Costs of playing juvenile GAA

GeneralSherman

So the registration of juvenile players for the new season is almost upon us again. The club with which I am involved is an football only, small rural club. Juvenile players pay a one off registration fee which covers their player insurance also. They do not have to pay for anthing else after that and are not asked to sell lines etc. The cost of gear, referees fees etc is met by the juvenile club. I was speaking to a secratary of a smallish Dublin GAA club and he described how kids pay a reg fee then a €50 sub and are expected to buy a club Lotto ticket weekly also. Guess which club has the all weather pitches !

So my question to ye is what are the juvenile players paying to play with your local club. Please give a brief description of your club ... rural, numbers and facilities etc.

nice_guy80

our local rugby club charges €90
local golf club €150
tennis club €80

so I think most GAA juvenile players get membership very cheap.
I've no problem with cheap membership, once families support fundraising efforts during the year.
Some clubs go the other way and hike up their fees and don't put any extra burden on families during the year.

spud65

hurling club €50. u10s down, loan of hurls, helmets for training. over 10s have their own helmets and are swapped free of charge when they get to small, replacement hurls if broken in training or match.

football: €80

soccer: 3 clubs near us, from €120 up to €150:eek:

J Cheever Loophole

Football Club based in Armagh City - one of the largest memberships in the County - one senior pitch and one half size pitch for training, although have actively sought to acquire a second pitch without success to date.

Underage membership is £10 - kids are asked to bring £1 to each training session / match throughout the season and would also be asked to get involved in fundraising / sponsorship when that comes around.

looder

Tipp club. Juveniles €10.

Parents would be encouraged to support fundraising efforts during the year too.

Squidgy Black

Our club is 20 euro for registration/insurance for the year, then 2 euro a week/game to pay for the ref. Other than that you just have to have your own hurl and helmet for hurling.

bcb1

£10 juvenile
£20 adult member
£30 family membership

Sin é

ah sure !

€30 for the year for football for up to 16 , no hurling here.
We are not asked for anything else. We can buy lines for the GAA loto but do not have to ( we do of course to help the club )
compared to the soccer club which charges €60 for the year + €2 a week.

Roger_007

I am surprised that kids are actually being charged for membership of clubs. Maybe I am just out of touch but years ago, (1980s), I managed juvenile football teams, u12s and u14s. We never asked for any money for kids to be members of the teams. All the organisation was provided on a voluntary basis including transport. Referees never asked for expenses. The parent clubs of the teams involved provided the pitches and dressing rooms etc. Of course the kids were expected to have their own kit apart from the jerseys which did require a bit of fundraising. Laundry was also done on a voluntary basis.
When you start charging kids to play games you run the risk of excluding some kids because their parents can't afford the fees. Neither can you charge some kids and not others.

I am gobsmacked.

nice_guy80

Roger_007 wrote: »

I am surprised that kids are actually being charged for membership of clubs. Maybe I am just out of touch but years ago, (1980s), I managed juvenile football teams, u12s and u14s. We never asked for any money for kids to be members of the teams. All the organisation was provided on a voluntary basis including transport. Referees never asked for expenses. The parent clubs of the teams involved provided the pitches and dressing rooms etc. Of course the kids were expected to have their own kit apart from the jerseys which did require a bit of fundraising. Laundry was also done on a voluntary basis.
When you start charging kids to play games you run the risk of excluding some kids because their parents can't afford the fees. Neither can you charge some kids and not others.

I am gobsmacked.

I think you are out of touch. Sports clubs are charging big money to play.
€10 barely gets you into the cinema!

If a family cannot afford 10 or 20 for the year, then I'd be amazed (i'd also say most clubs would know if certain families couldn't afford that)
considering what they get for that!

compare the facilities and coaching kids get nowadays compared to years ago

Roger_007

nice_guy80 wrote: »

I think you are out of touch. Sports clubs are charging big money to play.
€10 barely gets you into the cinema!

If a family cannot afford 10 or 20 for the year, then I'd be amazed (i'd also say most clubs would know if certain families couldn't afford that)
considering what they get for that!

compare the facilities and coaching kids get nowadays compared to years ago

Some of these clubs are charging kids for training sessions and games as well as an annual fee. What do you do if a kid turns up for training without his/her €2? Send them home? Send a bill to their parents?
If there are 2,3 or 4 kids ina family, these amounts soon add up. I think there should be no fees for any kids under 16. Juvenile teams usually belong to adult clubs and there should be a policy of covering expenses for juvenile teams from the overall revenue of the club.
Parents will always do what they can on a voluntary basis if approached in the right way. When you start charging for every last thing, parents will take the view that they have paid already; and that's that.

nice_guy80

Roger_007 wrote: »

Some of these clubs are charging kids for training sessions and games as well as an annual fee. What do you do if a kid turns up for training without his/her €2? Send them home? Send a bill to their parents?
If there are 2,3 or 4 kids ina family, these amounts soon add up. I think there should be no fees for any kids under 16. Juvenile teams usually belong to adult clubs and there should be a policy of covering expenses for juvenile teams from the overall revenue of the club.
Parents will always do what they can on a voluntary basis if approached in the right way. When you start charging for every last thing, parents will take the view that they have paid already; and that's that.

agreed.
then charge them €50 or €60 at start of the year and no more for rest of the year.

