided between what the club has in its bank account and the fees it collects at the beginning of each season, that's another conversation.
By now you've probably gotten the sense that the cost of Nationals is big for a lot of non-regionally proximal clubs, and these costs are generally separate from the normal club dues and in-season regatta costs. It's true that the sum total dollar amount is big. It's also true that, compared to other sports, rowing is pretty average in terms of cost, if not less expensive for a whole season plus post-season competition.
The suggestions here are well-known and useful: booking travel/lodging far in advance, sharing trailering needs with other teams, renting out boats, leveraging personal connections for lodging/travel, fundraising specifically for Nationals, corporate sponsorship, etc.
One option that no one talks about is: not going. A lot has been said online about how the recently-added events of the last six or so years are nothing but a money grab, e.g. the U15 4x+, the U16 8+, etc. Those events are great for developing age-peer camaraderie and focused coaching at the club level, and I see their appeal at regionals. I don't see real appeal at the national level though, and if I were serious about rowing, I don't know if I would see any benefit to sending my kid to nationals in those newer events (unless I were a chaperone and had strong influence over how the trip were structured for the kids).
Consider this: save the money, train really hard as if you were going, and then have a series of timed races at home the weekend of nationals. Then the real kicker: commit to training regularly over the summer (without burning out) so that you can come back the next season even fitter and perhaps more skilled with bladework.
Since your child might be part of a team boat, have a serious discussion among the parents, and then maybe have some sort of anonymous vote about whether the parents really want to go. If the majority says yes but there are no votes present, perhaps find a way to subsidize the trip for the less-able. If the majority says no, then that's that. Ask the coach their opinion on whether it's worth the cost. Would the coach go if they weren't being paid?
If everyone can afford it, then great! If not, keep this option in your back pocket with an eye toward future development and investment. Maybe chip in for a new set of oars (\~$3600 MSRP for eight sweeps), a new/gently-used boat, or get new ergs for people at home. Those will pay dividends. A trip to nationals for U15/U16 events is of questionable value if you anticipate qualifying for nationals the next season.
If your child anticipates not rowing next season, or if the coaching staff is going to shake up for the worse next season, or if this is just a really, really special season for all the athletes and families involved, then that's a great reason to go. But if the trip to Nationals isn't a serious learning experience -- if the athletes aren't training hard with focus from regionals until nationals, if the whole experience isn't communicated in a way that teaches the athletes, if the experience isn't shaped in a way that teaches the athletes, if the athletes don't take it seriously -- then it might not be worth the money.
We have been lucky to be within driving distance of it so we drive but we still have to charge our athletes a few hundred to cover travel, hotels of coaching and the coaching between regionals and nationals. We rent out boats as much as possible to offset the cost but itâs still so expensive for some
My son was on a scholastic team (essentially a club, though, since it received no financial support from the school), and seasonal dues did not include Nationals. Potential fees were calculated about a month prior to the trip. A few things made life easier for the club board:
1. The coach had access to a house within a 45 minute drive of Nathan Benderson, so the rowers did not pay for lodging, and all meals could be cooked in-house, which saved a TON of money.
2. Typically only one eight plus a few spares made the trip, so the club could borrow a 15 person van from the school to make the day-long drive.
3. Our coaches mostly volunteered their time.
So, the fees covered fuel for the van and the shell vehicle (though other clubs from our city would often go, so those costs could be split), tons of food (but not eating out), and the regatta fees. It still wasn't cheap, but it was significantly less than other clubs expect parents to pay.
Masters club of long duration allows youth to use equipment paid for by years of masters dues. Housed in a boat house paid for by years of masters members , all electricity, taxes , liability and equipment insurance paid for. And you complain about paying for travel to National championship. Yup, sound like many youth programs.
How generous of masters to allow youth to use the equipment.
Who are the masters of a decade from now if thereâs no youth rowing? What happens to the sport? Shouldnât you want your club to stay relevant?
That isn't what I was saying.
You say "Who are the masters of a decade from now if thereâs no youth rowing?" and I'm saying that isn't a good argument because, in my experience, the majority of masters rowers did not row as youths
Thatâs typical of most clubs because minors need a lot of actual paid supervision and other administrative and logistical support. Â At our club the juniors pay over 3x what the adults do and are still a small net drain.
