Kid sports can put parent's back $670-$1,000

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AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. parents spend $671 a year on sports-related costs for a child, but 21 percent of parents spend more than $1,000 per child, a survey indicates.

RetailMeNot.com, the U.S online coupon site, and The Omnibus Co. surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. parents on their costs for student athletics and found most parents agreed football was the most expensive student sport.

"To help parents set budget expectations for their student-athletes, RetailMeNot.com sought to understand the costs associated with the most popular student sports," Trae Bodge, senior editor of RetailMeNot.com, said in a statement. "We found that while parents believe that some sports are certainly more costly than others, like football, parents should expect to spend, on average, nearly $700 per child-athlete during the school year."

Following football as the most expensive sport were: baseball/softball, hockey, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, golf, track and field, volleyball, swimming/diving, lacrosse, wrestling, field hockey and other.

Twenty-eight percent of the parents said uniforms and appropriate sports apparel were their biggest ongoing cost, followed by 27 percent who said sporting equipment, 17 percent said team dues, 11 percent said travel, 8 percent said sports camps, 4 percent said practice space time -- such as field, court, ice rink and gymnasium -- costs, 4 percent said coaches' fees and 2 percent said other.

The survey, conducted Sept. 20-24 among parents with student-athletes in grades 6-12, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.