All-Star Tryouts And Financial Agreements

[AScheer]

I guess I am stuck on why would anybody coach children 2 nights a week for that duration of time without asking for payment... What you are providing is a service and/or clinics, which you should charge for those clinics? Why would any gym disguise a service and/or clinics as tryouts? In my thinking, tryout should be 1 time only...participants come in show their best stuff and then comeback to find out where they place in your organization and then given a little time to decide if you agree to the terms presented...nice, if not, move on to the next gym and pay to tryout somewhere else... Yes, a shoe store will look at you, like you crazy if asked to wear the merchandise without paying once leaving the store:eek:... but we are making an error in clarification - when you purchase shoes you are making a transaction and this is not a service...Tryouts at my daughter's gym is in early May and the 1st week, they provide the expected participants an opportunity to go to Tryout Clinics, they have about 5 0r 6 clinics, which you are charged $25 for each session, and in these clinics the participants are taught the dances, motions, stunts and given tumbling classes... There is a clear distinction to a service (tryout clinics) and tryout ... There is a flat fee of $40.00 for tryout and the actual tryout last 20 minutes and this year they included a second day to evaluate stunting and then the third day-team placement, which takes all but 30 minutes, the participants are called in by levels and the coaches for those prospective teams will call out their team roster, somewhat like a draft pick,,, the draft pick is good for those who make those coveted teams, but last year, I felt so bad for those who did not get called, but all these things happened without a contract! So, when you show up in June and pay for June, that is when a semi-contract comes into existence...and actually, it is in July when you find out about competition schedule, cheer camp payment, etc and first payment for competitions fee:cheering:

Yes technically we run a tryout clinic. Common for a lot of gyms in our area. I think the word tryout is the confusing word in this thread since all different areas and gyms may interpret this word differently. In your case "tryout" is the one actual day where she goes in to be evaluated for a team. For us "tryouts" are a month long process where we work with your kid, followed by a day where we evaluate her on specific things for a team placement. For a month we try them out and they try us out. Ideally this helps with those that choose to leave after team selections. Obviously there will always be those that leave bc they don't like their team placement, but the ones that leave because they don't like how the gym is ran or the coaches coach is minimized. They have a feel for the gym and coaches during the tryout process, not after. Forcing to sign contracts though is ridiculous and should be a red flag in my opinion.

By your post, your daughters tryout technically costs $190 (assuming she attends all days and the additional $40 fee.) Posting that number would cause similar reactions to other posts in this thread of high prices. How dare a gym charge $190 for tryouts, but that isn't what it seems and gyms shouldn't be considered ripping people off or shady for charging such. I'm assuming most people in this thread who have a high tryout price are similar, it's just all in how the gym presents itself.

 

[laughAlittle]

is this the reason why they are called "team placements" versus "tryouts"?

 

[cheermommaRN]

That's misleading. The fee for the tryout $25/$50 depending on if you're a new or returning athlete. The rest of the fee is for practice clothes. If you don't make a team or choose not to accept team placement, then the practice clothing $$ is returned.

Yeah I didn't realize until I came back to this thread that what I posted was misleading and by the time I got through the thread you had cleared it up. Yes $250 included practice clothes but it was due at tryouts where some gyms have you pay that later.


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[mamabear]

is this the reason why they are called "team placements" versus "tryouts"?

At our gym, placements are for previous team members who have been invited back for the next season. They know they are going to be on a team, just need to figure which one.

Tryouts are for new people. Slightly different process.

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[Just-a-Mom]

Fees? For high school sports? Public schools? What is this madness?

Oh how I miss non urban school systems. In chicago we have fees JUST TO GO TO SCHOOL - it's about $350-1000, depending on where you go to school. That's just for school. Sports are separate, and another fee.

Cheer in high school was about $600 altogether, on top of the $400 school fee (for activities and "workbooks" we never received). So I shelled out $1,000 within our first month living here.

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[CheerBank]

Oh how I miss non urban school systems. In chicago we have fees JUST TO GO TO SCHOOL - it's about $350-1000, depending on where you go to school. That's just for school. Sports are separate, and another fee.

Cheer in high school was about $600 altogether, on top of the $400 school fee (for activities and "workbooks" we never received). So I shelled out $1,000 within our first month living here.

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Never had school fees. Not when attending public school in NYC or for my kids out in the 'burbs. That's what my redonkulous school taxes are for.
I know that when former cp did cheer in HS we paid for travel, clothing etc. through the booster club, but not to the school.


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[AlwaysLearning]

Fees? For high school sports? Public schools? What is this madness?

Yes our fees are for a public school. They've declared themselves a pay to play school. It's a once a yr fee & all funds go to the athletic dept (not a specific sport) so there is no rollover of funds. We also have to fundraise for each sport, but those funds stay in that sport to buy fancy new equipment, etc. They do offer scholarships if you can't afford the fees so every kid has the opportunity to play sports for the school.

My kids run XC & track at school and the team provides the uniforms & camp is free. The athletic dept is good to the XC/track teams. They can hire whatever coaches they want, go to any meets they want, provide busing for all events, etc. It helps that we have 300 kids in the program who bring in about $100,000 a year for the athletic dept.

