I suppose we should be happy they are playing sport at all.
In terms of hockey, there are a lot of reasons it is so expensive; ice time rental, particularly in urban areas, equipment costs (does anybody do hand-me-down anymore?) and the nature of organization. There's a lot more inter-league play now, even at 'house league level, and if travel is involved, some parents simply can't afford it. Soccer is a whole lot cheaper and becoming more popular.
When I was kid playing (when the earth was still cooling) I played in the Goulding Park league in Willowdale We got a sweater - what we looked like from the waist down was our problem. We didn't get 'full kit' until rep level and even at that, it was only sweater and socks. Our coach was a dad and a road trip was to the Don Mills arena.
I was chatting with my chiro while she was doing her best to cripple me. She has two kids into serious sport - one hockey - and, being northern Ontario, tournament play usually involves accommodations. She figures she spends about $10k a year.
The vast majority of of player registration fees to the GTHL and its affiliate clubs cover the cost of rink time, when the City typically charges about $350 per hour for.
That amounts to upwards of $10,000 per player, per year.
The City's arena rental policy is to recover the full cost of operations from users, other than golf, this one of the few rec program areas where the City doesn't prioritize affordable access.
The cost (gross) of operating the rinks is about 700k per ice pad, and there are 61 of those.
So the cost of cutting total fees by 1/2 would be around 21M, the cost of waiving fees would be ~42M (eliminating the payment system would save $$, but be partially offset by greater demand)
In the context of City budget of 18B per year....recreation user fees are surprisingly small potatoes, yet very impactful on famil8yies/youth.
Ditching all fees would have a gross cost in the range of 150M; But the likely resulting uptick in demand would probably add another 75M in operating costs and 25M in capital per year, long term, for 250M per year all-in.
Short-term, catching up facilities up to demand (adding more sports fields, tennis courts, pools and rinks) would probably be 1.5B over 10 years or 150M annually.
Not nothing, but not unrealistic either. There's 900Min the Parkland Acquisition Reserve fund, so its not there's no requirement for a mammoth tax increase.
If you did the above, and put it all on property tax, you'd be looking at around a 7% increase.
But there are other revenue opportunities such as permit parking, and on-street pay and display parking that could easily spin off another 100M per year.
www.sportsnet.ca
