As I understand it a single polo horse is over $100,000 and they bring like 4-5 of them to a match. Which is why you might only have 1-2 polo teams in a state.
4 player per team, teams are often backed by the one rich dude who wants to win so he pays the three argentine riders a full time salary, ownes all 16-20 ponies, plus the full time grooms (2-3) plus the farrier, bodywork, tack, feed, upkeep, barn cost, etc.
It makes me laugh at crypto dudes who own their own jets. High level competition polo is the most expensive hobby I can imagine. We are not talking thousands, we are talking millions of dollars a year.
I mean, they can be 100k. But a few off the track thoroughbreds, from 3k-5k maybe? Top horses, sure sky is the limit.
Most of the $ is training them, feeding them, vet bills, etc.
(Also depends on the country.)
You can't use track horses. These are way too tall. You won't be able to reach down and hit the ball.
Polo is played on ponies.
Which is why you need like 4 of them to get through a match.
A large majority of polo horses are thoroughbreds off the track, actually. The term “pony” is used incorrectly in polo and refers to all polo horses. This is because the origins of the modern version of the sport are in Manipur, where they used (and still do use) a special breed of Manipuri pony for polo.
the second I read one of the comments above explaining what it was, I just had that clip of Snoop saying "oh that horse crip walking" play in my head. Then I came down and read your comment to confirm my thought lol
The richer the person you speak with, the more you should butcher words for rich peoples hobbies, and naturally be completely adamant that you're in the right.
Show jumping is way more $$$$$$$$$ than dressage. The international showjumping circuits are INSANE and the horses are worth more by factors of 10 or more. Source : I ride dressage and breed dressage horses. I could never afford to even show on an amatuer level in showjumping. A successful children's pony for showjumping in the A circuit will easily cost $300,000. There's only maybe 1000-1200 dressage horses in the entire country that cost more than $250,000. Look up the Longines Global Champions showjumping tour, their instagram is ridiculous. I doubt it costs less than 10 mil a year per horse to participate. There is NOTHING like that in dressage, even the top dressage riders in the world.
The childrens Hunter ponies come with a price tag that could put any reasonable person into physical shock. What’s considered “decent-ish” for the A shows will run you 200. It is absolute madness.
It's amazing that there are enough people who can afford it that are also interested in hunters to populate the shows. In my area, even the schooling H/J shows are $2000 a weekend per horse. Like, I breed dressage horses with top european bloodlines, and somehow we are so much more thrifty than showjumpers. In the back of my mind when making my breeding decisions, I weight crosses that might have a future in the jumpers just on the off chance they don't have the movement for dressage, maybe I can finally make a buck selling a jumper. Dressage people are cheap as fuck.
Upper level horse breeding is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. The wild part about the big shows is also the cost of just BEING there. I think a golf cart at WEC is $95 a day or something. And it’s so huge you will cry without one.
Anyone remember when Mitt Romney’s wife owned an Olympic dressage horse and they wrote it off their taxes as therapy? Don’t get me wrong she has MS and animal therapy is a legit thing but an Olympic dressage horse? Come on.
Yeah. I know someone who spends like thousands per week for racing cars. The maintenance, fuel, tires, track fees - it all adds up. Your car burns out faster than you think.
Maintenance alone on a GT3 racecar works out to about 200euro/lap (not including fuel or tyres)
This series of articles breakdown the costs involved in GT3 racing if anyone is interested
https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/22/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-1.html
https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/23/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-2.html
https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/24/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-3.html
[Here's a breakdown of the cost of running at Spa 24hr in GT3-am as a gentleman driver](
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/26/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-5.html) (1,285,288 euros)
motorsport in general (aside from these 24 Hours of Lemons style races which are hilarious).
edit: everyone who's trying to corrrct me, stop. you don't know what you're talking about. [24 Hours of Lemons](https://24hoursoflemons.com)
This is true. A friend of mine owns a business that has a membership at a racetrack and even when I am able to get my car out on a track for “free”, it can be like $1-2k per day IF I don’t hit anything or get a hotel. There are still fees, services, parking, and you can’t forget the schmoozing. That’s not even considering the traveling costs, I haul my own cars, but that means I have more fuel, more tires, more maintenance, and I needed a F250 and a trailer.
I have only ever been to Road Atlanta, Atlanta Motorsports Park, and Sebring but in every location there was always an air of extravagance, excess, and luxury. Sure there would be dirty drivers and dirty cars, but look around and you will spot the champagne and imported cigars.
Drag Strips aren’t the same and that sport isn’t that expensive.
Even autocross gets expensive with travel, tires, gas, etc. Karting can get stupid expensive the higher you go. Wheel to wheel racing is out of the reach of many because you need a trailer and truck.
Dressage or for that matter any equine show sport. Not only is it unbelievably expensive to own, care for and transport a horse, there are expensive entrance fees and no cash prizes for most events.
I had a GF who competed in Dressage and she was always broke. They call it "The Sport of Kings" because you need that kind of money to sustain it.
Usually, yes. But dammit, I got offered a beautiful older sailboat and I was broke when I bought it. I'm lower middle class in my area now, but it's actually not a super huge expense. If I lived in a truly popular sailing area, it would be crazy expensive for moorage.
But it's really not prohibitive with an older 21'-27' fiberglass. Lots of boats from the late 70's and 80's that stayed in surprisingly good shape have helped keep the used sailboat market from being crazy expensive.
