Got Hockey?

Yes. It's time for hockey season again. I registered James for the 2008-09 recreation team season yesterday, and he goes to conditioning camp next week. I'm looking forward to utilizing this blog for posting game results and showing off my excellent sports photograpy, ha ha.

People are always asking me, "isn't hockey expensive?" and I usually respond with, "oh, it's not that bad." Well, tonight I decided to do the math. Ice fees for the recreation season are $420. BUT, I did get a 10% discount for paying in full, so I ended up paying $378. Additionally, there is a $10 fee to the Utah Amateur Hockey Association, and a $30 fee to USA Hockey (this covers insurance costs, and provides James with a real cool monthly USA Hockey Magazine). So, add that back in and the grand total (so far) is $418. Undoubtedly this year we will need to purchase new elbow pads, and may have to get new skates, and of course we will be paying premium prices for gasoline, but I'm just going to focus on the ice fees for this oh-so-scientific calculation (yes, read on!).

Next, it's time to analyze how much time is spent on the ice for that $418. James' association practices/has games two times a week (on average) for 6-7 months of the year. Of course, we miss some days for holidays, figure skating events, and so forth, so I'm going to estimate he gets about 50 sessions on the ice in a season. If you take the $418 and divide it by 50 sessions, it averages out to $8.36 per session. Not too shabby.

Of course, that was just the expenses for the recreation team. James is once again planning to play competitvely, which is a bit more expensive, but I'd rather not think about that today. =)