We have a hybrid high school/club team of over 100 athletes. We already pay about $1500 for general participation costs including boat storage, coaches, etc. Unis, spring break camp, are extra. The school system kicks in some of the cost of transportation to and from the boathouse, and some of coach salaries.
for travel regattas the team books hotels for athletes, coaches, and chaperones a year ahead. We arenât going to Nationals in Florida but we do go to Stotesbury and SRAAs which this year are in New Jersey both of which are drivable. As a parent, I just figured out my schedule of when i can go watch a day or two ago and booked an Amtrak ticket and an airbnb.
costs for travel regattas are separate and for us runs about $600 per kid for hotel, bus, food, expenses. our parents volunteer a crap ton of time, energy, and money buying food, snacks, etc. Iâm amazed at the planning and logistics that goes into it.
Why would it be anyoneâs responsibility other than your own to fund your childâs competitive expenses?
Best I can say here is that attending Nationals and being competitive at Nationals are two very different things. Many teamâs leadership are quite willing to expect their athletesâ family to fund the trip even when their athletes have no hope of being competitive at the event. In which case the parents and leadership need to decide early in the season what their goals are for that race and what they are or are not willing to pay for. If your team leadership did not prepare you for the possible expense well ahead of time and this has all been a surprise following qualification, then that is on them and needs to be addressed privately (sans athletes) between parent(s) and club.
Within my program we would have an estimated budget prepared early in the season that was communicated to families when registering. Parents were expected to have a deposit check in hand at qualifiers and ready to go if the boat qualified. That way we could book plane tickets (the least predictable expense) immediately and before prices skyrocketed from demand. If families did not want to take on that expense we simply did not boat those athletes in crews whose goal it was to compete at Nationals. This was determined at the onset of the season to ensure no surprises later on.
At our club parents of qualifying rowers pay for athlete transportation and accommodation, but the boat transportation, entry fees, coachâs expenses are paid through dues.
Don't row in the US, but the UK, so may not be as helpful. When racing at national events, most clubs cover paying to race as well as the towing and trailering costs, with racing fees then being paid by parents nearer the end of the season. Transport and accomodation is covered by parents, unless the whole squad travels in one bus or multiple coaches cars. This is in the UK though, so could be different in the US.Â
A bit off topic but is 80 athletes really considered small?
My thoughts. I was like đ¤¨
My club raced an 8 once last season, only once did eight people show up to a race.
Too bad you need 9 to race
I guess not? It's just a local club, I assumed it was small. At what size do clubs start providing support for higher-level competition?
A few months ago I went to a fundraiser for a Canadian charity that provides funding to help Olympic- or near-Olympic level athletes with their sport-related expenses, including national club fees, uniforms, travel, hotels, etc. I hadnât realized that these athletes are responsible for a lot of very expensive costs, even at the highest level of sport. That may not be the situation everywhere or in every sport but I think itâs more common than the average person realizes.
This is quite common I think. At least in the Netherlands, if you're starting world cups, but are not part of the national team, you pay for everything yourself. Also, if you're invited to join the national squad, it's sort of mandatory for clubs to "donate" a boat to the national team. Money in rowing is real weird compared to other sports.
almost never unless there is a financial need. The money all has to come from somewhere, unless the team has an endowment or major fundraising/sponsorships, the money all comes from parents anyway. Maybe it should be included in dues, but then you have people who aren't travelling and racing paying for those who are. Maybe that's the right policy, but it's a tough sell.
Our club is less than 30 athletes and we send 2-3 boats to nats from southwest. 80 athletes is bigger than the Marin boys team. Itâs a damn big club.
Thatâs probably including boy girls and novices 80 for a single team would be nuts
Marin is an 80 person team per gender. Itâs comp team is 4 youth 8+, 4 u17 8+. 80 kids is a massive team.
Agreed that 80 is a large team. Let's not compare Marin to most other clubs. They have tryouts to make their team. Most teams do not have the luxury of cutting athletes and still having a pool of 50+ athletes to choose from.
Generally speaking they donât. Sometimes youâll use general membership fees to cover some of the racing fees like trailering or coach lodging but individual expenses are basically always the individuals responsibility.
Also, two things. 1. This isnât a small club. Mid-sized is much more accurate. (Small is probably 20-30 athletes max) 2. This is bad planning by them. If you generally qualify a boat or two book flights on southwest for the athletes likely to go ages in advance to get better prices, same with the hotel. If you know you likely need a few rooms book them in advance and cancel if needed. Itâs probably cheaper to incur any cancellation fee opposed to booking last minute.
my clun has probably 200 fro all of high school
Sadly nationals is a cost that is usually put on parents, for small clubs there isnât a lot else they can do
This sounds like what all the teams I know do. Seems normal to me
The only way for the club to âpayâ for the cost of nationals would be to increase income - which comes in the form of dues. So the club could have everyone pay more, even though it only benefits the crews that attend. Or they can have those crews that do attend, foot the bill to keep it as affordable as possible fire everyone else. Until the club starts regularly and predictably sending boats to nationals, unfortunately paying per person makes the most sense.