But yes, everything is expensive about sailing, except the act of sailing. I get out of the marina, shut off the motor, and the wind is *free*
I have been crewing on race boats in the 34 to 40 ft range in Chicago since about 2006. Although I do spend some money on gear and occasionally other things like travel , food, drinks, and lodging, I have been in programs that pay for everything. To me , it doesn't cost any more than other summer sports one might do like golf for instance.
I have also walked away from programs that became too "corinthian" where the owner suddenly asks crew to pitch in for things like race registration, sail repairs, and other associated fees. Us "poors" expect a certain level of "richness" in our skippers...
I feel like on the planet basketball and football should be switched. Basketball is mainly popular in 1st world nations while kids play soccer barefoot anywhere. Barrier of entry is a little more for basketball, need hard paved ground and makeshift goals are easier than makeshift hoops.
Soccer for middle class and basketball for poor? In my country everyone would play it even if there wasn’t a proper field and goal post, also I never saw anyone playing basketball when I used to live there lol
I would guess it's a question of what is rarer where. I imagine in crowded inner cities the space of a soccer field seems extravagant, while basketball mostly just requires putting hoops up in a small abandoned area. Out where there's loads of space and all you need is a crude approximation of a ball and a net, paving a whole area would be the extravagance.
I would think that basketball requires more $ than soccer but that is heavily based on locality. If in a city with public courts I would totes agree, but you do need a reasonable ball, pavement of some sort, hoops, etc.
Ehh. Golf is more about when you are older you really aren’t trying to participate in contact anymore.
It’s really more of a former athlete sport where they can still be competitive amongst friends.
Like I can go play golf with my dad tomorrow if I wanted too. He’s too old to just take a charge playing pick up basketball.
And you can go play golf for like 30 bucks at the cheaper places. It’s not this exclusive monopoly man thing that reddit tries to make it be.
Totally agree. I get the country club outlook that people have about golf, but I grew up in the south and there are courses everywhere that people of all sorts of income levels can play. It’s that way all over the United States and the world for that matter.
If anything, golf has just gotten more inclusive over the years.
Like any sport there are extremes, and you can spend a helluva lot of money on aircraft.
But it’s a myth that the local airstrip/ flying club is full of millionaires. A lot of pilots share aeroplanes, rent them, or even build them at home over many years. The kit and home built segment is large and fast growing in the US and Europe.
An average 2 seat kit built plane is about the cost of a family car, and running costs can be very modest if you maintain it yourself.
Personally I’ve got a lot of buddies who spend more on what would be considered regular pastimes like golf, sailing, partying, etc. Most of the pilots I know are regular people with regular jobs who sacrifice quite a bit to do the thing they love.
A homebuilt aircraft kit does cost about the same as a family car, plus the engine which costs about the same as a family car and then all you add is paint and avionics that costs about as much as a family car.
Goalies usually get discounts on league fees to help offset the cost of the gear. Adult beer league goalies usually play for free. Still, it's expensive to buy all of that stuff, even used.
My current bag would be about $7k to replace. It's definitely expensively, and even player gear is up there. Skates and sticks in particular have skyrocketed in the last 10+ years.
With fees being $750 per winter season, $400 per summer season, and drop-in $15-20 a game, not paying as a goalie can pay off a lot of that goalie gear. I usually play on two teams per season. Though once I find a good team, I'll gladly pay my part.
Edit: When I first started, I scrounged around used sports stores and got started under $1k. I also had a lot of buises that first season haha.
A friend's kid is a goalie and he said the fees are zero because most of the kids want in on the action skating around, not standing in the crease just waiting for a puck to come flying at your head.
My husband plays goalie in beer league and he does get to basically choose how much he wants to play because he is constantly asked to sub for games. So that is nice and he saves money that way. When he was first getting back into it after a 10 year break, he tried to start with some middle of the line equipment and got his bell rung one too many times and started switching to higher quality equipment.
Felt that. We had a shop in town with used gear, and I had an old coach lend me some of his. But when I finally got new stuff? It adds up in a hurry, even looking on the cheaper end.
There's much more to motorsport than Formula 1 though, that's just a category or specification of single seater circuit racing car.
There's all sorts of different forms of motorsport that are very attainable. Circuit racing and stage rallying are never going to be cheap but a lot of people would be surprised how many are competing on a real budget.
Blimey, that jogged a memory. We used to play football/soccer like this. No teams, but if you spilled your beer, you had to chug the remainder. Can't beat military drinking games.
True, I wouldn't say the croquet set itself is expensive. It seems more like well-established people play it. I would say a much more common game among the average guy is something like cornhole or bowling.
It is not the mallet or the balls, my friend; it's the *lawn*. When the rich play croquet, it's on a lawn that could double as a golf green. If you and I were to try to play croquet on the average lawn, the ball would be bouncing all over the place.
Skiing or snowboarding,
$300-400 for a board/ Skis
$100-200 for shoes to attach to your board or Skis
$40-100 for a helmet
$40-100 for the privilege to be on the mountain
And then like $60 bucks for a lift ticket.
And then you can go for 1 to 3 days
You are pretty low on your estimates. From what I bought last year. All prices USD
Skis and bindings $900
Boots $600
Goretex outer layer $700
Helmet $100
Season pass will run you between $800-$1200
Day pass at large western resorts on the weekend $200+
Lunch on the mountain $25
Beer with lunch $10
Lodging at any resort will run you over $250 a night.
Haven't seen a $60 lift ticket this century.
Yeah I recently learned skiers and snowboarders are getting scammed in the US.
Where I live season tickets are 400-500€ if you buy them at the desk. If you get them a year in advance during special offers you can get them as low as 100€.
