Estimated Costs of Figure Skating

I think this article does a pretty good job explaining the costs of figure skating
https://www.thoughtco.com/figure-skating-costs-and-training-1282185

Estimated cost for synchronized skating is about $2,000 to $3,000 per year per skater, which is usually paid in monthly installments.

The total estimated cost per year of a Preliminary to Juvenile's skater's training could add up to be anywhere between $7,000 to $10,000.

Intermediate Through Senior and Elite Level Competitive Figure Skaters: A skater's family can expect to spend at least $20,000 a year on skating, but may spend more.

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If you want your female skater to just compete at those levels, those figure are still probably low.

If you want your female skater to be competitive at those levels, at least double (and maybe triple) those figures.

Figure skating has so many "hidden" costs beyond just on ice practice time (which includes coaching fees) and the basic costs of outfitting a skater.

I do not have a Male skater but my impression is those fees are still high. I heard one parent say that their travel costs were extremely high since they had to seek out competitions where there would actually be skaters for her son to compete against. With female skayers, that is never an issue.

I have a male skater and I think these estimates are pretty good. Costs will vary of course but I think for most skaters, it can reasonably be done at the estimates given. When I added up costs we pay an average of $1000 per month on skating after everything is totaled (ice time, lessons, equipment, mileage, travel, costumes, entry fees, etc).

Yes travel is an issue but they don’t *need* to compete against other boys. It can be nice but it does often seem like wasted money - it will often just be one other boy. And with the new system, travel is not as necessary.

At lower levels there’s a savings for boys when it comes to costumes. And I never have to pay for hair and makeup like some parents do

Glad someone believes those are accurate because I certainly don't.

Haven't similar costs been posted here -around the Olympics? At that time, most agree they were way too low.

Out of town competitions but local (meaning I can drive there so no air fare but hotel) are an easy $1000 each and we tend to do 1 per month over the summer so about 4 a year. Skates + blades are $1300 once a year. Ice time is $400/ month during the school year and then over the summer, it jumps to $200/week. $10k right there without any coaching fees except those associated with a competition.

It probably also depends on where you live. In a high-cost-of-living area the ice time and lesson costs are probably higher than in a less expensive part of the country. But in an isolated area, more travel costs might be involved for all competitions and even tests. Worst of both worlds would be to live somewhere expensive but hard to get to and from and without many clubs or officials nearby.

I think these estimates are low. We are in a large but non coastal city. My skater most resembles the test track definition, and expenses are easily near $15k. It is a bit more now that she's reaching the higher levels, but has been at least $10 all along.

Ok so let’s say you want/need to cut costs. What would you do?

Those figures seem low to me too. I don't think "senior and elite level competitive skater" means international caliber athletes. I don't see how $20K will come even close. Take just coaching fees. If a coach costs $120 per hour, and an elite skater gets 30 minutes per day, 20 days per month (on average), that's already over $14K per year.

concorde said:

Glad someone believes those are accurate because I certainly don't.

Haven't similar costs been posted here -around the Olympics? At that time, most agree they were way too low.

Out of town competitions but local (meaning I can drive there so no air fare but hotel) are an easy $1000 each and we tend to do 1 per month over the summer so about 4 a year. Skates + blades are $1300 once a year. Ice time is $400/ month during the school year and then over the summer, it jumps to $200/week. $10k right there without any coaching fees except those associated with a competition.

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As a former elite competitor I'll agree that the article in the original post is dead wrong, very much off, and I'm talking about several years ago when I competed.
It's even more now.

VegMom said:

Ok so let’s say you want/need to cut costs. What would you do?

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How good of a skater do you want?

What skills do you have that you can barter? I know of several parents that have become skating monitors to get rink credit which they applied to the ice time. Another became a Zamboni driver. Another became the rink's accountant.

concorde said:

How good of a skater do you want?

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I just thought it would make a good topic of discussion, that's all.

Me, personally, I could care less if my kid skated. I don't want any kind of skater. I want to let him follow his dreams. And I want him to stay as safe as possible. And I want him to be well-rounded and empathetic and educated and confident. I would rather my child choose a different sport because this one is so expensive, inconvenient, complicated, and weird. But he is in love with figure skating so...

