Price of Rollerhockey Leagues

[althoma1 574]

OK, I don't know if this is a trend across the world or specific to the area I play in, but 14 years ago it cost me a little more than 1/2 of what it did to play ice hockey. Now, the trend has almost reversed. Here's the rough breakdown from memory:

• 1993 house league ice hockey in London, ON: $385 for 30 games or $12.83 a game
  
• 1993 rollerhockey in London, ON on a wood floor: $125 for 15 games or $8.33 a game
  
• 1994 house league ice hockey in London, ON: $390 for 30 games or $13 a game
  
• 1994 rollerhockey in London, ON on a wood floor (winter and summer): $140 for 15 games or $9.33 a game
  
• 1995 house league ice hockey in London, ON: $400 for 30 games or $13.33 a game
  
• 1995 rollerhockey in London, ON on a wood floor (winter and summer): $150 for 15 games or $10 a game
  
• 1996 house league ice hockey in London, ON: $405 for 30 game or $13.50 a game
  
• 1996 rollerhockey in London, ON on a wood floor (winter and summer): $160 for 15 game or $10.67 a game
  
• 1996 intramural ice hockey at UWO in London ON: $75 for 14 games or $5.35 per game
  
• 1996 intramural rollerhockey outdoors in London ON: $15 for 6 games or $2.50 per game
  
• 1997 rollerhockey in London, ON on wood floors (winter and summer): $175 for 15 games or $11.66 per game
  
• 1998-2000: continued to play both intramural rollerhockey at UWO and the indoor league on the wood floor. Prices remained about the same.
  
• Fall of 2000: Moved to Toronto. Men's league icehockey $375 for 25 games or $15 per game
  
• Summer 2001: Indoor rollerhockey on Sport Court in Toronto with a puck: $245 for 14 games or $17.5 per game (the first time I'd ever payed more for roller than ice)
  
• 2002 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $385 for 25 games or $15.4 per game
  
• 2002 summer Rollerhockey league in Toronto on cement with a ball (the sportcourt league had moved across the city and went up to $265 or something like that): $200 for 14 games $14.29 per game
  
• 2003 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $385 for 25 games or $15.4 per game
  
• 2003 Summer Rollerhockey on cement with a ball in Toronto: $225 for 14 games or $16.01 per game
  
• 2004 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $390 for 25 games or $15.6 per game
  
• 2004 Rollerhockey on cement with a ball in Toronto (summer only - no winter available that I knew of at the time): $225 for 14 games or $16.01 per game
  
• 2005 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $400 for 25 games or $16 per game
  
• 2005 Rollerhockey on Sportcourt with a puck (The cement league went up to $250 which I felt was too much for playing on cement with a ball so I did some research and found the York Inline league): $250 for 14 games or $17.86 per game
  
• 2006 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $412 for 25 games or $16.48 per game
  
• 2006 Summer Rollerhockey on Sportcourt with a puck: $250 for 14 games or $17.86 per game
  
• 2007 Men's league ice hockey in Toronto: $423 for 25 games or $16.92 per game
  
• 2008 Summer Rollerhockey on Sportcourt with a puck in Toronto: $275 for 13 games or $21.15 per game
  
• Upcoming 2008/09 Icehockey season in Toronto: $440 or $17.6 per game
  
• Possible Fall and Winter Indoor Roller league (not sure of surface but think it's cement) with a ball: $275 for 10 games or a whopping $27.50 per game!
  

OK, I realize that going from London to Toronto it's not a big surprise the costs for both ice and roller went up as there's a greater demand for rinks in Toronto and the rink or ice time is more expensive (I believe it's over $200 per roller season in London now as well though). However, I would think that using a floor for roller would be inherently less expensive then maintaining ice. Sure, if you're using Sport Court there's an initial investment, but you don't have to keep the ice cool or use a Zamboni to flood the ice after every game. When you don't even have to invest in Sport Court and are merely playing on cement I'd expect the cost to be even cheaper. On the other hand you have less players per rollerhockey team since it's a 4 on 4 game rather than 5 on 5 so the costs aren't distributed amongst as many players. The other cost difference is partly due to the fact that I've played with the same core group of guys for ice over the past few years and we sign up as a team which is cheaper than signing as an individual. For rollerhockey I did play with the same group of guys for several years in London (basically from 94-2000), but usually just sign up as an individual for roller here in Toronto....that still doesn't explain everything though.

In the summer there are 3 main leagues in the Toronto area that would be reasonable for me to get to:

1. York Inline which uses Sportcourt and a puck and plays on Sundays for $275, but is located half way across the city (30-40 minute drive)
   
2. Greater Toronto Inline which also uses Sportcourt and a puck, plays weeknights and is about 30 minutes away for $288.75
   
3. Toronto Inline which is only a 15 minute drive away, but uses cement and a ball (I prefer Sportcourt and a puck) and is the same price as York Inline at $275.
   

