The Surprizing Cost of Sports
Playing sports is one of the best ways to do something different from our normal routine and to relax our body and mind. In this world, there are many different types of sports played, some sports are not expensive and some sports are very expensive. There are many sports which requires huge capital to even just participate never mind the extra costs of travel etc. We breakdown the three of the most surprising costs of sports in terms of the equipment, participation costs and travel. What do you think are the most expensive professional sports to play?
Sailing
As you can imagine, sailing is a sport with unbelievably high costs. Mainly, you have to spend money on a boat to sail with. Alongside this, there are the maintenance costs – such as cleaning the boat, paying to have it docked, and so on. Again, you need a club membership too, and this will set you back a fair bit. Most boat-based sports are expensive, but sailing is perhaps the biggest of these sports, and the most costly. Not to mention the storage of a sail boat, getting a boat into the water is one thing but taking your sail boat to different locations and continents around the world can be very expensive and require a lot of extra planning especially as a professional. It’s these hidden costs that nobody tends to think about that makes life a professional sailer extremely hard.
This can be scene at the world famous America’s Cup boat race where it can cost millions of dollars for the boat alone. People often asked how do you actually get the boat from race to race? Well the answer is you had to sail your competition boat to the race, but today’s vessels just aren’t made for that kind of mileage. Teams typically disassemble them, package them up, and ship them on larger boats or planes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in transport and insurance fees.
The 8 most expensive sports to play
Equestrian
Another surprising sports that makes the list is Equestrian. Caring for a horse is expensive in its own right; the costs for boarding, food, equipment, and veterinary care are just the beginning of riding. Equestrianism typically refers to the three Olympics events of dressage, show jumping, and eventing. This requires a considerable amount of specialty training, and travel expenses will also begin to rack up. If you’re looking to get seriously involved in equestrianism, you can expect to pay anywhere from $10-50,000 for a year of maintenance and competition and yes, that is not including the initial purchase of the horse itself.
Aside from the competition fees and the expensive equipment that couples it, the travel costs alone add up when taking the horse from event to event. If you do not already have a horsebox, these costs can add up very quickly. Having a horse box also requires a car / jeep big enough to pull the trailer. By the end of it, you are looking at spending a lot of $$$ a year on equestrian.
Rallying
Rally driving is the real deal when it comes to race car driving. It’s the bread and butter of road racing, you build the car from scratch, take it all over the world and hopefully bring home the bacon at the end of it. But how expensive is it to become a rally driver?
We guess knowing how to work on our own vehicles saves you considerable amounts of money. This is huge, because knowing how to work on our own vehicles usually means that you spend the money you save (and then some) on improving them. And, as anyone who’s ever built a legitimate race car will tell you, playing by the rules gets expensive quickly. From roll cages to helmets to fire proof suits, you need all the equipment and more to even consider entering the professional framework.
Where is this rally you want to enter located, anyway? If it’s within a 2 hour drive, consider yourself very lucky. Of course, if you want to enter other rallies in the championship, you’re probably going to have to tow the car across every continent. Seeking sponsorship and investments is what is going to keep you afloat in the early days of rally driving.
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