How much does figure skating cost?

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  • Parent Category: Money

The short answer is “How much money have you got?”. The long answer is “It depends”. If your kid is just starting, and she'll be skating for 9 months out of the year, once or maybe twice a week, you can probably keep it under $1000 for the year.

If your kid is going to go on to be a skater who competes even at the StarSkater level, by year 5 you'll be up to $3000+ per year. Of course, this also depends on how quickly her skills develop. Some kids can take lessons for years and never progress while others may be competing the first year they start. For a pre-novice skater, you're likely spending over $10,000 per year. There are skaters spending $20,000 and more than $30,000 per year.

There are so many variables that will factor into how much you end up spending. If your kid is involved in other complementary activities like gymnastics or dance, you may spend less for them to skate at the same level as kids who spend more time on the ice.

Skates and outfits are another area of highly variable cost. The better your skater, the better the skates they require. Dresses can also suck up vast quantities of discretionary income. Hand-me downs can help keep this cost down in the short term but eventually they probably won't want to wear a dress if people at the club associate it with another skater.

If your kid has aspirations to be a world champion, plan on tens of thousands of dollars per year before they get to the top levels. More than 10 but less than 30 but don't underestimate the ability of figure skating to suck up as much money as you have to throw at it. There are specialized coaches for every aspect of skating. Jumping, spinning, dance, psychology not to mention all the off-ice training like yoga, pilates, ballet, hip-hop dance, core strength, etc.

And we haven't even started talking about travel costs and competition costs. When you're at a competition there are registration fees for every event that she enters at the competition and you have to pay your coach for some of the competition time as well. And if you're out of town, now you're talking hotel costs and food for your coach and you and your kid.

Your daughter could skate only 1 hour per week. She'll learn and progress but she won't likely be going off to competitions. There isn't one single program for skaters. They can skate as much or as little as you choose but there is a fairly high correlation between the amount of time spent on the ice and the progress they make in the sport.

Comments   

 
# nickpiwkw 2012-11-14 00:56
are that how much it is :-|
 
 
# siegfried 2012-11-14 01:03
You can skate for less but this is a typical cost. It assumes costs for skates, competitions, coaching, ice time, tests, etc. Some costs vary a lot from place to place so it's worth checking with a skating club near you to understand exactly what it will cost in your area.
 
 
-1 # Aliyah 2012-12-09 22:07
I currently skate 3-4 days a week (about 5 hours a week) and have 2 private 30-minute lessons a week (the lessons are $70 per hour). Plus i take ballet once a week and do off ice training twice a week. My parents only spend about $6,500 on my skating per year but really good skaters who skate 5-6 days a week and have 3-4 lessons per week are bound to pay around $1,200 per MONTH. It's a very expensive sport but very worth it!!!
 
 
# Jennifer 2013-06-10 23:35
I have a fourteen year old who skates competitively 5 days a week. Ice, coaching time costs about $2,000.00 per month. Be sure its something you can afford because now we decided its just too expensive and my daughter is very sad. When you add in skates ($1200.00), competitions ($200.00 to enter plus coaching time and expenses $150 to $300, hotel and food $300.00 for two days, gas well you get the picture do that 5 times a year) if come top four at sectionals you get to pay for you, your skater and coach to fly to Regina, pay all hotel and expenses for the coach and you and your kid.... This sport is almost $30,000.00 per year at the Novice level. Two below Senior at a chance to win Canadians... and your kid may never land that double axel or triple.. then there is the politics and parents..... at a $1.00 per minute 3 hours a week coaching time the coach has all the say and they can pull the plug and black list your kid... yes here in Canada under lovely Skate Canada
 
 
# Fion 2015-05-12 03:11
We pay about 23.000 a year for 1 child
 
 
# IceAndSkates 2015-12-03 23:35
I want to do ice skating so badly but I didn't realize it's so expensive.
 
 
# siegfried 2015-12-04 11:23
Skating doesn't have to be expensive but if you move up to higher competitive levels then it does for sure.

Don't let that stop you. You can have a lot of fun learning to skate without spending huge amounts each year. I have two daughters who skate (one is pre-novice and one is a synchro skater) and I've never spent that much for both of them combined in a single year. We're probably spending about $10,000 per year for our pre-novice skater now but it was about a third of that when she was at the Star 4or 5 level.