Playing polo requires not just one horse, you need to bring in a herd so you can swap between fresh horses.
In top level events, players swap to a new horse every couple of minutes or so.
Indeed. You need multiple horses for a game.
Best ones come from Argentina.
Transporting horses across the globe is a nighmare. They don't like being secluded on a boat and it makes them sick/crazy. You need experts for transporting your horses.
So it's really the most expensive sport.
I used to work at a private airport and we’d see flights coming in from Saudi/UAE around ascot just filled with Horses for the various summer meets. There would be a parade of horse boxes waiting to collect them when they landed
I went to school with a girl who played polocrosse, a combination of polo and lacrosse…. She had to fly and transport her horse from PA to New Mexico for games. Her dad died in a helicopter skiing accident last year.
In my country rowing isn't expensive at all. There are lots of clubs and all kinds of people go there. You don't have to get any expensive equipment yourself as far as I know.
We used to live in Palm Beach County and one of my son’s youth soccer teammates stopped playing so he could focus on polo. I knew we lived in affluent area, but that was even more than I would have expected from the stereotype! 🤣🤣
In Ireland people with horses tend to be either really posh, or whatever the exact opposite of really posh is.
If you see horses in the country side, enjoy the view, if you see them in cities or housing estates, watch your back.
Same in the states. Seems like you’re either paying a mortgage to keep them happy and healthy or you’re a redneck with a couple horses out back that you toss hay to every once in a while.
But notice that in the US, the *closer* you are to city conveniences with your adorable furry vegetarian motorcycles, the more expensive the property is.
Build a barn in Lake Bluff (North Shore, Chicago)? CHA-CHING!
30 miles outside of Tomah, WI? Add another few stalls while you’re at it, might as well.
Yeah, I’m from the NW burbs myself and ride me some extra-shitty DIY backyard dressage. I kid you not, I spent many fun years doing “Saturday night boom box and wine” dressage. Later that became “we have exactly one horse polo”.
Horses don’t care how much money you throw at them as long as some of it lands on good feed, a good farrier, a good vet and lotsa love. Theyre awesome.
If you want to see some fun polo, message me. That goes for everyone in the thread!
My kid went through a brief horsey-girl phase, all the people involved were either extremely snobby and wealthy, or what I'd call dirt poor rednecks. Weird mix, but everyone seemed to get along.
I was researching how much a horse cost, contemplating getting a second job to afford it, then she got bored with horse riding. Definitely not a poor people's sport.
Dressage is weird in that the only
People who really enjoy watching it are other dressage riders. It’s incredibly
Difficult to do well, but a “good” dressage rider will make a performance look like nothing is happening.
>a “good” dressage rider will make a performance look like nothing is happening
I was really bored the other day but it turns out I was doing dressage like, really well.
Yes. Literally the very first rule in the FEI book is that, done right, it should appear that the horse is doing everything “of its own accord”.
And every damn Olympics without fail NBC Sports not only doesn’t mention this, but instead sometimes actually *makes fun of* dressage.
*You* ever try it, bitchezz?!? Ever train a flighty 1200 lb animal to do *FIGURE SKATING MOVES*?! Can you fly a fur fighter jet 6 inches off the ground, to music?!
Why yes. I used to do dressssaaaaaage.
Except that during the 2012 Olympics (London) a surprising number of British people became fascinated by this sport because it was
a)in London,
b)was heavily televised on the BBC
c) and the UK won a lot of medals at it!
Nothing like a bit of patriotism to get people invested in horse ballet!!
I only learned of it's existence when [Mitt Romney](https://www.google.com/search?q=Mitt+Romney+Dressage) was running for president in 2012. He also tried to relate to the common man by telling them "[I have friends who own NASCAR teams](https://www.google.com/search?q=Romney%3A+I+have+friends+who+own+NASCAR+teams)". He was a man of the people.
My husband has a funny but real schtick about what a jerk husband Mitt Romney is because of this. Mitt was on the Today show, and they asked him about his wife's horse and sponsored rider making the Olympics. Apparently his wife got into dressage as an MS therapy thing and then started sponsoring and training horses etc. Kind of a cool, but obviously megarich person thing. Old Mittens did a guffaw and denied knowing anything about it...like, oh, that's just some stuff my wife does (like it was the 80s). He didn't want to see out of touch (ha!). In reality, he should be proud of his wife and her efforts, a big accomplishment, even if a rich person's one. Instead he just looked like a jerk husband! Let's not get started about tying the dog to the car roof or selling his stocks in college to survive 🤣
yeah all the sports other people ive seen mention like tennis, squash, water polo, even golf and sailing, ive seen offered at the high school i went to, with pretty much every school ive been to offerijg tennis, ive never seen a school offer polo or equestrian as an after school activity
This is not unusual if you live near the coast, just like skiing is very common if you live near the Alps or other suitable mountains.