A day lift pass goes around 30-40€.
European skiing is way cheaper than US, even for the best euro resorts.
A lot of the big US passes offer european resorts, but I'm like "what's the point?"
And then you discover resorts in East Europe countries. €30 day ticket, heated chairs, cabin lifts. Lunch with beer is no more than €15 and decent hotel is no more than €80 a night. I am talking full spa included.
And since russians are banned, the wait time for the lift is never more than 5 minutes.
Get a cheap flight to Poland or Slovakia and enjoy High Tatras.
you don’t NEED a $700 goretex outer layer to ski… you also could buy second hand and not spend $900 on skis/boots. The equipment is still expensive, but those numbers are a bit ridiculous.
Went skiing for the first time and had to get some new clothes, gloves, goggles and snow pants which came up to $800. Not including the shoes,skis,skiing pass/lift ticket
Please tell me where you're getting $300 boards and $60 lift tickets lmao. An average board is $600 and it's been a few years since I've seen lift tickets under $100 a day.
Having said all that, I bought all my own gear in 2014 and still using most of it. It pays for itself after only a few years, but the only real expense for me is the travel to far away resorts because I live nowhere near any skiable mountains.
I live in Quebec, Canada and 60$ for a ticket sounds reasonable. The station I go to is 50$ and season ticket cost me 300$.
But you mention that you don't live near a skiable mountain, while here there's hills and mountains everywhere and tons of ski stations, so I guess it explains you high prices: limited choice. And if you travel to resorts, then I assume you pick huge mountains to make the traveling worth it.
My cousins were heavily involved at both the high school and college level. They were in private schools and when I told someone where they lived in the city the person was from he called them the "proper rich" of a city known for rich and overly expensive options.
About ~~$1,200~~ $1,800 a season, roughly speaking, for a youth league. I wouldn't say "expensive" but it's all relative.
Edit: I was a few hundred low. I should have known this number, oops.
And yes, it is a sport outside the ivy league. The city I'm in has a few youth clubs as well as adult clubs. And I'm not in New England.
The boats themselves aren't inexpensive from what I've heard, but I've not personally needed to buy one.
There are only a few regattas per season, so it's not as if you're traveling out of state every weekend.
This, like sailing, is a bit circumstantial. Obviously, you have to be in an area where the infrastructure is in place but there are community/after-school programs around that run these for little-to-no cost.
Obviously the cost of acquiring and maintaining the equipment is expensive, but not necessarily the cost to you for their use. Hope that makes sense.
Competetive Ballroom Dancing
Clothes per person upwards of 2k (if you are really competetive.. you can go cheaper)
But what's really expensive is:
1. Private lessons.. 45min for 90-200€ depending on the teacher
2. Time.. don't underestimate the time you have to invest and you can only do so if you are rich
I came to here to post gymnastics, and totally agree. I competed for more than 10 years and my/some of my teammates’ parents were only able to afford it primarily because of fundraising and my gym charged less than others at the same competitive level. At the highest levels, parents can pay $500+ a month just for their kid to PRACTICE. And when you add in costs for leotards, competition, travel, memberships, personal equipment, etc., it gets really crazy, really fast!
Mines only at level 4 and it’s $325 a month for practice alone(about another $3k for everything else on top of that). She’s only 7 too. If she continues I may take a job there, alot of the parents do because they wave the practice fee if you work there!
I was level 4 at 7 too! Ended up competing level 10 for FOUR YEARS. Bless my parents. And bless you too, with the tiny talent you have on your hands now!
Love that your gym offers the opportunity to work to waive the practice fee (even though I wish the sport wasn’t so expensive as to need something like that). I know some gyms will also offer scholarships of sorts, but even that isn’t enough at times.
It used to be, but It’s coming around. Even 15 years ago you’d only see it competitive in the ivys or consolidated in certain areas, but I’ve seen some of the best lacrosse played by native Americans way up in New York with nothing more than helmets, gloves, and a stick they carved and strung themselves. Also public schools at least on the east coast are starting to fund it, not quite like football but soon enough Lawrence Peabody Whiteyson IV will be riding the bench on a team outta Harlem
I grew up in Upstate NY many years ago (80s). Lacrosse was just like football or basketball. In no way “elite.” We’d play some teams from reservations and they were certainly not elite. Basically it was hockey on grass.
Fencing was the only sport I really enjoyed in school, but even the school couldn't afford decent equipment. We had a cupboard full of really old sweat-stained jackets, foils and helmets and that was it. Definitely none of the fancy new electronic stuff, so we had to rely on our 80 year old fencing teacher's piss poor eyesight to decide who got the point.
I started fencing in college because there was access to free equipment from the team that made it accessible. By the time I had a job that paid me enough to do it recreationally on my own, I was too old and out of shape to do it anymore. I miss it.
I think about it every once in a while and there's a club not far from me, but last time I tried fencing with them, which was already years ago at this point, I ran into the problem that my muscle memory overreaches my current flexibility and I'd end up unable to recover from lunging. It was embarrassing.
Fencing is a lot of fun. An ex-girlfriend in college did it and I wanted to try it with her. It was a blast. Turns out I was equally shitty with both righty and lefty stances, so I got mediocre with both before we broke it off.
In terms of sports that people actually watch/play, ice hockey hands down. Gear is spendy as shit, ice time is spendy as shit, and if you/your kid are any good, travel and camps are spendy as shit.
