discostu
Registered User
Saint Teemu said:I agree with this completely. It's obscenely expensive to buy all the gear for hockey, and you still have to factor in all the little extra costs. Here's a fictionalized example:
"Great news, Dad! I made the AAA traveling team. Now I need red gloves, blue pants, and a yellow helmet to match the team colours. This year we're going to that tournament in Quebec City if I sell 8,500 boxes of chocolate almonds, or if you just shell out $2,000. By the way, my Easton Synergy stick broke when I looked at it sideways. I need $250 to replace it."
I can certainly see how buying a new pair of soccer cleats every year would be a lot more palatable.
Your comment about ice availability is spot on, too. In fact, the cost of gear and the crap ice times my team was allocated were instrumental in me quitting playing beer league hockey. I kind of miss it, but I've been considering playing indoor soccer as a replacement sport.
THis is also something that's impacting the growth of hockey. In Ottawa, we're seeing a growing number of indoor fields. It's leading to more people playing soccer year-round, and any time I go to an indoor field, much of the space is being used for youth clinics. There seems to be more focus on kids playing soccer at a more competitive level, rather than it just being a basic participatory sport, which described a great deal of the kids playing it in the past.