Where a Club Team's Money Goes: Fees, Travel and Weekly Hours

A club or AAU team does not charge one price: it charges a club fee, a travel bill and a pile of smaller costs, and a 2025 survey of club parents puts the first two at more than $2,000 a year each.

The three buckets in a club-sports budget

The Ekmekjian, Snyder & Snyder study in the RAIS Conference Proceedings (August 2025) asked AAU/club parents to itemize yearly spending by category: club fees, tournament fees, equipment and uniforms, travel, lessons or private coaching, camps, and high school sports. Its results section reports:

"the average family spends over $2,000 annually on AAU or club fees, over $2,000 per year in travel, and an additional $500 or more annually on school or local fees and admission/visitor fees."

The authors add: "As expected, travel and club fees represent the largest expenses for parents." Their stated overall conclusion is that "the average cost of AAU/Club spending is over $5,000 a year."

Bucket	Reported average per year
Club or AAU fees	over $2,000
Travel	over $2,000
School or local fees and admission/visitor fees	$500 or more

These are floors ("over", "or more"), not exact means, so the three lines do not need to add to the $5,000-plus total, and this guide does not try to make them.

How the travel line compares with a typical season

The Aspen Institute Project Play Fall 2022 survey reports average annual family spending on a child's primary sport by category, across all sports and all levels of play: registration $168, equipment $154, travel $260, lessons $183, camps $111 and other $9.

Set side by side, the club travel figure (over $2,000) is more than seven times the all-levels travel average ($260), because 2,000 ÷ 260 is about 7.7. Treat that as a direction, not a measurement. The two numbers come from different surveys, different years and different families, and the Project Play average includes plenty of families who never leave town for a game.

The hours behind the bill

The same study recorded how much the athletes play. Children in its sample had played AAU/club for 5.11 years on average (standard deviation 1.25). During the season they "play at least 9 hours per week," in the off-season they average 5 hours a week, and they "play their main sport year-round."

The authors' regression links time to money: "the more hours kids play sports, the greater the spending. Results are statistically significant and show that kids who play more hours spend about $400 more a year."

They also tested family income, race and gender against spending. Those results "are not statistically significant," and the authors suggest the lack of significance "may be due to the surveys being very homogeneous and having a small sample size." In plain terms: in this sample, the number of hours played was the clearest signal of what a family spent, and the data cannot say much about anything else.

How much to trust the sample

The study says its questionnaire was "anonymous and non-validated," that 72 questionnaires were completed, and that "over 75% of participants were white and had a family income over $150,000 per year." Its regression tables use 71 families. That is a small, fairly uniform group, so the $5,000-plus figure describes those families. It is not a national average for club sports, and it says nothing about a particular program in your town.

A worked example

The Travel Team vs. Rec League Cost Calculator starts from two editable figures: $1,016 a year for the Project Play all-sports average (2024 survey) and $5,000 a year for the club figure above. Over four years, which is the calculator's starting horizon:

	Rec / all-levels average	Club / AAU figure	Difference
Per year	$1,016	$5,000	$3,984
Over 4 years	$4,064	$20,000	$15,936
Over 5 years	$5,080	$25,000	$19,920

The 5-year row is there because the survey's athletes had played club for 5.11 years on average. The calculation is plain multiplication and subtraction, and it assumes a flat cost every year. A family whose child joins a club team in year three would run the calculator for each phase separately.

If your own club fee, travel and hours differ from the averages, replace the defaults with your real numbers. The comparison to read is your own two figures, not the survey's. For the shorter version of this comparison and the sample caveats, see Travel Team vs. Rec League: What the Extra Money Buys.

What these figures do not say

None of the numbers above says whether club play is worth it for a given family; that depends on the child, the program and the budget. The figures describe what a group of club families reported spending. They do not describe what any program will charge, and they do not describe what a family gets back.

This guide is informational only and is not financial or recruiting advice. Last reviewed: October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What are the biggest costs on a club or AAU team?

Club fees and travel. The 2025 RAIS survey of club parents reports over $2,000 a year on each, with $500 or more on school or local fees and admission/visitor fees.

Does playing more hours cost more?

In that survey, yes. The authors report that kids who play more hours spend about $400 more a year, and call the result statistically significant.

Is the $5,000-a-year club figure a national average?

No. It comes from a small survey of club families that was mostly white and mostly above $150,000 in household income, and its authors describe the questionnaire as non-validated.

How can I compare my own club and rec costs?

Enter your own yearly figures for each into the Travel Team vs. Rec League Cost Calculator and choose how many years to cover; the difference per year and in total is simple subtraction.

Informational only, not financial or recruiting advice. Figures are averages and statistical illustrations, not a prediction or promise for any individual athlete or family.

Last reviewed: October 2026 · Against primary sources cited in the body.