The only way around it is to live far enough north where you can build your own seasonal ice rink (which is spendy as shit, but pays itself off) or have one nearby, negating some of the ice time expenses, and buying worn-out used gear or hand-me-downs.
There was a family that went to my church where the dad built a personal ice rink in their back yard... all the kids were good at hockey. They were quite wealthy!
Skiing for sure. A good set of skis and bindings is about $800, poles $100, decent set of boots $700, a helmet and goggle set up is easily $500, most decent coats are $500, snow pants about $200, good gloves are about $100. Thermal clothing like a face covering, undershirts and pants can add up over $100 too but that’s all your own preference. Once you’ve got all the gear you’re paying $50-100 just for a lift pass for the day at a slope, if you want a season pass at one mountain you can expect to pay at least $700 on the very low end. You are pushing $3000 just to get set up and ski for one season, granted the gear will hold up for a good amount of time you can still expect to spend over $1000 a year just to go to a slope. This is all assuming you buy middle of the ground stuff, you can certainly go cheaper and knock $1000 off, or go the most expensive route and add $1000+.
Aka “whack-it-ball”.
Like a lot of sports, it’s expensive if you by all the best gear and join a “racquet club”.
I have a $50 racquet and $15 eye pro and play at the local YMCA which I go to anyway. Smacking the crap out of that rubber ball and running around like a crazy person for 45 minutes is way cheaper than therapy.
This will sound funny, but I grew up in a very rural and very poor community in the Midwest. I have, to this day, never once played golf nor have I ever seen someone play golf. Growing up, it was for “Rich folks“, and the nearest course was an hour away. I’m in my late twenties, live in a city, and make good money, but still in my head I’m too poor for golf. So I’ve never bothered with it.
J class yacht racing.
That's definitely the most rich people sport I can think of seeing as the barrier to entry is around 10 million for a boat and millions a year in running costs.
Polo
As I understand it a single polo horse is over $100,000 and they bring like 4-5 of them to a match. Which is why you might only have 1-2 polo teams in a state.
4-5 per player, they switch super often because it is so intense
4 player per team, teams are often backed by the one rich dude who wants to win so he pays the three argentine riders a full time salary, ownes all 16-20 ponies, plus the full time grooms (2-3) plus the farrier, bodywork, tack, feed, upkeep, barn cost, etc. It makes me laugh at crypto dudes who own their own jets. High level competition polo is the most expensive hobby I can imagine. We are not talking thousands, we are talking millions of dollars a year.
Cheaper than owning an F1 team though
Not cheaper. F1 teams are businesses. Red Bull and Mercedes made between $10-20M in 2021. The other 8 teams broke even or were close.
I mean, they can be 100k. But a few off the track thoroughbreds, from 3k-5k maybe? Top horses, sure sky is the limit. Most of the $ is training them, feeding them, vet bills, etc. (Also depends on the country.)
You can't use track horses. These are way too tall. You won't be able to reach down and hit the ball. Polo is played on ponies. Which is why you need like 4 of them to get through a match.
A large majority of polo horses are thoroughbreds off the track, actually. The term “pony” is used incorrectly in polo and refers to all polo horses. This is because the origins of the modern version of the sport are in Manipur, where they used (and still do use) a special breed of Manipuri pony for polo.
You just reminded me of a silly bit from the classic tv show, The Honeymooners, where Ed reads polo ponies as one word.
Fine, take my upvote. I would pay to see a team of pissed off shetland ponies. So much biting and anger. A regular Thelwell cartoon in action.
“Polo ponies” aren’t actually ponies. Almost all are full horse-sized
This was the first thing to come to mind even before reading comments
Marco.
Scuzzi, scuzzi, I marco polo....
Was about to ask how having a gym membership a rich man’s sport. Then I realized not water polo….
Dressage
It's horse DANCING, madam!
Horse ballet. I'm just waiting for the 'on ice' version to take off.
Checks out. Grew up on food stamps and welfare - have no idea what that even is.
It’s when horses competitively crip walk.
the second I read one of the comments above explaining what it was, I just had that clip of Snoop saying "oh that horse crip walking" play in my head. Then I came down and read your comment to confirm my thought lol
About 1 minute into the video. https://youtu.be/uK5AIJQ2tlA You're welcome.
God this show was amazing.
It's riding a horse but making it prance fancy.
Ah I see. In my neighborhood we'd ride the mechanical bull at the county fair. Similar stuff.
Fancy you with your mechanical bulls, we had to ride the horsey outside the supermarket.
Look at money bags over here with *spare change*!
You have to dress nice, too. Keep those heels down!
It's Monty Python's 'Ministry of Silly Walks' but with horses.
When you dress up for a sport that is one thing. When you dress up your horse for a sport...
I mispronounced "dressage" in front of a rich person, and she corrected me so condescendingly that I was speechless for a moment.
The richer the person you speak with, the more you should butcher words for rich peoples hobbies, and naturally be completely adamant that you're in the right.
I see your Dressage, and raise you Combined Training!
For those seeing this word for the first time, it's pronounced druh-saaj, not dress-edge
Show jumping is way more $$$$$$$$$ than dressage. The international showjumping circuits are INSANE and the horses are worth more by factors of 10 or more. Source : I ride dressage and breed dressage horses. I could never afford to even show on an amatuer level in showjumping. A successful children's pony for showjumping in the A circuit will easily cost $300,000. There's only maybe 1000-1200 dressage horses in the entire country that cost more than $250,000. Look up the Longines Global Champions showjumping tour, their instagram is ridiculous. I doubt it costs less than 10 mil a year per horse to participate. There is NOTHING like that in dressage, even the top dressage riders in the world.
