cheermomforever
Cheer Parent
- May 16, 2012
- 3,409
- 3,174
I heard Worlds costs are going up also! Cutting back on hopper days too??! Anyone know....
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Here's a subject that speaks to me...Now I don't know how it is for US based teams but for us in Canada, the choices are pretty much limited, unless of course you decide to plan your trip yourself.
We have 2 options (At our gym at least) :
1-World Packages witch includes your stay at the same Disney resort as your team (7 days, 6 nights) + Transportation from airport to hotel (Magical Express) + 3 day admission to ESPN WWOS + Access to charter bus (At Celebrity Hall) to take you to WWOS + 5 day Disney park hopper pass + Block Party.
To this, you have the choice to add the plane ticket or not.
All in all, depending on if you split your small Disney room with 3 (+/-1100$), 2 (1300$), 1 (1500$), or nobody (2300$) if you add the round trip (+/-750$) the total experience will cost you between 2000$ and 3000$ each person, not counting your kid for whom you have paid at the start of the year in the 5 or 6000$ for the season witch includes World's wether you make it or not...if you don't, you get to go on the trip but you don't hit the mat.
2-Same as 1st but without the plane ticket, witch is often what people take because you can get a trip to Orlando for far less than 750$. (i.e. Last year I paid 329$ round trip).
Of course, athletes get the same package minus the opportunity to take another plane but since it is in the price of their season, it's ok.
The option of planning my own trip from top to bottom doesn't appeal to me as much, even though almost every experienced parent at our gym does so...Renting a home or Villa between a couple of parents is much less costly but you have to rent a car for yourself (or split with everybody) plan all your moves with you gym's and World's schedule (that can change on the drop of a dime) deal with traffic, pay for parking and daily admission to WWOS etc etc, all that without seeing your kid once except when they're on the mat competing during all the duration of your stay.
Now what would be MY ideal package (Since I've now been to Disney 2 times in the last 2 year and seen every park or attraction) would be the stay near our team (i.e. Disney All Star Sports) + ESPN WWOS 3 day access + Charter. That's it.
5 day park hopper is great for those who can't get enough, the newbies and the kids, same goes for the Block Party.
For the sake of discussion, depending on where you're from (US, Europe, Canada) : What can you do without ? What is the all around cost at your gym ? Do you have options ? But mostly : What would be YOUR ideal Worlds Package ?
Thanks to the OP for the great subject, I was thinking about starting one myself but leeching on to yours is just as good ;)
The thing is they don’t care that we would like to save $$...Not Worlds but Summit. If the team is not going on a paid bid, I'd like to see the option of not getting the 3 day pass. Or maybe get a 2 day pass. It's just wasted money. She only was able to go 2 of the days. So 1 day was a waste. The team she is on this year has made it to finals every year for many years and won Summit this year. So chances are she won't get but 1 day. As parents, we didn't purchase a multi day park hopper. We were only planning on one day. But b/c they didn't make it to day 2, we went back to the park. I guess I would just like to see options to make it less expensive and wasteful.
I no longer think it's funny that kids and parents think these comp venues and leagues can just charge a few dollars and pay bills all in the name of Suzie and Bobby getting to do and have whatever they want.
1) Venues- land/building debt and interest on billion of dollars, maintenance, legal fees, utilities, employees, insurance/benefits, investing for economic downturn and future growth.
2) Varsity/EP's-all of the above plus travel for employees, storage and moving equipment, setting up/tearing down.
3) Gym owners- much of the above plus income lost for doors closed and employee travel.
Parents, you have to foot all those bill if that's what you want for your kids. Dreams of a $15 athlete fee, free spectator admission, free parking, and profit-free? And, then wonders why no one listens. Less travel is the most obvious way to lower prices in youth sports and especially to venues in cities where the whole tax structure has been built around tourism and forcing people to buy park hoppers or stay at hotels within their city tax limits to get their venue.
