Cost of Scouting vs Cost of Sports

[NealOnWheels]

Ran across this interesting article today.  There have been a lot of complaints on the rising cost of Scouting driving families away.  Seems that youth sports are also seeing rising costs..

https://www.foxnews.com/media/youth-sports-crisis-skyrocketing-costs-price-out-parents-threaten-childhood-health

 

Edited December 17 by NealOnWheels

[swilliams]

For us, the comparison between sports and scouting comes up with scouting being far more expensive, but my kids don't do 'club' sports.  They all participated in high school sports, with all three swimming (for at least two years), and my daughter doing track and fencing after she dropped swimming.  Youngest son is in marching band.

Swimming is least expensive.  For my youngest son (high school), it's a $200 athletic fee to the school, goggles, and gas money, since our high school doesn't have their own pool.  For my older son (collegiate swimmer), it's $80 goggles and a $350 tech suit, plus non-mandatory things like a team towel with his name on it ($60) and a sweatshirt ($45).

Fencing required a lot up front for equipment, then my daughter injured her hip before the first meet and her fencing days were over before they began.  Sad.

Marching band shares the $200 athletic fee with swimming.  We buy shirt, wool knee socks and shoes - around $75. (Our band wears a traditional winter wool kilt on the bottom.  Tops change depending on the music/theme for the year.  The school provides Scottish military parade jackets and plaids for parades. There isn't much else you have to buy, but it's a huge time commitment for parents.  We are required to solicit donations for our Pageant of the Bands and spring basket raffle, and everyone has to work part (or all) of the Pageant, as well as take at least one shift as a chaperone or doing pit crew.

Scouts...  oh boy.  Uniform - hideously expensive for what it is.  $135 to Council and National.   $150 to the Troop.  $35-250 for each monthly camping trip, depending on what we're doing.  ($35 for regular camping trip to the local scout camp or other low-cost areas.  $250 is for a trip we're taking this coming January to Vermont for X-Country skiing, fat bikes, and dogsledding.)  I just spent some Christmas money to get a new insulated sleeping pad, since I have to sleep outside most times (female SM for a boy's troop), and we've purchased backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, mess kits and so on.  And then there's always stuff that I do as Scoutmaster that I either forget to submit for reimbursement or figure it's not worth submitting.  Scouting is easily our most expensive activity.  

The troop does have some gear we can lend, and we have a policy of any scout who needs financial help not needing to pay, but most families aren't in that situation, we're just okay enough for it to hurt a bit.