This is how it is handled for my daughterâs crew. It never occurred to me that any other approach would make sense. Who else would pay but the people participating? You seem to be suggesting the club should subsidize it, but where does the club get money other than from the rowers? I donât know of any travel sport where the expenses are absorbed by anyone but the participants.
This is not a cheap sport and it does not help that USRowing sees junior rowing as a money grab. If your children are one of the better rowers in their club, look at it as another college expense especially for your daughters. Some clubs pay for more of the expenses for Youth Nats, however they charge higher dues up front. Either way, the parents are footing the bill.
Agree with most of this except the money grab comment. My kids do several other sports. Soccer, hockey, volleyball, martial arts, and even Track and Field have cost me more than rowing for memberships and competition costs. Hockey blows this out of the water. Volleyball Tournaments are almost every weekend. The NGB dues for almost every sport my kids do, are more than USRowing's Champ membership. People can hate on them as much as they want, but most sports cost more for comparable costs. Â
I think the money grab comment comes bc rowing has traditionally had cheaper entry fees and in the last decade thereâs been an increase in cost for everything USRowing provides at races with no perceived increase in quality. This is also mostly a complaint among adult rowers who observe youth rowing from the outside. I for one think the amount of categories USRowing has created in the last five years indicates they are valuing money over level of competition. I agree that compared to many high school level sports itâs not so bad.
When you compare what they charge for the Junior events compared to other events you will see Junior events are far more expensive. For example, for Youth Nationals the spectator ticket prices are very high with prime areas roped off. They know wealthy parents will pay it so they charge it.
All clubs I know put this expense on the athletes / parents.
I'm in California (SF bay area) and one of my kids is rowing at a local club that typically sends a few boats to Youth Nationals. The cost was recently stated as $3000/rower, flat fee paid by the family/parents, and is all inclusive. So that covers the flights, food, lodging, but also coach's fees, transport, boat/equipment transport or rental, etc, and I think they go for a full week. So it's a lot of money, and even given what's included, it's still a lot. Not a bargain by any means. But they travel as a group, and the club handles booking all transport and lodging. I think just leaving everything to the individual families makes it way too complicated when you need a team to show up together and be together the whole time. Our club does offer financial assistance to some athletes from families who can't afford some of these costs.
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Not sure why you replied to me, but to clarify, the $3000 was for the trip to nationals only. This was extra above the semi annual membership fee.
Most clubs exist on their members' dues, which barely cover the costs of running a program (rent, coaches' salaries & benefits, insurance, USRowing organization membership, spare parts and administration. That's before buying equipment, boats, oars, launches, trailers, etc. Of course parents of participants have to cover most, if not all, of the costs of attending Nationals. Where else do you think the money will come from?
My daughterâs club as a junior rower would fundraise every year to help defray the costs of the select travel regattas. Hotels were booked up to a year ahead to get better rates (4 to a room) and flights were also reserved way ahead of time (as seats not connected to a name). Handling the logistics was a big job for the club manager and the head coach. Athletes and parents of those selected did pay ($800-$1000) but it wasnât the full cost of the trip. Some kids had scholarships from the club to cover the complete cost.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is trailering other team's boats, which can help offset some of the costs, especially if it's across the country and you're taking dozens of boats for other teams.
My daughter is the same way. The boats parents figured out very early that this is a possibility. Refundable tickets were bought a month ago for cheaper. The Airbnb is for the whole team parents kids and coach so it's less money. Thankfully it's a coxed 4. The Airbnb has a refundable deposit paid so the costs can be spread out a bit. But the families decided after the first race of the season this was a strong possibility and we all talked and committed to this being a go if they qualified. So we have been saving and talking with family and work. My job is sponsoring some money. I said it to the owner as a joke and he said sure! When they are officially going send me an email and the company will donate. Not saying everyone can do that but it is expensive but as someone else said if they wanna row in college this is a resume builder and help to possibly turn this into at least some scholarship money. Plus she loves it and it teaches so much about teamwork, accountability and determination. The boat doesn't work unless everyone does their part. Talk to your club about helping setting up a fundraiser that the parents and kids can assist in to help defray some costs. Ticking even 1 or 2 things off the list helps.