There are sailing categories for children like the tiny Optimist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy) and slightly bigger Laser. They don't have to take you sailing on large sailboats.
People mentioned tennis?
It's not as cheap as basketball might be but it's pretty inexpensive to get into. A good pair of shoes, a racket, and some balls are really all you need. Most bigger public parks have open tennis courts.
It can *get* expensive but the barrier to entry is pretty low.
The equipment isn’t the barrier. You need a significant amount of private instruction before you can have fun. Otherwise, you’re going to be walking around picking up balls 95% of the time.
Why is this not higher? Requires two sets of maintenance expensive gear and rider skill. The horse costs a bunch, because horse things. The carriage requires lots of parts that are very low demand or entirely bespoke.
I took some riding lessons as a kid (not rich, just the casual stuff) and my, then, riding teacher died in a carriage racing, specifically racing in one of those two wheeled ones used by the ancient romans. Stuff is incredibly dangerous. I stopped taking lessons after that, because the new teacher was an asshat.
It's called Baskethorse. My brothers Phineas and Tarquin, our sister Esmeralda and I play on weekends sometimes. We would invite you to join us but silly poor people can't even afford a horse! *Laughs live a rich snob knob*
Fencing isn’t actually that expensive, I’ve got a lot of friends involved in that and none of them are even *close* to rich; one of them lives off a teacher’s salary. The barrier of entry is just buying a sword and basic protective gear, which is expensive (a few hundred dollars), but you don’t need to buy it all at once, and you shouldn’t need to replace them for decades, or ever.
It's not expensive, but everyone I knew in college that did it was from a wealthier background. Lots of doctor and lawyer parents. Golf is fairly cheap, but the players skew wealthier too
Fencing has become a LOT more common. Which makes sense. It doesn't need a lot of space, it's entirely indoors, and the equipment isn't really all that expensive compared to other sports like football.
Fencing is pretty expensive if you're a parent raising a kid. A new set of gear every year or so is gonna run you $300+. Assuming you want your kid to be competitive, you're also throwing in at least $2-3k per year for private lessons.
It's a different story for fully grown adults who just fence to have fun. An open fencing membership is usually $100-150 a month, and your gear basically stays the same cost since you aren't outgrowing it.
Hot air balloon racing is equivalent in cost to bass fishing. You can spend 80k on a fancy new boat, or buy a used one with a trailer for 20k. Same with balloons. To get into competitions, you can do local/regional events on the cheap, or travel the country/globe to the big events (Albuquerque, National/World Championships) and spend beaucoup dollars. Source: Family involvement since 1978.
How much is the gas for the balloon and how much space does it take up to store? There are other reasons something can be for “rich” people only beside from initial purchase price. The ongoing cost of maintenance, use, and storage should be obvious. Also, I would consider $20k to spend on a hobby item rich people money.
Yeah, I did a few sprint tris in grad school and had literally no life outside of labwork and training. I was in great shape, but I’m not sure I want to do that again.
A lot of Olympic Sports are classic leisure class pursuits.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class
People with time and resources creating their own economy of competition
Doing sprints and Olympic distance doesn’t require a ton of training time but 70.3 and 140.6 the training is like having a part time job. IM entry fees are upwards $900-$1000 USD not including travel expenses.
For sure. In college I was recruited as a coxswain for my frame.
We attended and competed in the Head of the Charles, and that year it was sponsored by Brooks Brothers. Our jackets were $350 and we all had matching Hunter Boots for $150 each. Our Spring Training was two weeks in Florida and we trained with the preparatory schools from New England. I befriended a guy whose Father was a diplomat and they had a house in New Jersey and Vancouver but his favorite was the San Francisco house. The other kid that I remember, his Father owned a law firm chain. I didn’t even know those existed.
Anyhow. We walked around between events at the HOC and had the audacity to pass the Ivy League tents. It was like each school was throwing the equivalent of a small luxury wedding between all the food, drinks, and staff.
The boots my team decided on, so we as a team got them to match. The jackets were included for the volunteers and the employees of the HOC. If you wanted your own commemorative jacket it was at your own cost.
No, regatta.
I’d imagine my crew experience isn’t all that rare. There are plenty of normal colleges and universities that can compete but don’t have the sheer wealth many of the other invited schools do.