Starie1975

Our club has not changed it's membership fee in years.

£5 juvenile
£20 adult member
£50 family membership
£40 adult player

ah sure !

agree if you have few kids it all adds up. Find charging €2 a week ridiculous. Dad , do you have change ? Oh crap no forgot etc .....

i think the €30 i am paying for each kids now for football is very small change , they train few times a week + games. They also get a pair of socks or something similar most year from the club. It is only fair to participate financially.

Soccer ends up at €100 a year when adding the weekly charge + once off at the beginning of the year , that is too much.

How often do i hear people complaining it is too expensive but then they will splash out a lot more than €30 a week on fags and booze.

Ash.J.Williams

Roger_007 wrote: »

Some of these clubs are charging kids for training sessions and games as well as an annual fee. What do you do if a kid turns up for training without his/her €2? Send them home? Send a bill to their parents?
If there are 2,3 or 4 kids ina family, these amounts soon add up. I think there should be no fees for any kids under 16. Juvenile teams usually belong to adult clubs and there should be a policy of covering expenses for juvenile teams from the overall revenue of the club.
Parents will always do what they can on a voluntary basis if approached in the right way. When you start charging for every last thing, parents will take the view that they have paid already; and that's that.

I've never heard of a gaa club charging for training, and no kid would be sent home for not having €2. It's not about profit, €50 is a small fee to keep your kids from getting fat.

Roger_007

ah sure ! wrote: »

agree if you have few kids it all adds up. Find charging €2 a week ridiculous. Dad , do you have change ? Oh crap no forgot etc .....

i think the €30 i am paying for each kids now for football is very small change , they train few times a week + games. They also get a pair of socks or something similar most year from the club. It is only fair to participate financially.

Soccer ends up at €100 a year when adding the weekly charge + once off at the beginning of the year , that is too much.

How often do i hear people complaining it is too expensive but then they will splash out a lot more than €30 a week on fags and booze.

Yea, I suppose a small annual fee is OK. I just find the idea of charging kids for training sessions a bit much.

ArielAtom

OK. Dublin based.

Football & Hurling, €120.00 per child or family @ €270.00 for two or more kids and full membership for Adult. The above includes all insurance, registration fee's, referee's fee's and two sessions per week on an all weather pitch.

Soccer. Depending at what level your child is deemed to be at:

Level 1. Coached by parents €180.00 per year.

Level 2. Coached 1 night by parent and 1 UEFA badged coach €270.00 (1 all weather session)

Level 3. UEFA Coach twice a week @ €370.00.

Lads, GAA membership is cheaper down the country but even at €120.00 per year is cheaper than Soccer Clubs.

GeneralSherman

Holy Cow ArielAtom ! Thanks for sharing.

The Green

My own club, small rural up north

£5 - Youth
£10 - Adult
£25 - Family (2 Adult & All U18's)

Cost to run club last year approx. £70K

paulski999

€50 youth / kids
€100 adult / family

Ask parents of kids to pay €2 into club lotto, at least they have a chance of winning jackpot, they don't all do & don't make a big deal if they don't pay..

Affiliation fess are crazy!! We have to pay €10,000 to €12,000 in Affiliation / Insurance each year, not sure how smaller clubs survive...

paulski999

Also on charging kids for training, makes sense instead of charging at games, some subs might not get on to play, and would be unfair to charge them for ref expenses..

Squidgy Black

Do all clubs cover physio/hospital bills for injuries at training/matches? I know ours does once you're insured but one of the lads in another club had to cover a physio appointment himself

Syferus

It's incredibly poor form if a club doesn't cover basic medical needs of its players when they get injured.

68Murph68

Syferus wrote: »

It's incredibly poor form if a club doesn't cover basic medical needs of its players when they get injured.

Pretty much all clubs do cover basic medical needs of its players when they get injured.

However I have heard of cases where clubs have had to put controls in place due to a small number of individuals abusing the system.

I've a relative who used to constantly head off to the physio every time they got the smallest twinge and bill the club. He was clearly taking the proverbial. I'm sure there are other individuals in loads of other clubs who do the same.

As someone mentioned in the thread - insurance is a huge cost for clubs. The GAA do the best job possible in keeping club insurance as low as possible but having lads running off to physios for every knock and little niggle makes it very hard for them to keep costs down.