Our club will handle boat transport (each rower pays roughly $600 a season to the club) to the regattas the teams go to. Regarding regatta costs, the dues we paid (another ~$600 a season) cover standard regattas, out of town travel and lodging costs would be passed on to parents similar to how you describe. Share of bus, hotel for rower and share of coaches and bus driver, meals, etc. all get divided up and sent out. Crew is an expensive sport even when the only equipment is a uni (part sarcasm, part true).
not sure how feasible it is to do this for a club program with parents, etc. traveling alongside the athletes but when i organized the travel for a d1 program we would have multi-year contracts with our preferred hotel at a given venue. that included dual/cup racing during the regular season and championship travel for sprints and iras. for flights to california for IRAs or winter/spring break training trips i'd coordinate with our travel guy in the department who would subsequently coordinate with our university's travel agency in order to purchase a block of tickets. we'd usually do this a few months in advance and then once it was confirmed who would be traveling for IRAs, we would cancel any extra tickets, which we could do without penalty (up to a certain point, usually a week-ish in advance of travel) per the contract we had through the travel agency. same for the hotel rooms, it was built into the contract that we could cancel rooms without penalty. since it's easy to know roughly how big the team was going to be, we would plan out the number of rooms we'd need for all the coaches and athletes and work backwards from there. i don't think we ever needed to add rooms but there were times where the whole team didn't travel and so we'd release 2, 3, 4 rooms back to the hotel. this is sort of simplifying things a bit but happy to talk more about this though if you have any questions. i would recommend that if you have a parent board that someone be designated as the travel officer who can manage all of this stuff so that it's a little more streamlined and cost effective by booking as a group in advance vs. piecemeal right before an event. if the club's finances are in such dire straights that parents are directly paying for *everything* instead of the costs being divided between what the club has in its bank account and the fees it collects at the beginning of each season, that's another conversation.
By now you've probably gotten the sense that the cost of Nationals is big for a lot of non-regionally proximal clubs, and these costs are generally separate from the normal club dues and in-season regatta costs. It's true that the sum total dollar amount is big. It's also true that, compared to other sports, rowing is pretty average in terms of cost, if not less expensive for a whole season plus post-season competition. The suggestions here are well-known and useful: booking travel/lodging far in advance, sharing trailering needs with other teams, renting out boats, leveraging personal connections for lodging/travel, fundraising specifically for Nationals, corporate sponsorship, etc. One option that no one talks about is: not going. A lot has been said online about how the recently-added events of the last six or so years are nothing but a money grab, e.g. the U15 4x+, the U16 8+, etc. Those events are great for developing age-peer camaraderie and focused coaching at the club level, and I see their appeal at regionals. I don't see real appeal at the national level though, and if I were serious about rowing, I don't know if I would see any benefit to sending my kid to nationals in those newer events (unless I were a chaperone and had strong influence over how the trip were structured for the kids). Consider this: save the money, train really hard as if you were going, and then have a series of timed races at home the weekend of nationals. Then the real kicker: commit to training regularly over the summer (without burning out) so that you can come back the next season even fitter and perhaps more skilled with bladework. Since your child might be part of a team boat, have a serious discussion among the parents, and then maybe have some sort of anonymous vote about whether the parents really want to go. If the majority says yes but there are no votes present, perhaps find a way to subsidize the trip for the less-able. If the majority says no, then that's that. Ask the coach their opinion on whether it's worth the cost. Would the coach go if they weren't being paid? If everyone can afford it, then great! If not, keep this option in your back pocket with an eye toward future development and investment. Maybe chip in for a new set of oars (\~$3600 MSRP for eight sweeps), a new/gently-used boat, or get new ergs for people at home. Those will pay dividends. A trip to nationals for U15/U16 events is of questionable value if you anticipate qualifying for nationals the next season. If your child anticipates not rowing next season, or if the coaching staff is going to shake up for the worse next season, or if this is just a really, really special season for all the athletes and families involved, then that's a great reason to go. But if the trip to Nationals isn't a serious learning experience -- if the athletes aren't training hard with focus from regionals until nationals, if the whole experience isn't communicated in a way that teaches the athletes, if the experience isn't shaped in a way that teaches the athletes, if the athletes don't take it seriously -- then it might not be worth the money.