Regularly, adult men come up to us and tell us that they had wished they were allowed to do figure skating when they were kids. They often say their parents didn't allow it. I'm sure this happens with girls and women too, but with the men there's an element of the story that goes something like, 'My parents thought it was too feminine.' It breaks my heart. I can't do that to my kid. So I will let him skate.

I think these figures are low for skaters who have a chance to be competitive. In our area, we pay far less than in areas where you routinely see skaters go to sectionals or nationals. At our rink, most skaters aren't competitive beyond the preliminary/pre-juv level. Once IJS comes into play, there is very little expectation that anyone will qualify for a final round at regionals (not that it couldn't happen, it just hasn't ever). We simply don't have enough ice time to really work on all the pieces and parts that go into being a truly competitive skater. However, we also pay less than half of what they pay in other areas.

Don't get me wrong, I do love paying less. However, I also realize that we're still paying a lot (I don't like to do the math, but probably around $1k a month) and getting *just* enough to keep our heads above water and not enough to really excel, which is kind of frustrating. This season it really hit home with me when I pointed out that we shouldn't have to be that thankful for getting all the worst ice times and being considered the least important user group because in truth, we *are* taking ice times no one else wants and they should cost less. It keeps our club from growing and it grows smaller every season. Most people feel that they'd rather have that because they wouldn't choose to pay more and if you want more, you should go elsewhere. It's hard to grow a club when you have to tell people that their only option to advance beyond LTS is to come to the rink at 5:30 in the morning or that they can have lessons now, but when winter comes the coach won't have time for them. This year, we joined another club but will still skate at our rink.

For cost comparison, one hour of lesson and ice time at our rink breaks down to $59.50 and one hour of ice time and lesson at the rink where my daughter periodically skates with higher level coaches (who have olympic and national skaters) breaks down to $106.50. That doesn't seem bad on paper but in that area there is more opportunity to skate, so the cost doubles or triples from that. Where we max out at 3 lessons per week with one coach, they can take 3 lessons per week from 3 different coaches and skate additional freestyle sessions, dedicated moves sessions, participate in off-ice training, etc. In our area, the absolute maximum number of hours of ice available (only in the summer) is about 10 hours. The rest of the year we max out at 5 1/2 hours per week, all in the early morning before school, which is not always very productive.

VegMom said:

Me, personally, I could care less if my kid skated. I don't want any kind of skater. I want to let him follow his dreams. And I want him to stay as safe as possible. And I want him to be well-rounded and empathetic and educated and confident. I would rather my child choose a different sport because this one is so expensive, inconvenient, complicated, and weird. But he is in love with figure skating so...

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I regularly hear that comment from parents that push their kids really hard TO skate. The parents are switching coaches regularly AND driving to various rinks at hug distances and crazy hours. Some of those parents I hear yelling at their child in the locker rooms to get back out on the ice. At "no test" I heard one parent complain about figure skating and mom was adamant the skater could never go beyond Juv; the skater is now skating Novice. Just saying what I have observed over the years.

I make it known that this is the sport my daughter has chosen. Both my husband and I choose to support her so we are her driver, bill payer, and biggest fan. She has big goals and the odds are greatly against her but I know she will never succeed unless we are committed parents. It helps that I have always loved ice skating and know what looks good (judges tend to agree). Having said that, I know nothing about the technicalities of the sport (still do not know the different jumps) and am 100% ok with that.

VegMom said:

Regularly, adult men come up to us and tell us that they had wished they were allowed to do figure skating when they were kids. They often say their parents didn't allow it. I'm sure this happens with girls and women too, but with the men there's an element of the story that goes something like, 'My parents thought it was too feminine.' It breaks my heart. I can't do that to my kid. So I will let him skate.

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I hear that comments from female skaters too. Very few parents are willing to invest in such a sport - I takes a lot of time and $$.

As your skater gets better, the costs escalate.
1. Bigger jumps mean more expensive boots and blades. The good news here is boots/blades max at ~$1700 for an off-the-rack package.
2. Typically at Juv you need to hire a chorographer since most coaches do not know the technicalities of IJS scoring. Then at Intermediate, you need a 2nd program. Right there your fees to the chorographer doubles.
3. Once your kids really starts to work on the double axel, the skater needs greater rotational speed and height so that means the skater is now prone to more injuries (more G forces). Enter the chiropractor to keep your skater in alignment. Our insurance will not pay for that since my skater is under 18. A bad fall can get you there 2x a week; if things are going well, then you probably only need to go once every 2-3 weeks. Last year at the Phily International competition, we met several Team USA skaters sitting in line at a local chiropractor's office so this is common.
4. Off ice. I view this as more injury prevention than getting stronger. Lots of people talk here about working on the jumps but as your skater gets better, extra off ice is needed for the upper body, primarily the shoulders.

