Swimming is a sport that requires a big commitment on the part of the athlete as well as the family. Swim parents routinely put in many volunteer hours to help their team run meets or fundraisers, and they spend countless hours in the car driving to practices and meets. The expense involved is often a nice chunk of a family’s budget. As the country suffers an economic slump, everyone is more aware than ever of how their dollars are spent. At LY we try to be mindful of our budget as well as yours and to that end, we have held the cost of our programming fees to the same level for the past four years and anticipate no increase in the coming year. For a different perspective on what it costs for your swimmer to swim at LY, here are the costs per hour for each age group:The senior swimmer is paying roughly $1.25 per hour. The presenior swimmer pays approximately $1.34 per hour. A Gold swimmer, $2.22 per hour. The Blue swimmer, $4.55 per hour. Siblings in the program pay even less. Try getting piano lessons for that amount!
We do charge a fundraising fee of $220 per FAMILY (not per child). This money helps us meet our budget and keep programming fees low. The AFR charge is easily raised through means other than direct payment and we provide several options from selling heat sheet ads to participating in our scrip program to a swim-a-thon type event. We actually pay money back to people who raise above the $220 required annually. I have one family this year that raised their $220, plus an additional $896, of which they will receive $448 back. They earned extra money for the team and themselves all through the use of Kroger gift cards.
We have an annual registration fee per child of $75. $58 of that money goes directly to USA Swimming. The other $17 helps defray the cost of our Y league fee, the shirts that swimmers receive, caps, and food costs associated with our opening picnic and year end banquet.
The meet fees that you pay us go to the host team for the cost of the meet entry. If we travel out of town to a meet we charge slightly more than the entry fees to try to recoup some of the costs of mileage and hotel expense for the coaches - sometimes we cover these costs and sometimes we don’t.
Y National swimmers paid $552.12 this year to go to Florida. This fee included air fare, 6 nights in a hotel, meet fee, transportation while at the meet, plus three meals. Swimmers did have to pay for other meals out of pocket. The first time Y National swimmer for LY received, at no additional cost, equipment and attire that had an approximate retail value of $325. All-in-all, not too bad a deal. Travel team swimmers and their parents worked throughout the year to raise money to keep these costs low.
What should the price be of teaching your child about commitment, discipline, goal-setting, delayed gratification, cause and effect, while they also learn important nutritional lessons and exercise their way into excellent health? We hope that you agree with us that LY is a great value!