Australian families face rising costs of children's sport participation, study finds

For Rockhampton parents Aaron and Paula Harmsworth, keeping three children involved in multiple sports comes with a growing price tag.

"It's something we talk about regularly because we do look at the bank balance and go, 'Geez, we're spending a lot of money here,'" Mr Harmsworth said.

"The people they meet, the places they go, and the different traits they learn … respect and resilience, they're probably two of the biggest key components."

New research has found the average annual total cost for a child to play in a community sport competition is $4,567 a year, considerably higher than previously reported numbers.

The Cost of Sport study, commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission and undertaken by researchers from Federation University, also found adults were forking out $2,894 per year for themselves to play.

Researchers investigated a wide range of expenses, including registration, equipment, uniforms, coaching, travel, accommodation and lost parental income due to sport commitments.

For the Harmsworth family, those costs quickly add up.

Their children, Jace, 17, Sienna, 15, and Indy, 13, have represented their city, region and state in various sports, with Sienna making Queensland teams in hockey, netball and touch football in 2026.

Already this year, sport has taken the central Queensland family from Hobart to Darwin and plenty of places in between.

"We have to map out our year and generally we have to be pretty organised," Mr Harmsworth said.

"This year alone we've done Goulburn, Gold Coast, Mackay, Brisbane, and then back to Brisbane, Hobart, Mackay, Cairns, Melbourne, Gold Coast again, Mackay again, Brisbane, Coffs Harbour, Darwin, back to Brisbane, back to Mackay, Cairns and Hervey Bay."

It all adds up for families

The study's lead researcher, Rochelle Eime, said previous research had tended to focus on registration fees, while her team captured the broader financial commitment families made to sport.

"It seems like a really high number, but when you start looking at all the different categories, it all stacks up," Professor Eime said.

Mr Harmsworth said the sacrifices for his family were not just monetary.

"You accrue leave and, all of a sudden, you're using your leave on a sporting trip," he said.

The study surveyed about 5,500 sport participants across Australia, including children and adults.

It found the overall cost for children to play sport was similar in regional and remote areas compared with metropolitan areas.

But regional children faced higher travel and accommodation costs, while metropolitan families paid more for coaching and registration fees.

Entry-level participation was much cheaper, averaging $1,161 a year for children, while the average cost for adults was $1,200.

Individual sports were also found to be more expensive than team sports.

"As soon as you get into that later childhood, you do need to travel to play in competitions and that all adds up."

Keeping kids in the game

Professor Eime said sporting clubs and organisations were already finding ways to ensure cost did not become a barrier to participation.

Some were repurposing equipment and uniforms, while many supported state government voucher programs, which in Queensland can reduce the cost of sport by up to $200 per child.

"The value of community sport is so great for our children in terms of their youth development and social connectedness, a whole range of different life skills they get from playing sport," Professor Eime said.

"If we highlight what the true costs are, and they are much higher than what previous research has shown, we need to actually do something about it because everyone should have the chance to play community sport."

Danya Hodgetts, a senior researcher at CQUniversity and an expert in community sport, who was not involved in the study, said the findings reflected what many regional parents already knew: that the cost of getting their children off screens and involved in sport extended well beyond registration fees.

"It's a really tricky situation because it is important that, while we talk about the cost of sport, we also talk about the value of sport because we know sport is valuable," Dr Hodgetts said.

"Sporting clubs are the networks that parents and kids rely on to help get through daily life, not just inside sport, but outside of sport as well."

For the Harmsworth family, finding ways to keep those costs under control has become part of playing the sporting game.

Mr Harmsworth said their caravan had become one of their biggest money savers.

"One of our saving graces is the caravan and we take it everywhere we go," he said.

"You also need to book early and in advance in a lot of cases, particularly your bigger sporting carnivals."