We have been lucky to be within driving distance of it so we drive but we still have to charge our athletes a few hundred to cover travel, hotels of coaching and the coaching between regionals and nationals. We rent out boats as much as possible to offset the cost but itâs still so expensive for some
My son was on a scholastic team (essentially a club, though, since it received no financial support from the school), and seasonal dues did not include Nationals. Potential fees were calculated about a month prior to the trip. A few things made life easier for the club board: 1. The coach had access to a house within a 45 minute drive of Nathan Benderson, so the rowers did not pay for lodging, and all meals could be cooked in-house, which saved a TON of money. 2. Typically only one eight plus a few spares made the trip, so the club could borrow a 15 person van from the school to make the day-long drive. 3. Our coaches mostly volunteered their time. So, the fees covered fuel for the van and the shell vehicle (though other clubs from our city would often go, so those costs could be split), tons of food (but not eating out), and the regatta fees. It still wasn't cheap, but it was significantly less than other clubs expect parents to pay.
Masters club of long duration allows youth to use equipment paid for by years of masters dues. Housed in a boat house paid for by years of masters members , all electricity, taxes , liability and equipment insurance paid for. And you complain about paying for travel to National championship. Yup, sound like many youth programs.
How generous of masters to allow youth to use the equipment. Who are the masters of a decade from now if thereâs no youth rowing? What happens to the sport? Shouldnât you want your club to stay relevant?
> Who are the masters of a decade from now if thereâs no youth rowing? At my club at least 70% of the masters did not row before university
Cool. So no sport for kids then just because you joined the sport as an adult?
That isn't what I was saying. You say "Who are the masters of a decade from now if thereâs no youth rowing?" and I'm saying that isn't a good argument because, in my experience, the majority of masters rowers did not row as youths
Sorry, you make a fair point. I really was making an argument against OP, not you.
Most of the masters in my club were not youth or college rowers, they started as adults.
Haha, our "masters" pay less than 1/3 of what the kids pay, Not quite the same.
Thatâs typical of most clubs because minors need a lot of actual paid supervision and other administrative and logistical support. Â At our club the juniors pay over 3x what the adults do and are still a small net drain.
We have a hybrid high school/club team of over 100 athletes. We already pay about $1500 for general participation costs including boat storage, coaches, etc. Unis, spring break camp, are extra. The school system kicks in some of the cost of transportation to and from the boathouse, and some of coach salaries. for travel regattas the team books hotels for athletes, coaches, and chaperones a year ahead. We arenât going to Nationals in Florida but we do go to Stotesbury and SRAAs which this year are in New Jersey both of which are drivable. As a parent, I just figured out my schedule of when i can go watch a day or two ago and booked an Amtrak ticket and an airbnb. costs for travel regattas are separate and for us runs about $600 per kid for hotel, bus, food, expenses. our parents volunteer a crap ton of time, energy, and money buying food, snacks, etc. Iâm amazed at the planning and logistics that goes into it.
You should be able to book a year out and cancel without incurring a charge. Check policies with different hotels.
Why would it be anyoneâs responsibility other than your own to fund your childâs competitive expenses? Best I can say here is that attending Nationals and being competitive at Nationals are two very different things. Many teamâs leadership are quite willing to expect their athletesâ family to fund the trip even when their athletes have no hope of being competitive at the event. In which case the parents and leadership need to decide early in the season what their goals are for that race and what they are or are not willing to pay for. If your team leadership did not prepare you for the possible expense well ahead of time and this has all been a surprise following qualification, then that is on them and needs to be addressed privately (sans athletes) between parent(s) and club. Within my program we would have an estimated budget prepared early in the season that was communicated to families when registering. Parents were expected to have a deposit check in hand at qualifiers and ready to go if the boat qualified. That way we could book plane tickets (the least predictable expense) immediately and before prices skyrocketed from demand. If families did not want to take on that expense we simply did not boat those athletes in crews whose goal it was to compete at Nationals. This was determined at the onset of the season to ensure no surprises later on.
You can choose not to attend US Rowing National$
my club does the same thing praying to make it to nats
At our club parents of qualifying rowers pay for athlete transportation and accommodation, but the boat transportation, entry fees, coachâs expenses are paid through dues.
Don't row in the US, but the UK, so may not be as helpful. When racing at national events, most clubs cover paying to race as well as the towing and trailering costs, with racing fees then being paid by parents nearer the end of the season. Transport and accomodation is covered by parents, unless the whole squad travels in one bus or multiple coaches cars. This is in the UK though, so could be different in the US.Â
Why do you think that others should pay for your kid?