Parents What to expect at our very first meet

[e'smum]

our most expensive in state meet is $20/pp. that was little boston held at the hynes in boston. plus expensive parking b/c i can't walk far. luckily for us it was held during the day on a friday and i didn't have my other 2 kids with us. that would have been $80.
i think manhattan classic will be our most expensive though. $25 each for me and dh and $15 each for my other 2 kids. $80. blah. i love spending $30 so my other 2 can complain about having to be there. and the last time we went to this meet it took for freaking ever to be over. it was sheer torture.
i've never once been to a meet with no fees. our hosted meet is $10 and then $5 for senior citizens. if i remember correctly. we have to pay for the rental fees out of that. we had issues with people sneaking in so we got wise to it this year and set it up to where they couldn't. we haven't been to any meets that is held in a local gym. i would love a free meet!

 

[GymDad9.9]

We went to the San Francisco Classic yesterday. $10 to park with no in/out privileges, $20 pp, and only 36 competitors to watch. It was also (the venue) freezing, slightly depressing, and smelled of urine. All around unpleasant imo and I completely understand why the stands were nearly empty.

You must have been pi$$ed.

 

[amiandjim]

We went to watch the Showdown at the Coaches Spectacular this weekend, which is a huge meet and a Nastia Liukin Cup qualifier and it was totally free for all sessions. We did pay $5 to park at the convention center.

 

[MILgymFAM]

You must have been pi$$ed.

It wasn't the most I've enjoyed a meet. My DD had a stuffy nose, and I was actually jealous. Ha! It's ok though. There were two girls there that were elite and both were great to watch. Made it a bit more worth it.

 

[dancemom]

Between my 2 gymmies, we've never had free meet admission. Most of our local meets are in-house, charging ~$5-12 for adults. Off-site meets range from $12-15 usually.
Hosting a meet is a huge expense for the gym. Judges must be hired, and if you're in a difficult location, that means paying more to hire them, fly them out, plus hotel and food for the weekend. Off-site meets mean renting the venue ($thousands), Renting all the equipment ($thousands), and in many cases, the venues won't allow any outside food, so no concessions sales for fund-raising and coaches/judges must have hotel/venue catered meals.

My dd had a meet in downtown Los Angeles a few years ago (huge freezing warehouse-type room, with no concessions). Admission was $20/pp with NO discount for kids! I'd never seen this before... I had a 10 year old and a 2 year old, both requiring full-price wrist bands. It's lovely when you get to pay for siblings to sit, moan, and play electronic games for hours. And parking was over $30.
DS's most expensive meet is BlackJack/Winter's Cup in Vegas. You can get an all session pass that includes the Winter Cup challenge (with top NCAA and Olympic gymnasts) for $50, $25 for competing athletes. But this one is so worth it! Up close high level competition, followed by autographs and photos with the guys that stick around. No freebies at this meet either, you get to stand in a crazy long line to buy a shirt.

 

[raenndrops]

We are lucky and don't pay for admission until YMCA Regionals and Nationals. Nationals offers a 3-day meet pass (all competition sessions… in advance or at the door, but advance is cheaper) or an all access pass (all competition sessions PLUS opening ceremonies - but MUST be ordered in advance).

 

[gymdog]

That is interesting--we have been to 11 compulsory meets so far, have always gotten a meet gift of some sort, and have never been charged admission when the meet was held at a gym. Our gym tells parents that those are the expectations. It must vary geographically.

If I had to pay $20-30 per parent to watch my kid compete after paying at least $100 to register her I would be livid!

In Virginia, where we both live, and where I assume the OP lives since that is where the two aforementioned meets are located, it is standard to only charge admission for an outside venue. In that case it's to offset the cost of the venue. I can't think of any meets held in VA in gyms that charge admission. Outside venues are typically between $10-$15. Although I have seen the bigger fees mentioned out of state, here it is not so much. It is possible our entry fees are more to offset this.

 

[Juniper311]

In Virginia, where we both live, and where I assume the OP lives since that is where the two aforementioned meets are located, it is standard to only charge admission for an outside venue. In that case it's to offset the cost of the venue. I can't think of any meets held in VA in gyms that charge admission. Outside venues are typically between $10-$15. Although I have seen the bigger fees mentioned out of state, here it is not so much. It is possible our entry fees are more to offset this.

The men's meet at Apollo charges admission.

 

[gymdog]

The men's meet at Apollo charges admission.

Interesting, also the men's program has some state meets held in gyms still and in those cases they have guidelines about admission to charge. They also have a portion of the meet fees that goes to a specific program in USAG I believe (sort of like a tax). To be honest I don't go to men's meets held in gyms so I'm not really sure what their operating policies are...most meets that are just men's meets are held in gyms due to numbers so I guess it is a more important fundraising opportunity for them. The men's and women's program operate under different supervising entities. I should have specified that I was talking about VAUSAG (women's) guidelines - where it's understood that outside venue meets charge admission. I don't think we have an actual rule but it definitely has come up at the state meetings as an informally agreed upon guideline. I'm sure there's some gyms out there charging admission but for the most part when you go to a meet in a gym they won't.

But again I'm not really sure how our meet fees compare to elsewhere because it's possible we've just compensated for it there. I would say an average meet fee for an in-gym meet is $75.