I chose York Inline the past few seasons since although it was further away I prefer to play on Sportcourt with a puck as opposed to on cement with a ball.

Now, I used to play rollerhockey in the winter when I lived in London, but hadn't found any winter roller leagues until last year in Toronto which surprised me since Toronto is a much bigger city and London has had winter roller since the mid-90s. Last year I found out that Toronto inline was going to be running a winter league, but I decided not to play since it was on Saturdays and if I remember correctly it was only a 10 game season with a cost of well over $200 for the season (but not as pricey as this year). This year the games are also on Saturday and I consider the price insane since I could pick up another night of ice hockey for less than $20 per game in a league or find another pickup game for around $10 per game (I already play in a regular one that costs less than that).

I picked up a pair of converted Torspo's from Sprungster in the summer that I only got a few games in with this summer that I was hoping to use in the fall and winter, however; I can't see paying $27.50 per game and don't like giving up my Saturday nights (even though I'm now 30 and not exactly clubbing every weekend I do like to get together with friends on Saturday nights here and there and/or go out with the wife). The only other option seems to be a league run out of another facility in Toronto called the Rinx and I believe their pricing is more reasonable (still not super cheap, but I rember looking into it last year and believe it was around $210 per player and there were more than 10 games), but they only accept team entries. Some of the guys I know from summer rollerhockey aren't in Toronto in the winter, some only play roller in the summer, and most of the guys on my ice hockey team don't play roller. Most of the friends and family I have that play roller are back in London so putting together a winter roller team on my own would be tough. Plus, I went to the website and the don't even have 2008 roller info up so I don't know if they're running that this year..it's mainly a ball hockey league and that ran a rollerhockey division.

Anyway, that's beside the piont and this post is long enough. What I basically want to know is has Rollerhockey become more expensive in your area than icehockey? Was that the case more than a decade ago (if you're old enough to remember that far back as I know there are members of all ages here)? If roller has become more expensive than ice where you are why do you think that is? And are you willing to pay more for roller than ice?

I enjoy playing both and would like to play both all year round, but can't see paying significantly more for roller than ice. If the winter roller league could bring it's costs down to around the same per game that I'm paying for ice I'd join, but $27.50 a game just seems crazy considering I started playing at $8.33 a game 14 years ago...sure that's a while ago in a different city, but it's not THAT long ago in the greater scheme of things.

[gee2626 0]

$27.50 per game seems like a ridiculously high price to pay for hockey.

Over here in the westcoast (Victoria, BC), it's approximately $18.60 per game for Ice and $16.15 per game for Roller. In my ice hockey league, the fees don't cover a scorekeeper (the home team must provide one) and usually only one referee. In roller, there is always a provided scorekeeper and two referees at every game. Much cheaper to play roller hockey here.

[mattzilla 0]

There is so little ice facilities in victoria, which is why i turned to roller after i moved from hamilton, ontario.

[althoma1 574]

OK, so it seems in Victoria that ice is a little more than in Toronto, but roller is much less. Although the ice price of about $18.60 per game is still decent...even though I can afford to pay it and love to play roller it's tough to stomach over $20 a game in the summer for roller and almost $30 for that winter league especially when ice is still in the teens per game. On the plus side it's nice to see the cost of roller is still reasonable elsewhere in case I ever move. For now I think I'll have to stick to just playing more ice in the fall and winter and hope that the cost doesn't go up any more in the summer.

[althoma1 574]

The winter league has updated the details on their website and now it's $275 for 13 games instead of 10 games which works out to $21.15 per game instead of $27.50. Less insane, but still high for playing on cement with a ball and still more expensive then ice. Although if it was say on Sunday nights or a weeknight where I'm not already playing hockey I probably would've signed up...the fact that it's Saturdays and still more expensive than ice makes it a no go. It seems some are fine with it though as they were able to run a small league last winter on Saturdays for around the same cost per game.

[start_today 770]

I think this has to do with spreading the increasing price of housing hockey rinks across the whole facility. This only applies to places that have both ice and inline, but I assume these places do.

Because of the rising inflation of everything on earth, it costs more to run a hockey rink, particularly an ice hockey rink. Instead of jacking up the ice prices really high, it's easier for the rink to make the price increases less noticable if they spread them across both ice and inline. Ice was already expensive to begin with, so places can't make it too much more expensive, or they will start pricing players out. By increasing the price of inline, you make people unhappy, but not so unhappy they go somewhere else. I would imagine the price of other stuff, figure skating, learn to skate classes, open skates, birthday parties, are also going up.

In Pittsburgh, inline still seems to run between 1/2 to 3/4 as expensive as ice, but I have seen exceptions both ways.

I think the point about access to facilities is also really important. If there is a decent demand, but not many places to play, you're going to see an increase in price, and probably an increase of inconvinient times for games.

Paying that much to play with a ball is absolutely mind blowing.