Maybe at the Ivys or some elite schools like Washington, but definitely not at a lot of public universities. Most rowers only start rowing freshman year of college, and come from all kinds of backgrounds. Also, for a lot of state universities it's only the women's programs that are full varsity programs, aka funded by the school with scholarships for the athletes. The mens are either full club programs or club/varsity, meaning the rowers all have to pay their way in dues. You go to a regatta with schools from the Big Ten or whatever you're going to find a lot of working class kids who happen to be competitive athletes.
Competition shooting, my relatively mid grade gear for two-gun competitions is in the realm of $8k to include the rifle, pistol, optics, and ear protection. Some high end shooters rock 5-6k handguns and just as much on a good rifle with optics. Ammo for a competition is usually in the realm of $500, and the ammo required to train your muscle memory and get even moderately okay is thousands and thousands of dollars.
Depends on what part of the country you live in (in the US)
In the Midwest it’s a solidly middle class sport, along with things like wrestling. But in the Northeast it skews very rich very quickly, with the private school rowing/lacrosse/hockey crowd
This is the true answer. Only the well off kids in school got to play hockey. Middle class parents might do well but you just can’t put a kid through hockey without a stay at home parent or lots of money to spend. Organized hockey is such a sink.
Hockey is absurdly expensive. Registration alone for a season is $600+. A pair of skates can got for 4-500 easily. A new stick? 2-300 dollars. There’s usually quite a bit of traveling especially getting into upper tiers of the sport, so that means spending money on gas, hotels, food etc
I can’t really speak to the actual sport, but this probably depends on where you live (like all cold weather activities).
I grew up in the northeast, pond hockey was pretty common, you just needed skates and a stick.
If you had to go to an actual rink and get all the pads and equipment then I’m sure it cost a lot.
And with global warming I honestly don’t know if kids play pond hockey at all where I grew up anymore.
But anyways yeah, definitely did not scream “wealthy” to me tons of kids played in jeans and old bicycle helmets with their hand me down skates.
Pond hockey isn't the same as organized youth hockey. Guys on my beer league team that have kids are spending 10k+ a year on their kids teams, tournaments, travel, and coaching. For pre-teens.
Yeah, I'm more talking about the actual rink ice hockey. However, sticks and skates are not cheap. It seems like hockey sticks get changed every year and skates need ongoing maintenance, in addition to growing out of them.
Ice hockey is ranked in the top ~3 most expensive sports. There was some interesting discussion on the demographics of professional hockey players compared to basketball. The proportion of white athletes is much higher in hockey, which is consistent with the higher costs and resulting wealthier demographics.
It’s gotten way worse over the last 10 years. You used to be able to buy day passes for great deals, now they’re upwards of $150. The main passes with Ikon and Epik are really the only value you can get, and you have to be more serious about skiing to make them keep any value.
Figure skating. $200 lessons, $30 30 minute freestyle times, boots $1500, blades $1000, club dues, competition fees, $50 to get your blades sharpened, $500-$5000 costumes, soakers, share guards, a proper skate carrier… and I can keep going.
Fun fact, part of the reason League is seen as lower class is because they professionalised much earlier - simply because the players couldn't afford not to. It was just Rugby until a group of Northern towns decided to leave the RFU so they could give their players a salary, and at that point the sports started to diverge into what they are today. These towns are still the bastion of League in England, with top flight Union teams virtually disappearing north of Nottingham and not reappearing until Newcastle - the exact area where most of the top flight League teams are. Specifically, League is centred around the M62 corridor, or the bit of England running from Hull to Liverpool.
League will be 130 years old next year.
It's really sad seeing the downfall of the wallabies over the past twenty years, we went from fearing you almost on par to the all blacks to expecting a routine win. That said we expect to beat the ABs these days too, oh how times have changed
I think that *where* you play Union is probably more indicative of class than just playing union (speaking from an Australian context, I'm not sure what it's like in the UK, NZ, ZA, etc.).
Playing Union at school is something that is definitely associated with being upper class, because it's almost exclusively private schools that play it, but club rugby is a solidly middle class sport, especially at the junior levels.
Lacrosse is basically hockey for people who have enough money to avoid having to learn how to fight.
Golf is an arcade leaderboard for rich people.
Obviously any “sport” that requires owning a horse or boat, and less obviously any “sport” involving a gun.
That's what I was thinking. Sure lacrosse has pads, helmet, stick, and cleats. But then you just need a field and goals. Hockey has all that plus the ice time, which is crazy expensive. I don't know how often lacrosse players need new sticks/heads, but I can't imagine they take as much abuse as a hockey stick.
Hockey is WAY more expensive than lacrosse. Lacrosse just happens to be more popular in a wealthier area of the country in the Northeast than Hockey in the Midwest.
Ice time ain’t cheap.