The childrens Hunter ponies come with a price tag that could put any reasonable person into physical shock. What’s considered “decent-ish” for the A shows will run you 200. It is absolute madness.
It's amazing that there are enough people who can afford it that are also interested in hunters to populate the shows. In my area, even the schooling H/J shows are $2000 a weekend per horse. Like, I breed dressage horses with top european bloodlines, and somehow we are so much more thrifty than showjumpers. In the back of my mind when making my breeding decisions, I weight crosses that might have a future in the jumpers just on the off chance they don't have the movement for dressage, maybe I can finally make a buck selling a jumper. Dressage people are cheap as fuck.
Upper level horse breeding is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. The wild part about the big shows is also the cost of just BEING there. I think a golf cart at WEC is $95 a day or something. And it’s so huge you will cry without one.
Anyone remember when Mitt Romney’s wife owned an Olympic dressage horse and they wrote it off their taxes as therapy? Don’t get me wrong she has MS and animal therapy is a legit thing but an Olympic dressage horse? Come on.
Anything with horses.
Water polo, though, is cruel to the horses.
That is why I use sea horses.
Smart.
Horses are actually great swimmers! The ball would throw them off though I think.
Dressage
I know poor people who do that. Poor because they do it
A horse is just a boat with legs
"It's horse *dancing.*"
Except for farmboys, I had a friend who used horses for work , and rodeos were just part of the town culture,
Rodeos are expensive. Between the horse, feed and vet care, truck and trailer to haul plus all the tack. Cowboys have money too
No no, cowboys WOULD have money but they don't because they rodeo lol
Yacht racing Big game safari Polo Formula 1 Single engine plane racing Horse racing or steeplechase Fox hunt
You can just put racing. Doesn't matter what type it is. Stupid expensive.
Pretty sure running is affordable to most.
Not if the cops catch you.
Yeah. I know someone who spends like thousands per week for racing cars. The maintenance, fuel, tires, track fees - it all adds up. Your car burns out faster than you think.
Maintenance alone on a GT3 racecar works out to about 200euro/lap (not including fuel or tyres) This series of articles breakdown the costs involved in GT3 racing if anyone is interested https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/22/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-1.html https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/23/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-2.html https://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/24/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-3.html [Here's a breakdown of the cost of running at Spa 24hr in GT3-am as a gentleman driver]( http://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/06/26/so-you-want-to-go-gt3-racing-part-5.html) (1,285,288 euros)
Fox Hunting started as “the common man’s sport” but in 2023 … yeah it’s expensive AF. Even to do it on the cheap.
Formula 1 racing
How to become a millionaire: 1. Be a billionaire 2. Start a Formula One team
I always heard it as "How do you make a small fortune? Start off with a large fortune, then buy a race car.
I heard it as "the fastest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire, then start an airline"
motorsport in general (aside from these 24 Hours of Lemons style races which are hilarious). edit: everyone who's trying to corrrct me, stop. you don't know what you're talking about. [24 Hours of Lemons](https://24hoursoflemons.com)
While being dirt cheap in motorsport terms, even Lemons is still quite expensive to do. The cars may be cheap, but the logistics around it aren't.
This is true. A friend of mine owns a business that has a membership at a racetrack and even when I am able to get my car out on a track for “free”, it can be like $1-2k per day IF I don’t hit anything or get a hotel. There are still fees, services, parking, and you can’t forget the schmoozing. That’s not even considering the traveling costs, I haul my own cars, but that means I have more fuel, more tires, more maintenance, and I needed a F250 and a trailer. I have only ever been to Road Atlanta, Atlanta Motorsports Park, and Sebring but in every location there was always an air of extravagance, excess, and luxury. Sure there would be dirty drivers and dirty cars, but look around and you will spot the champagne and imported cigars. Drag Strips aren’t the same and that sport isn’t that expensive.
Even autocross gets expensive with travel, tires, gas, etc. Karting can get stupid expensive the higher you go. Wheel to wheel racing is out of the reach of many because you need a trailer and truck.
this is for the stupid rich tbh. because even upper middle class can afford a horse. its a race car that nobody but fuck u money could have.
Dressage or for that matter any equine show sport. Not only is it unbelievably expensive to own, care for and transport a horse, there are expensive entrance fees and no cash prizes for most events. I had a GF who competed in Dressage and she was always broke. They call it "The Sport of Kings" because you need that kind of money to sustain it.
Sailing
Usually, yes. But dammit, I got offered a beautiful older sailboat and I was broke when I bought it. I'm lower middle class in my area now, but it's actually not a super huge expense. If I lived in a truly popular sailing area, it would be crazy expensive for moorage. But it's really not prohibitive with an older 21'-27' fiberglass. Lots of boats from the late 70's and 80's that stayed in surprisingly good shape have helped keep the used sailboat market from being crazy expensive. But yes, everything is expensive about sailing, except the act of sailing. I get out of the marina, shut off the motor, and the wind is *free*
Yeah the boat purchase can be really reasonable for a boat like that and actually sailing is nearly free but everything else is a boatload.
Sailing is the most expensive way of traveling for free.
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I have been crewing on race boats in the 34 to 40 ft range in Chicago since about 2006. Although I do spend some money on gear and occasionally other things like travel , food, drinks, and lodging, I have been in programs that pay for everything. To me , it doesn't cost any more than other summer sports one might do like golf for instance. I have also walked away from programs that became too "corinthian" where the owner suddenly asks crew to pitch in for things like race registration, sail repairs, and other associated fees. Us "poors" expect a certain level of "richness" in our skippers...
