Skiing - most expensive sport?

My parents do golf. They spent quite the pretty penny on clubs (which dad, being a golf course general manager, gets at a discount). They don't have to pay to play at his course, but they take vacations and go play nice courses. They told me what they paid for greens fees at Torrey Pines on our trip to San Diego (I stayed at the hotel by the pool) and I nearly had a cow.

 

This thread has me thinking about a quote from the great Ken Burns, and yes, he is great. He said he refuses to watch sports that minories cannot excel or compete in against wealthier people.

Skiing without a doubt is a sport of privilege.

You can be great at hockey in Canada much easier because of frozen ponds than you can in America where you have to pay for ice time.

 

Yachting is a little more expensive than skiing. Skiing is expensive, but several places in the northeast
give good deals on season lift tickets. Never been to Col or Utah so not sure of the prices. For kids in school,
it's about $300 for a season lift ticket. Renting decent skis or snowboard is about the same. Most winters you
can get out at least 25-30 times, so considering the single day lift ticket is about $70-80 the season ticket is a
pretty good deal.

 

There's also the "how much of a douchebag will this sport make my child by being around douchebags?" factor to consider.

Because you really bring up the odds a lot when you start talking skiing, golf and yachting. I started playing golf at four and I'm pretty sure most of the douchebagginess I had to beat out of myself in early adulthood came from the golf course.

 

At one time you had kids who made it just from playing pond hockey and on outdoor rinks. Now unless you are an absolute genetic freak in terms of skill set you are not making the NHL without a whopper of an investment in time and money from your parents (or some other benefactor.)

Hockey is every bit the country club sport that baseball in the states is with trainers, costly ice time, specialized coaches, travel teams, etc.

 

Spot on, this. Few kids grow up skating on ponds etc. here now and ice time is insanely expensive in areas like Toronto, where they have built very few new rinks in what seems like decades, too. There is no cheap way to play minor midget AAA in the Toronto area and that doesn't take into account off-season training and private lessons, custom skates and sticks etc.

 

Skiing/snowboard is ridiculous to get into. But once you have the gear it gets easier. Most ski areas are marketing towards the 250k+$ demo for destination guests. At least, that was what it was when I worked in marketing at the most most popular/busiest ski area in North America. I still work there, but in a different department.
The average family probably spends 5-10K on a ski trip if you're a destination guest. Flight, lift tickets, ski rentals, housing, and then lessons if you need them. These folks are going once a year, maybe ski one or two days on the trip and just enjoying being in the mountains.

However, if you know how to ski/snowboard, own your own equipment, and live reasonably close to a resort then it's not bad. You can buy the Epic or Ikon pass for 500-800$ and that's usually good at 10+ resorts. Most major metros have ride shares going to the mountains.

 

Otherwise known as the "Benefits of Private School Versus Turning Your Kid into a Spoiled Douchebag Quotient"

 

Plus, eventually you just know they're going to get overconfident, talk some trash and maybe engage in some bullying, bet something stupid and humiliating on a downhill race against some schmuck who can't even ski, and through some bizarre set of circumstances wind up losing the race, their girlfriend, their dignity and the respect of their peers all in one fell swoop.

 

And then the next summer, in Nantucket, pretty much the same thing happens, except yachting.

But after that Savage Steve Holland pretty much stops making movies.

 

I could never let my children participate in a sport that, in the 21st century, still insists on using offensive, discriminatory words as part of its nomenclature.