School cheer is a club sport so it's about $1000-1500 a year for uniforms, camps, coach fees, etc.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Never had school fees. Not when attending public school in NYC or for my kids out in the 'burbs. That's what my redonkulous school taxes are for.
I know that when former cp did cheer in HS we paid for travel, clothing etc. through the booster club, but not to the school.


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I'd never heard of school fees until I moved here. I can't comprehend how our outrageously high, increase-every-year taxes don't cover it. I don't mind paying extra for sports because my kids are the ones playing.

Next year will be our first year playing school volleyball so I don't know how much that costs. The costs for cheer were all apparel related (uniform, jacket, tshirts, poms, 27 different pairs of socks, shoes, bow), so I don't know if volleyball will cost or not. It's just middle school so I'm hoping not.

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[dawgshow]

Wow. We had school fees and pay to play even back in the 80's. #poordistrictprobz


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[amy1k]

We have pay-to-play ($40?) and only nominal school fees...like small ($15?) lab fees for science classes.


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[kristenthegreat]

I'd never heard of school fees until I moved here. I can't comprehend how our outrageously high, increase-every-year taxes don't cover it. I don't mind paying extra for sports because my kids are the ones playing.

Next year will be our first year playing school volleyball so I don't know how much that costs. The costs for cheer were all apparel related (uniform, jacket, tshirts, poms, 27 different pairs of socks, shoes, bow), so I don't know if volleyball will cost or not. It's just middle school so I'm hoping not.

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Volleyball costs are minimal- if she's got decent sneaks, workout clothes, and a hair tie, she's good lol. Only other thing she'll need are knee pads, but they're dirt cheap.

PS- Get black. White is a bad idea lol.

 

[DaniV]

That's what I was thinking--under $50. One gym we'd looked at earlier in the year is charging $100 at tryouts. Ouch. I wonder if they were getting a lot (?) of cheerleaders who were just kicking tires? Or maybe tryout fees are a new revenue source?

They did have a handful of kids who went and tried out last year to see what team they would make then did not go back after team placements were announced. I don't know the exact number and if that is their reasoning but from our gym alone, we had 4-5 kids tryout elsewhere and then come back after they didn't make their desired team. From that gym's standpoint, that's an extra $400-500 they just pocketed. It deters kids from gym hopping at their gym (only the dedicated will tryout) or it's an extra revenue source.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Volleyball costs are minimal- if she's got decent sneaks, workout clothes, and a hair tie, she's good lol. Only other thing she'll need are knee pads, but they're dirt cheap.

PS- Get black. White is a bad idea lol.

She's been playing for the Chicago parks district, so she's got all that stuff. So I'm thinking at most we'll have some costs for a tshirt or something (I don't think the middle school has a uniform).

She's not playing for her school (they don't have sports) so she's playing for another chicago public school. Don't know if that will affect whether we have fees or not, since she doesn't go there and doesn't pay their school fees.

It will be weird, being at her games where I won't know anyone else. It's a much bigger school too, but much poorer than her fancy school she's in. I'm interested to see how it goes. So far the 2 kids from her school that played sports there this year have loved it. Idp is super excited.

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[Pebbles49]

AS Cheer says:
By your post, your daughters tryout technically costs $190 (assuming she attends all days and the additional $40 fee.) Posting that number would cause similar reactions to other posts in this thread of high prices. How dare a gym charge $190 for tryouts, but that isn't what it seems and gyms shouldn't be considered ripping people off or shady for charging such. I'm assuming most people in this thread who have a high tryout price are similar, it's just all in how the gym presents itself.
Hey ASCheer, no your $190 price:jawdrop: is misleading cost because most people may go in for 1 session of the clinics, maybe 2... but all 5/6 sessions is totally not reasonable and btw, these tryout clinics are elective, not mandatory, like what I read on many other posts... I know last year, my daughter (new to the gym) showed up for 1 tryout clinic, which lasted 2 hours and learned the dance, motions, jumps and they even had the participants learn a cheer with some tumbling passes or tumbling skills that they are planning to use when trying out... only cost me $40 + $25 tryout clinic = $65.00... Again, I want to highlight that the tryout clinics are elective and not mandatory, most new people to the program will take advantage of the tryout clinics to meet the coaching staff, which you can really do for free and just get a leg up on the tryout process...Just only saying!:fro:

 

[kristenthegreat]

She's been playing for the Chicago parks district, so she's got all that stuff. So I'm thinking at most we'll have some costs for a tshirt or something (I don't think the middle school has a uniform).

She's not playing for her school (they don't have sports) so she's playing for another chicago public school. Don't know if that will affect whether we have fees or not, since she doesn't go there and doesn't pay their school fees.

It will be weird, being at her games where I won't know anyone else. It's a much bigger school too, but much poorer than her fancy school she's in. I'm interested to see how it goes. So far the 2 kids from her school that played sports there this year have loved it. Idp is super excited.

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Volleyball was my #1 (No- cheer's not my first sport. Sorry guys :P). It's awesome. Actually, it was great cross-training for cheer because of the amount of jumping and conditioning we did. I did both school and 'AAU' (allstar volleyball). Team of maybe 7-8. We kicked butt.