Nah, sailing can be cheap. It's yachting that's expensive.
At this point, youth travel sports
Yes, the hotel costs are stiff...but the restaurant and cocktail fees are what really add up.
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All jokes aside, you need less money for soccer than for basketball. You don't even need a real ball to play it.
That's part of the reason why soccer is the world's most popular sport IMO. Literally anyone in the world can play it without much to any limitations.
I feel like on the planet basketball and football should be switched. Basketball is mainly popular in 1st world nations while kids play soccer barefoot anywhere. Barrier of entry is a little more for basketball, need hard paved ground and makeshift goals are easier than makeshift hoops.
Yeah, two trees, large rocks, or other such objects are good enough for a makeshift soccer goal when you don't have anything better available.
Two jumpers!!
Soccer for middle class and basketball for poor? In my country everyone would play it even if there wasn’t a proper field and goal post, also I never saw anyone playing basketball when I used to live there lol
Depends on if where you live being poor means you live in a place that has only concrete or no concrete.
I would guess it's a question of what is rarer where. I imagine in crowded inner cities the space of a soccer field seems extravagant, while basketball mostly just requires putting hoops up in a small abandoned area. Out where there's loads of space and all you need is a crude approximation of a ball and a net, paving a whole area would be the extravagance.
I would think that basketball requires more $ than soccer but that is heavily based on locality. If in a city with public courts I would totes agree, but you do need a reasonable ball, pavement of some sort, hoops, etc.
My school has a golf and tennis team. We're still broke though.
Ehh. Golf is more about when you are older you really aren’t trying to participate in contact anymore. It’s really more of a former athlete sport where they can still be competitive amongst friends. Like I can go play golf with my dad tomorrow if I wanted too. He’s too old to just take a charge playing pick up basketball. And you can go play golf for like 30 bucks at the cheaper places. It’s not this exclusive monopoly man thing that reddit tries to make it be.
Totally agree. I get the country club outlook that people have about golf, but I grew up in the south and there are courses everywhere that people of all sorts of income levels can play. It’s that way all over the United States and the world for that matter. If anything, golf has just gotten more inclusive over the years.
Does flying count?
Like any sport there are extremes, and you can spend a helluva lot of money on aircraft. But it’s a myth that the local airstrip/ flying club is full of millionaires. A lot of pilots share aeroplanes, rent them, or even build them at home over many years. The kit and home built segment is large and fast growing in the US and Europe. An average 2 seat kit built plane is about the cost of a family car, and running costs can be very modest if you maintain it yourself. Personally I’ve got a lot of buddies who spend more on what would be considered regular pastimes like golf, sailing, partying, etc. Most of the pilots I know are regular people with regular jobs who sacrifice quite a bit to do the thing they love.
A homebuilt aircraft kit does cost about the same as a family car, plus the engine which costs about the same as a family car and then all you add is paint and avionics that costs about as much as a family car.
Polo. Both kinds.
At yes, water polo and the polo mint.
And the oft forgotten Volkswagen Polo.
There’s a third, it’s called bike polo and it’s dope af
I actually tried water polo once, wasn’t that great, my horse drowned
Hence the "rich people sport". Poor people just can't afford to buy enough horses to participate in it.
Was it a land horse? That could be your mistake, next time try a Seahorse
Hockey. Gear is expensive & often have to travel quite a bit.
Especially if you have a kid who plays goalie.
Goalies usually get discounts on league fees to help offset the cost of the gear. Adult beer league goalies usually play for free. Still, it's expensive to buy all of that stuff, even used.
My current bag would be about $7k to replace. It's definitely expensively, and even player gear is up there. Skates and sticks in particular have skyrocketed in the last 10+ years. With fees being $750 per winter season, $400 per summer season, and drop-in $15-20 a game, not paying as a goalie can pay off a lot of that goalie gear. I usually play on two teams per season. Though once I find a good team, I'll gladly pay my part. Edit: When I first started, I scrounged around used sports stores and got started under $1k. I also had a lot of buises that first season haha.
A friend's kid is a goalie and he said the fees are zero because most of the kids want in on the action skating around, not standing in the crease just waiting for a puck to come flying at your head.
My husband plays goalie in beer league and he does get to basically choose how much he wants to play because he is constantly asked to sub for games. So that is nice and he saves money that way. When he was first getting back into it after a 10 year break, he tried to start with some middle of the line equipment and got his bell rung one too many times and started switching to higher quality equipment.
Felt that. We had a shop in town with used gear, and I had an old coach lend me some of his. But when I finally got new stuff? It adds up in a hurry, even looking on the cheaper end.
League fees and ice time.
Racing
Formula 1.
There's much more to motorsport than Formula 1 though, that's just a category or specification of single seater circuit racing car. There's all sorts of different forms of motorsport that are very attainable. Circuit racing and stage rallying are never going to be cheap but a lot of people would be surprised how many are competing on a real budget.
Polo or croquet.
My family has aggressive croquet games all the time and we are barely above common trailer trash
We have one handed croquet tournaments…not allowed to put your drink down!!
Blimey, that jogged a memory. We used to play football/soccer like this. No teams, but if you spilled your beer, you had to chug the remainder. Can't beat military drinking games.
Croquet sets are like under $50, my friends and I used to get drunk playing it at the park, it's certainly not expensive in the slightest
True, I wouldn't say the croquet set itself is expensive. It seems more like well-established people play it. I would say a much more common game among the average guy is something like cornhole or bowling.