Parents are going to have to provide realistic ideas. What about a combined division scoring system during the months of Nov-April so teams can have competition at local or closer comps? One true National at the end? Or, what about having an on-line, big screen competition option at these small events that have fewer competitors in the fringe divisions through the months of Nov-April? More reasonable expectations on practice wear, costumes (they're no longer truly uniforms) and bows, snacks, team apparel, team bonding/dinners, spray tans, team nails, posh ponies, goodie bags, ....
Also when my daughter began AS, she wasn’t required to buy new practice gear every year, uniforms were moderately priced because they were athletic and non blinged out, and new a t-shirt/practice gear wasn’t required for certain comps either....so it’s not just the venues and their fees!To me the big issue is that it WAS reasonable before, and you can't make me believe that venues and costs have doubled or tripled for the exact same event with the exact same seat up. It hasn't, but admission prices sure have. None of this has to do with costs, it has to do with making more money. Jamfest events used to be free for spectators. Imagine how much they make charging admission now. They would not have allowed free spectators before if they weren't still making money, so now they are just making thousands more with no more actual work or improvement to their event.
As long as coaches and owners do it, it will continue. Don't even get me started on Summit.
To me the big issue is that it WAS reasonable before, and you can't make me believe that venues and costs have doubled or tripled for the exact same event with the exact same seat up. It hasn't, but admission prices sure have. None of this has to do with costs, it has to do with making more money. Jamfest events used to be free for spectators. Imagine how much they make charging admission now. They would not have allowed free spectators before if they weren't still making money, so now they are just making thousands more with no more actual work or improvement to their event.
As long as coaches and owners do it, it will continue. Don't even get me started on Summit.
They will never drop the park hopper pass because that's how they make all the $$$$$. It's not about the cheerleading, it's about Disney World making a lot of money.
The Summit was never a good idea. Suzy doesn't need an annual end-of-the-year Disney World trip with her Level 1 team. All it's doing is pricing out more families. By the time the kids get to high school, families are broke and haven't been on a real vacation in years. And for what? The beginner levels of cheer? The Summit wouldn't be necessary if there weren't 3894 fake Nationals with 485 divisions and 192 division splits at each Nationals. If there was a more legitimate competition circuit, people wouldn't have to keep going to Disney World all the darn time. The fact that some gyms travel far distances for both UCA Nationals and Summit boggle my mind. It's the same park hopping nonsense twice.
Coming back to this after spending some time on instagram today. I read a few posts on those insta anon accounts talking about whether or not school cheer was a sport. And the overwhelming majority of comments on these posts were from younger kids saying that school cheer is a sport because it's the best alternative they can afford to all star. So many comments of young girls and boys stating how much they wished they could do all star, but just cannot afford it. Not only is this heartbreaking as someone who loves the sport, but from a business perspective it's terrifying. How many tens of thousands of potential customers have been priced out of the sport during what could have been its biggest period of growth? All-star Cheerleading has become akin to horseback rising, something only the affluent can afford. It's something we've all talked about for years but after today I see that it's happened already. The cost of entry is too high for beginners and intermediates alike. I know why, cat lady has done a great job of explaining that repeatedly. So the question is how do we save this sport? What can consumers do 'vote with our money' and help to lower these costs?
Coming back to this after spending some time on instagram today. I read a few posts on those insta anon accounts talking about whether or not school cheer was a sport. And the overwhelming majority of comments on these posts were from younger kids saying that school cheer is a sport because it's the best alternative they can afford to all star. So many comments of young girls and boys stating how much they wished they could do all star, but just cannot afford it. Not only is this heartbreaking as someone who loves the sport, but from a business perspective it's terrifying. How many tens of thousands of potential customers have been priced out of the sport during what could have been its biggest period of growth? All-star Cheerleading has become akin to horseback rising, something only the affluent can afford. It's something we've all talked about for years but after today I see that it's happened already. The cost of entry is too high for beginners and intermediates alike. I know why, cat lady has done a great job of explaining that repeatedly. So the question is how do we save this sport? What can consumers do 'vote with our money' and help to lower these costs?