This does not include the longer lesson times and more coaching that is required as the skater gets better. It also does not include the standard off-ice that our rink offers but comes in our monthly ice time package. Also most skater do some type of ballet / pilates training that is not listed above.

We believe that all of these are important but not all would agree.

Oh yeah - no one told me about all of this when my daughter started to skater. Even with doing all this, we find a way to fit public school into this crazy schedule.

The numbers strike me as low.....
My skater is lower level and I spend more than $1k/month. Ice time is expensive and my skater doesn't do well with too many group lessons, so we have to spend on privates.

My experience with having a male skater is that we have had adults say to me that "they would never let their son do that." I guess they are implying that I should have put him in hockey or something.

My skater has had an incredibly expensive season due to competitions being further afield. The past two years, we only flew once and drove to all other events. This season, we are flying for five competitions, and driving to four other ones. Only one is close - at 1 1/2 hours away (if no traffic). The other ones will be a six hour-plus drive (not including stops). Flights, hotels, car rentals, gas, not eating at home... This was a unique season but we can't afford to do things like this next year. It takes away too much from training.

I spend over 20k a year just as a mid-level adult recreational skater, I compete rarely, and do it for the exercise mainly. I'm in an expensive area so someone who isn't could probably replicate what I do for 15k a year. This gets me 1.5 hours a week of lessons on MIF/choreo, half an hour on ice dance, half an hour on jumps, during 8-9 hours of ice time. Jump-wise I do doubles, and as I mentioned in the adults doing doubles thread, physically is not the hard part -it's the time and money of taking a lot of private lessons and skating almost every day. When I was first getting my axel I was taking even MORE lessons (basically one every day) and spending even more, because I could not even practice it on my own without the axel getting worse between lessons.

A very talented person or someone who started when they were very young would probably not need as many private lessons to get to the same level as I am now, but I think that's the challenge of starting to skate as an adult - you want to get better fast, but it takes more coaching to get things in to muscle memory. I strongly feel that the expense is a major hurdle in a lot of adults skating really seriously, as it might end up costing MORE in coaching than for a child.

When it comes to elite skating, I recently heard from a parent of a skater (does not rep the US, but trains in the US), that this past season which included trips to Olys and Worlds ended up costing their family $250,000.

I agree that the numbers are off, especially the syncro one. Maybe if you are on a strictly recreational team, but at the club I skated for the syncro kids were paying at least $10,000 to be on the team, plus travel and the tryout fees if they were moving up a level. As a high level test skater I was paying almost that and I was on the less expensive end than a lot of the other skaters were paying.

I agree with previous posters that these numbers are pretty low. I am an adult skater who has just started competing (at Sectionals, I don't really count my local competitions where I compete against myself).

I take 2 lessons per week at $35 each, so $70. So for the year lets say 52 weeks to take into account travel, ect. That's 3,640.

I use a punch card to pay for ice time (skating 7-8 hours per week). Punch cards are $130 for 12 sessions. So that's roughly $300 per month (conservatively)- $3,600.

So in just lessons and ice time that's $7,240. And that's for an adult skater. The competitive kids skate a lot more than that. And that doesn't take into account competing- for example for adult sectionals I had my entry fees, plane ticket, and other associated costs (I was lucky and stayed with my brother in LA which saved the cost of a hotel). I also reuse my dresses to save cash. The point is, it's an expensive sport.

Also, remind me to never do this math again.

Seren said:

Also, remind me to never do this math again.

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So true!

The author must live in a cheap part of the country or something (maybe the New England area where there are supposed to be rinks at every corner, haven't been there). For example for Prelim through Juv she says basically 7.5 hours of freestyles a week, and 2.5 hours of lessons a week (assuming she meant each private lesson is half an hour long). Where I'm at that's basically $112 of freestyles and $200 of coaching fees (depending on coach) per week, or about $16k a year right there. Then you got competitions, skates, tests, costumes, etc., yet she says it only comes out to $7k-10k a year.