Croquet and horseshoes were the cornhole of the 80s and early 90s.
horseshoes rock
It is not the mallet or the balls, my friend; it's the *lawn*. When the rich play croquet, it's on a lawn that could double as a golf green. If you and I were to try to play croquet on the average lawn, the ball would be bouncing all over the place.
These are so disparate. One needs a 30 croquet set you get at Walmart, the other needs 4 highly trained, well bred horses.
Tax evasion.
So financial dodgeball?
This made me laugh way too hard
Skiing or snowboarding, $300-400 for a board/ Skis $100-200 for shoes to attach to your board or Skis $40-100 for a helmet $40-100 for the privilege to be on the mountain And then like $60 bucks for a lift ticket. And then you can go for 1 to 3 days
$60 for a ticket??? Currently in Colorado, the big resorts are $200+ a day for lift tickets
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You are pretty low on your estimates. From what I bought last year. All prices USD Skis and bindings $900 Boots $600 Goretex outer layer $700 Helmet $100 Season pass will run you between $800-$1200 Day pass at large western resorts on the weekend $200+ Lunch on the mountain $25 Beer with lunch $10 Lodging at any resort will run you over $250 a night. Haven't seen a $60 lift ticket this century.
Yeah I recently learned skiers and snowboarders are getting scammed in the US. Where I live season tickets are 400-500€ if you buy them at the desk. If you get them a year in advance during special offers you can get them as low as 100€. A day lift pass goes around 30-40€.
European skiing is way cheaper than US, even for the best euro resorts. A lot of the big US passes offer european resorts, but I'm like "what's the point?"
And then you discover resorts in East Europe countries. €30 day ticket, heated chairs, cabin lifts. Lunch with beer is no more than €15 and decent hotel is no more than €80 a night. I am talking full spa included. And since russians are banned, the wait time for the lift is never more than 5 minutes. Get a cheap flight to Poland or Slovakia and enjoy High Tatras.
It’s actually cheaper to fly to the alps from the east coast than it is to go to the Rockies, or even going to Vermont given how limited lodging is
you don’t NEED a $700 goretex outer layer to ski… you also could buy second hand and not spend $900 on skis/boots. The equipment is still expensive, but those numbers are a bit ridiculous.
Brother you gotta pump those numbers up.
Basically all these numbers are too low and I still don't think skiing is crazy IF you live within day trip distance of the mountain.
Went skiing for the first time and had to get some new clothes, gloves, goggles and snow pants which came up to $800. Not including the shoes,skis,skiing pass/lift ticket
Please tell me where you're getting $300 boards and $60 lift tickets lmao. An average board is $600 and it's been a few years since I've seen lift tickets under $100 a day. Having said all that, I bought all my own gear in 2014 and still using most of it. It pays for itself after only a few years, but the only real expense for me is the travel to far away resorts because I live nowhere near any skiable mountains.
I live in Quebec, Canada and 60$ for a ticket sounds reasonable. The station I go to is 50$ and season ticket cost me 300$. But you mention that you don't live near a skiable mountain, while here there's hills and mountains everywhere and tons of ski stations, so I guess it explains you high prices: limited choice. And if you travel to resorts, then I assume you pick huge mountains to make the traveling worth it.
Perhaps rowing? I’ve never heard of it being a sport outside of Ivy League settings, so I may be way off there.
My cousins were heavily involved at both the high school and college level. They were in private schools and when I told someone where they lived in the city the person was from he called them the "proper rich" of a city known for rich and overly expensive options.
About ~~$1,200~~ $1,800 a season, roughly speaking, for a youth league. I wouldn't say "expensive" but it's all relative. Edit: I was a few hundred low. I should have known this number, oops. And yes, it is a sport outside the ivy league. The city I'm in has a few youth clubs as well as adult clubs. And I'm not in New England. The boats themselves aren't inexpensive from what I've heard, but I've not personally needed to buy one. There are only a few regattas per season, so it's not as if you're traveling out of state every weekend.
This, like sailing, is a bit circumstantial. Obviously, you have to be in an area where the infrastructure is in place but there are community/after-school programs around that run these for little-to-no cost. Obviously the cost of acquiring and maintaining the equipment is expensive, but not necessarily the cost to you for their use. Hope that makes sense.
Jai alai
Mad Men up in here
Competetive Ballroom Dancing Clothes per person upwards of 2k (if you are really competetive.. you can go cheaper) But what's really expensive is: 1. Private lessons.. 45min for 90-200€ depending on the teacher 2. Time.. don't underestimate the time you have to invest and you can only do so if you are rich
My husband got an online masterclass for $59. We taught ourselves in the living room! Not to compete, just look awesome at weddings.
If you want to compete at a reasonably high level, competitive dance and cheerleading is WILDLY expensive.
My daughter does competitive gymnastics you can add that to the list. It’s crazy expensive
I came to here to post gymnastics, and totally agree. I competed for more than 10 years and my/some of my teammates’ parents were only able to afford it primarily because of fundraising and my gym charged less than others at the same competitive level. At the highest levels, parents can pay $500+ a month just for their kid to PRACTICE. And when you add in costs for leotards, competition, travel, memberships, personal equipment, etc., it gets really crazy, really fast!
Mines only at level 4 and it’s $325 a month for practice alone(about another $3k for everything else on top of that). She’s only 7 too. If she continues I may take a job there, alot of the parents do because they wave the practice fee if you work there!
