Parents Why so secret?

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MILgymFAM

Proud Parent
Tuition and fees, I mean. Every other activity my kids participate (or have participated) in have readily available tuition schedules. Gyms have easily findable rec tuition. Why is team tuition so secretive? I can almost understand fees because they can change year-to-year, but why the base price? Every girl on each level should be paying the same amount, and the tuition can be a huge factor in a family's ability to commit to team, so why not just put it out there and let people decide before even making contact.
 
In our gym every level pays different price because amount of hours. Tuition is told when they get invited to join team
 
In our gym every level pays different price because amount of hours. Tuition is told when they get invited to join team

Yes, that's the same everywhere basically, but the same way that a gym can say that beginners rec is $90 a month and advanced is $110, they can say that level 3 is $200 and level 6 is $400. That's my point, why not until you're invited?
 
I tried to contact a few gyms via email prior to our upcoming move to gauge tuition in the new area, and they won't even answer the tuition question when directly asked. Sigh. I guess we will be trying everywhere... but our budget will still play a role no matter when we find out the answers. It would be so much easier to sort by price first and not waste time on either side with places we cannot afford.
 
Ours is actually posted on our gym website. It has the hours and times each level practices, along with the cost per month.

How fantastic! We've seen a couple gyms like that here, but they are few and far between. I hope some day it is the norm. We pay more than the average for our area, but feel it's worth every extra penny. I hope gyms aren't afraid of being only monetarily competitive.
 
I completely agree! We knew how much club soccer was going to cost us so we were able to decide if we could make it work financially before the opportunity was ever presented to our kiddo. It's so strange to me how you can't find this info in gyms, especially since it's such a huge deal to look/try out at other gyms. Would be nice to know if you could even afford the tuition before calling for a tryout.

Our gym was at least kind enough to show us all costs/fees before agreeing to team.
 
No prices are online, well at least not last time I looked at our website. It's been awhile.
 
Maybe they don't want the competition to know or rec to know lower hourly cost or team members. (Parents) to price shop other gyms or use it to try to negotiate.
I'm sure it's all that.

They price may also change depending on the kid. It did at our former gym.
 
What would that be based on?
I have not one clue. I do know at our old gym even in rec, girls in the same group didn't pay the same price. Ability to pay, folks bargained. I have no idea.
 
Like someone said above, I'm almost positive it is kept secret because they don't want their competition to know what they charge - that info can be used against their business in all kinds of ways. I've even known of activity places (not gymnastics, but similar) who will call their competition pretending to be a parent and ask pricing info, etc. so I can see why some gyms wait until they physically see an actual gymnast who has tried a class before they give out the dollar amounts.

If you really want to know what a gym charges before getting too far along in the process, IMO the best way to find out is to ask parents who go there. I'd have no issues quoting the prices I pay to a perspective family as no gym I've ever been at has had a policy against that. I'd want them to know what they are getting into ;).
 
If you really want to know what a gym charges before getting too far along in the process, IMO the best way to find out is to ask parents who go there. I'd have no issues quoting the prices I pay to a perspective family as no gym I've ever been at has had a policy against that. I'd want them to know what they are getting into ;).
I've found that people are really uncomfortable talking about money, both to strangers and people they know. When my ODD joined a team once I asked other team parents about the fees and cost of the uniform, and every single one evaded answering. I actually found it odd, but I'm the most open book there ever was.
 

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