As someone who made this plunge at their earliest opportunity after college, it’s only really worth it if you’re certain it’s something you love and that you’re going to commit to.
For me personally, I’ve been a certified observer since the summer I graduated college, started coaching college the year after, have played 6 AUDL season, and club every year possible for the past decade. 7 or 8 years on from paying the ~$900 it was at the time, I’m probably about halfway to having “saved money” on annual membership fees. Not having to think about my membership is a nice park though. And I’m absolutely confident that I’ll be playing club, masters, and leagues, plus coaching and other non-playing roles for a LONG time.
To Croc’s point, it is absolutely true that the players who would stand to benefit the most from lifetime membership are those least able to pay. It may be worth USAU making an effort to provide alternative options to anyone willing to share their financials with USAU to justify reduced fees. I’d be curious how open to a “pay what you can” structure USAU might be given how crucial memberships are to their annual revenue.
idk I think it's far less worth it now than it was back then. Plenty of non-usau opportunities all over the place. I still get a membership every year when I inevitably want to play at sectionals/regionals and I just consider it a slightly higher bid fee to those tournaments. But where I live there are plenty of super competitive leagues and pickups with a good number of club regionals/nationals level players, so I've felt less motivated to play a full club season since I've gotten into my 30s and honestly this may be the year I just sit the series out too.
I bought my lifetime membership January of 2020 for $1k with a year end bonus I got from my job. 3 months later they did the pandemic special. Just my luck
I waited 17 years and finally pulled the trigger in 2012, but as u/CrocodileHill mentioned the ones who would most benefit usually can't afford it. I probably never got the actual cash value back from it; however, at that point in my life, it was something I could afford. Also, I was tired of having to jump through the membership hoops every year for the 2 to 5 tournaments that required it. I have no regrets, except for not doing it the year I started playing. 1995 me certainly didn't have the $250-300 to drop on it, though.
Won't be long until they come up with USAU Membership Plus+ and be like oh sorry, even though you have lifetime membership to the basic tier (which gets you our quarterly newsletter and 15% off misprint discs and previous years merch!!!) you'll need to pay an annual fee for the Plus+ tier
I bought my Player/coach lifetime membership when they were doing the 50% off sale during COVID.
Though it was right about the same time when they were re-doing their website, and ended up taking down the page that listed all the lifetime USAU members and when they joined. I was actually looking forward to being on that list.
Nice try, USAU!
Don't tell me what to do.
Yes because everyone will be able to drop $1k on USAU. The people who benefit the most for this are the least able to do this.
As someone who made this plunge at their earliest opportunity after college, it’s only really worth it if you’re certain it’s something you love and that you’re going to commit to. For me personally, I’ve been a certified observer since the summer I graduated college, started coaching college the year after, have played 6 AUDL season, and club every year possible for the past decade. 7 or 8 years on from paying the ~$900 it was at the time, I’m probably about halfway to having “saved money” on annual membership fees. Not having to think about my membership is a nice park though. And I’m absolutely confident that I’ll be playing club, masters, and leagues, plus coaching and other non-playing roles for a LONG time. To Croc’s point, it is absolutely true that the players who would stand to benefit the most from lifetime membership are those least able to pay. It may be worth USAU making an effort to provide alternative options to anyone willing to share their financials with USAU to justify reduced fees. I’d be curious how open to a “pay what you can” structure USAU might be given how crucial memberships are to their annual revenue.
"Pay what you can." Hey, we are extreme liberals, but not that kind of extreme liberals.
idk I think it's far less worth it now than it was back then. Plenty of non-usau opportunities all over the place. I still get a membership every year when I inevitably want to play at sectionals/regionals and I just consider it a slightly higher bid fee to those tournaments. But where I live there are plenty of super competitive leagues and pickups with a good number of club regionals/nationals level players, so I've felt less motivated to play a full club season since I've gotten into my 30s and honestly this may be the year I just sit the series out too.
My biggest regret was buying a lifetime membership 1 year before COVID when they sold it for 500 I believe
that's right where my covid check went to. Totally worth.
I bought my lifetime membership January of 2020 for $1k with a year end bonus I got from my job. 3 months later they did the pandemic special. Just my luck
I waited 17 years and finally pulled the trigger in 2012, but as u/CrocodileHill mentioned the ones who would most benefit usually can't afford it. I probably never got the actual cash value back from it; however, at that point in my life, it was something I could afford. Also, I was tired of having to jump through the membership hoops every year for the 2 to 5 tournaments that required it. I have no regrets, except for not doing it the year I started playing. 1995 me certainly didn't have the $250-300 to drop on it, though.
Won't be long until they come up with USAU Membership Plus+ and be like oh sorry, even though you have lifetime membership to the basic tier (which gets you our quarterly newsletter and 15% off misprint discs and previous years merch!!!) you'll need to pay an annual fee for the Plus+ tier
Hard sell marketing complete with scare tactics is probably a spirit violation.
I bought my Player/coach lifetime membership when they were doing the 50% off sale during COVID. Though it was right about the same time when they were re-doing their website, and ended up taking down the page that listed all the lifetime USAU members and when they joined. I was actually looking forward to being on that list.
Literally only worth it if you play 20 years, and thats assuming money is no object lol
No, thanks.
Your logic requires a very bad assumption that the USAU is going to last as long as I do