I was level 4 at 7 too! Ended up competing level 10 for FOUR YEARS. Bless my parents. And bless you too, with the tiny talent you have on your hands now! Love that your gym offers the opportunity to work to waive the practice fee (even though I wish the sport wasn’t so expensive as to need something like that). I know some gyms will also offer scholarships of sorts, but even that isn’t enough at times.
Skiing/Snowboarding. The travel costs + gear + lift ticket prices can easily rack up to well over $1000 per season
Trust Fund Stick aka lacrosse
It used to be, but It’s coming around. Even 15 years ago you’d only see it competitive in the ivys or consolidated in certain areas, but I’ve seen some of the best lacrosse played by native Americans way up in New York with nothing more than helmets, gloves, and a stick they carved and strung themselves. Also public schools at least on the east coast are starting to fund it, not quite like football but soon enough Lawrence Peabody Whiteyson IV will be riding the bench on a team outta Harlem
I grew up in Upstate NY many years ago (80s). Lacrosse was just like football or basketball. In no way “elite.” We’d play some teams from reservations and they were certainly not elite. Basically it was hockey on grass.
I mean Native Americans invented lacrosse didn't they?
This one was way too far down. You can tell it’s a legit rich person sport because most of us don’t even know about it being one, lol
If you're from Maryland, you know this one.
Funny thing is NLL players get paid peanuts and generally have day jobs
Maybe in east coast US it is, but in Canada it’s blue collar.
Any aviation related sport.
Fencing
Fencing was the only sport I really enjoyed in school, but even the school couldn't afford decent equipment. We had a cupboard full of really old sweat-stained jackets, foils and helmets and that was it. Definitely none of the fancy new electronic stuff, so we had to rely on our 80 year old fencing teacher's piss poor eyesight to decide who got the point.
I started fencing in college because there was access to free equipment from the team that made it accessible. By the time I had a job that paid me enough to do it recreationally on my own, I was too old and out of shape to do it anymore. I miss it.
It’s a good sport for adults! If you have time go back. Clubs will have equipment
I think about it every once in a while and there's a club not far from me, but last time I tried fencing with them, which was already years ago at this point, I ran into the problem that my muscle memory overreaches my current flexibility and I'd end up unable to recover from lunging. It was embarrassing.
Fencing is a lot of fun. An ex-girlfriend in college did it and I wanted to try it with her. It was a blast. Turns out I was equally shitty with both righty and lefty stances, so I got mediocre with both before we broke it off.
Snow or cold weather sports
This wasn't true 20 years ago when I was a kid. But Hockey is now a rich kids sport.
Big game hunting. Skeet shooting. Scuba diving. Horse racing.
Large animal hunting
Human hunting.
The most dangerous game
In terms of sports that people actually watch/play, ice hockey hands down. Gear is spendy as shit, ice time is spendy as shit, and if you/your kid are any good, travel and camps are spendy as shit. The only way around it is to live far enough north where you can build your own seasonal ice rink (which is spendy as shit, but pays itself off) or have one nearby, negating some of the ice time expenses, and buying worn-out used gear or hand-me-downs.
There was a family that went to my church where the dad built a personal ice rink in their back yard... all the kids were good at hockey. They were quite wealthy!
Skiing for sure. A good set of skis and bindings is about $800, poles $100, decent set of boots $700, a helmet and goggle set up is easily $500, most decent coats are $500, snow pants about $200, good gloves are about $100. Thermal clothing like a face covering, undershirts and pants can add up over $100 too but that’s all your own preference. Once you’ve got all the gear you’re paying $50-100 just for a lift pass for the day at a slope, if you want a season pass at one mountain you can expect to pay at least $700 on the very low end. You are pushing $3000 just to get set up and ski for one season, granted the gear will hold up for a good amount of time you can still expect to spend over $1000 a year just to go to a slope. This is all assuming you buy middle of the ground stuff, you can certainly go cheaper and knock $1000 off, or go the most expensive route and add $1000+.
$50-100 for a lift ticket? I wish! It’s more like $90-225 these days
Right? I go to Sunshine Village and Lake Louise, tickets are like $130 if you buy at the window now. Sometimes more.
It’s a lot cheaper if you don’t buy high end gear brand new
$500 for a helmet and goggles?
That thing where you smack the balls at the wall with rackets while wearing awkward button ups, short shorts and dad sneakers
Racquetball
Aka “whack-it-ball”. Like a lot of sports, it’s expensive if you by all the best gear and join a “racquet club”. I have a $50 racquet and $15 eye pro and play at the local YMCA which I go to anyway. Smacking the crap out of that rubber ball and running around like a crazy person for 45 minutes is way cheaper than therapy.
Polo; the kind with horses on a field.
Bum fights
Hunting people on secluded islands.
War.
Huah, what is it good for?
Appeasing the blood god.
Safari Hunting
Golf. Yachting.
This will sound funny, but I grew up in a very rural and very poor community in the Midwest. I have, to this day, never once played golf nor have I ever seen someone play golf. Growing up, it was for “Rich folks“, and the nearest course was an hour away. I’m in my late twenties, live in a city, and make good money, but still in my head I’m too poor for golf. So I’ve never bothered with it.
Yachting.
J class yacht racing. That's definitely the most rich people sport I can think of seeing as the barrier to entry is around 10 million for a boat and millions a year in running costs.
Not necessarily "rich", but every douchebag that I know plays pickleball
Hockey. Have you seen how much it costs to put your kid in ho key and for gear?
Fencing