Anyone that gets their 10 year old daughter to participate in a sport with a view to how much money they are going to earn is a Damir Docic teir cunt. We are lucky here that we have a climate and a culture that allows kids to play year-round. The problem is that we are so parochial that we allow stupid sports like AFL and netball to become mainstream. I blame their parents.
NPL1 clubs will cost you about $3k per year. It includes up to three nights a week training / coaches, a game day physio, generally playing and training kits, trackies and a club bag. Good boots are another few hundred. If you’re lucky enough to have a pick of metro clubs your travel costs are reduced too. I feel for the country kids, they’re the ones who’s families have to make lifestyle choices. Overall, I don’t think thats too cost prohibitive.
The revenue nrl and afl bring is thousands of dollars per participant, they could basically pay 6 years to play. Football is like 8 buck a kid or something
You’re right. We are producing world-beating national teams in both genders, the fees can stay where they are.
I didn’t say that. I agree something needs to be done. Lord knows I couldn’t shut up about this shit when I was in the NPL and FFA setups. But it doesn’t change the fact that there are a number of factors why comparing our fees to the other major footy codes is a zero sum game.
I’m not an expert on the subject, I’ll admit. But reducing or mitigating presumably one of the larger barriers to getting more talented kids onto football pitches seems like good business.
Probably the other sport, especially if you end up taking them to SAP.
It is. If someone can pay for it.
I remember working out at one stage when I was at NT that our fees were 1500, and the kids received 4.5hours of coaching a week (which in our case was only with advanced licenced coaches) for around 40 weeks (call it 36 because you do two nights a week around Xmas and have a few weeks off). This does not include game time (another 22+ hours not counting trials/friendlies) you’re paying roughly $9.25 an hour for training, not counting game time or gear which were still included. Even back then (10 odd years ago) there is no way you could get even group training in almost any sport for that hourly rate (5-6 times at least for things like tennis or gymnastics). And you’re paying coaches maybe $4000 ( this varies wildly between clubs). From each team, that leaves 20k for 16 kids. Out of that has to come player gear, ground fees, lights for training at night, referee fees and player insurance (and FNSW rego). It was not a big margin.
Now there is absolutely a case to be made that certain NPL clubs (a lot more than others) are spunking big change on first graders. And some get revenue from their clubs that almost certainly means they should drop fees. But for the vast majority of clubs at state league or local level, the costs don’t change much but the revenue certainly does. And if they want to survive, what choice do they have. They can’t say ‘we’ll have them play for free because we’ll get transfer fees eventually’. They dont get that at their level. And players will just head to ALM youth clubs if they’re that good anyway (there should absolutely be a restriction agains theALM clubs charging fees…. I don’t know if they do, best thing I ever did for my mental health was get out of the game).
Costs are not changing, so the only way to lower things is to bring in revenue. And that only comes from hugely upgraded sponsorships (NRL and AFL), huge broadcast deals (NRL and AFL) or governments (NRL…. You get the picture.
TLDR; I want to drop fees too, but it’s a much bigger conversation.
@Harsulas might disagree with me, but I’d say the biggest barrier in getting talented kids onto the pitch is cultural. Especially young girls. Some families believe an education is more important than sport. Especially a sport when you’re career is done before you’re 30.
The barriers in development and opportunities to become better players are more likely nepotism/favouritism and lack of quality game time against good opponents.
I agree that’s a factor for getting kids to play sport, but I don’t see how that affects us more than any other code? The factors you’re talking about are pretty ubiquitous between all sports.
Money is a consideration that actually sets us apart from other codes. Obviously our sport has crazy huge upside if you make it to the top (compared to the other football codes particularly) but almost everyone is realistic enough to know that’s a pipedream.
There are parents who’ve done the math and realised that the sports to push kids towards for the probably most reasonable chance of a decent paying career are tennis and golf (not too mention less chance of serious injury). Though I might point out that while you can train a fair bit yourself in these individual sports, you’re certainly paying upwards of $80 an hour for private coaching. Significantly up if you’re at a high level.
I think government is the only realistic chance of that, and they have to be persuaded that spending the political capital will be worth it.
Pollies were still uninterested in investing in football after the wildly successful Women’s World Cup. We won’t get another boost like that in our lifetime.
We might be talking across purposes.
@Harsulas is dead right about mental health and the NPL though.
Financially if I had kid who wanted a career in sport, I’m not sure I’d be pushing them towards golf or tennis even leaving aside a personal preference for football. Unless you are a top 100 player consistently in either Tennis or Golf you are struggling with the travel costs landing on the player (Tennis might have a little more range on that number but not too much). If womens football can continue to grow at a reasonable pace for the next say 5-10 years it should eclipse them collectively.
Plus there is something about Tennis & Golf that seems to either attract or create weird people. Golf maybe less so on the womens side.
Agree golf and tennis have massive money for the very successful but outside even the top 100 they are struggling.
Big travel costs, often last minute as well.
Had a Uni associate who was a very good local golfer as a kid and into Uni. Gave it a crack on the Asian tour but probably spent two years and $150k on limited return. And that’s a common story. The club pro role pays better.
Mr brother-in-law played on the Asian tour for a couple of years, earned enough playing to travel and pay for expenses.
Said it was mad fun, basically a free holiday touring Asia.
Not sure if it still is but it used to be free to play junior rugby league in the South Sydney catchment. Souths Juniors covered all costs including boots for those who could not afford them and also pick kids up from school for training then drop them home.
This is how Adam Reynolds made his way to the top after growing up in Waterloo.
My son plays for a SAP team and I agree that the costs are perfectly reasonable for what you get.
I often get other parents complaining about the costs and I tell them it’s their own fault for not watching the A-league on TV (which is how other sport’s fees get subsidised).
Wtf?
Presumably in a bus of some sort…?
Like the courtesy bus from Souths Jrs???