Children dream of being on the same stage that the professionals that they look up to are on. Some sports have financial barriers, however, that keep the children dreaming instead of playing.
Some of the sports that are known for being expensive include hockey and lacrosse,. This is due to the amount of equipment that these players have to buy to be able to play, and also the travel costs.
Lacrosse equipment is expensive due to how the sticks they use need to be re-strung a handful of times a season. They also have to buy about the same amount of equipment as football players. Lacrosse players can get away with older equipment unlike football players, although lacrosse players usually have to buy new helmets and gloves every season due to wear and tear and safety.
Rylan Paddleford, a senior at Williston, has been surrounded by sports his whole life. Lacrosse, which he’s played for 14 years, he said, is one of his favorites and the amount he spends shows.
“My most expensive pieces of equipment are probably gloves, shaft, and head of the stick. That’s around $300 and gloves are around $200,” he said.
STX is a popular lacrosse brand. Pros, including Ian MacKay from the Carolina Chaos and Marcus Holman from the Boston Cannons choose STX as their weapon of choice.
The lacrosse stick is made in two pieces; the shaft and the head. STX, one brand of lacrosse equipment, lists their newest shaft as of Feb. 13, the Z70 OCS Alloy Handle, at $70. The newest head, the STX Stallion Prism, is $120. The head of the stick is composed of a plastic base and then mesh to create the pocket, which also has to be regularly restrung.
If you want to have the stick strung yourself, then you can buy a string set off of a company called StringKing. When purchasing the mesh you can also have it custom colored. The mesh kit in total costs $25 according to stringking.com. If you want to buy a head pre-strung, StringKing lists their newest pre-strung head as of Feb. 13, the Mark 3V, at $120.
If you don’t like all of the different options then you can purchase a complete stickg. StringKing lists their newest complete stick, the Complete 2 Senior Attack, at $200.
Not only is the equipment expensive but you have to renew it sooner then you would hope. “I get a new stick like once every four months; it could be different for everyone,” Rylan said. Rylan also has to buy new gloves every year.
Hockey is the most expensive out of the five major sports: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer. There is more equipment to purchase and they are usually more expensive then the other sports. Sticks and skates face of the sport; companies that make these products have jumped at the opportunity to make the most profit from them. Hockey sticks range from $300 to $400, while hockey skates can range from $1,000 to $1,500.
Bauer Hockey, for example, makes skates used by many pros, including Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins), Adam Fox, (New York Rangers), Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights), and countless others. The most recent top end hockey skate is the Bauer Supreme Shadow, listed at $950 before shipping and taxes.