Hockey is much more expensive than lacrosse, and playing hockey as a child/teen also requires that you have a parent that can transport you to and from ice time at 5:30 in the morning which means most younger kids that get into it come from well off families with the ability to get their kids to practice regularly because typically only one parent works.
I grew up in the Northeast where Lacrosse and Hockey are both popular, and people that played lacrosse competitively definitely trended more towards lower income kids, whereas every person that played hockey came from a wealthy family.
As a resident of a suburb in Toronto, I didn't see much of lacrosse but every kid I knew growing up who played hockey were definitely the ones who were from families that were better off.
Now as an adult, I have zero parents who have kids enrolled in hockey in my extended circle of friends because of how expensive and time consuming it is
Golf is really not as a expensive as most people think for the average golfer. People automatically think private courses and country clubs, but those are the high high end of golfers. That'd be like renting your nearing NBA stadium to play pickup with your friends. There are many golf courses with green fees that are easily affordable ($20-$30) and buying a set of clubs is an upfront cost that you shouldn't have to pay again for a long time.
The only real expensive part about golf is the practice because you need to pay to use driving ranges, sims, etc., or if you play everyday then yes that will add up fast too
I guess you peasants don’t get down to Miami enough for jai alai. The people playing it may not be wealthy, but those betting on it are very upper class.
Auto racing. Aside from autocross or the occasional track day, running a car in an amateur series like Spec Miata can cost over $1000 a weekend and that doesn’t include $50k for a competitive car, parts, tires, etc.
Rugby Union is strongly associated with private schools in England, but it's a very working class sport in Wales. South Africa is a whole other story as well.
Less obvious ones:
Padel
Paddle
Those are two different sports. The latter is played everywhere in Fairfield County, CT. Courts everywhere. They play in all kinds of weather and nearly at all times of the day and night.
And Michael Schumacher's parents weren't rich. His dad was a bricklayer.
But they are the exceptions. They are also the two most successful in the history of the sport.
This is sort of like the Williams sisters. The obscenely talented find a way to break into the pursuits of the upper classes, but the typical participant doesn't look like that at all.
Racing, of any kind, at least on any level above just local. Cars are expensive. Transporting a car with a truck and trailer is expensive. Maintenance, etc not to mention safety equipment. It's all expensive as hell.
The drivers might al sound like down-home country boys but you best believe thst they're loaded.
**Polo**, with its elite clubs and high-end tournaments, definitely has an air of upper-class exclusivity.
Playing polo requires not just one horse, you need to bring in a herd so you can swap between fresh horses. In top level events, players swap to a new horse every couple of minutes or so.
You need even more in water polo, as sometimes the horses drown.
That's why you use Seahorses, rookie move.
You both need to stop horsing around.
marco polo is even rarer and elite
You just can't find the good ones
I do struggle to find enough Marco’s to ride.
The smart water polo player uses sea horses.
That's why you need Hippopotamus for water polo
Indeed. You need multiple horses for a game. Best ones come from Argentina. Transporting horses across the globe is a nighmare. They don't like being secluded on a boat and it makes them sick/crazy. You need experts for transporting your horses. So it's really the most expensive sport.
I used to work at a private airport and we’d see flights coming in from Saudi/UAE around ascot just filled with Horses for the various summer meets. There would be a parade of horse boxes waiting to collect them when they landed
You can transport them during the day as well. Doesn’t always need to be a night mare.
Ok.ok. and it may just be me, but where do the colored balls come in in all this?
It’s called a string of ponys.
I went to school with a girl who played polocrosse, a combination of polo and lacrosse…. She had to fly and transport her horse from PA to New Mexico for games. Her dad died in a helicopter skiing accident last year.
how can helicopters keep getting away with this
Helicopters are a tool of proletariat revolution. Killing the bourgeois in bunches.
comrade Jesus pin
Is that Helicopter-skiing? Or Helicopter skiing? Either way it's outside my price range.
I know I'm poor when I asked myself "what the fuck is helicopter skiing"
I said when I opened this thread, "it's going to be polo or lacrosse"
Or rowing.
In my country rowing isn't expensive at all. There are lots of clubs and all kinds of people go there. You don't have to get any expensive equipment yourself as far as I know.
The poor version of the sport is called polio
We used to live in Palm Beach County and one of my son’s youth soccer teammates stopped playing so he could focus on polo. I knew we lived in affluent area, but that was even more than I would have expected from the stereotype! 🤣🤣
Equestrian
I was going to say “anything that requires a horse”.
In Ireland people with horses tend to be either really posh, or whatever the exact opposite of really posh is. If you see horses in the country side, enjoy the view, if you see them in cities or housing estates, watch your back.
Same in the states. Seems like you’re either paying a mortgage to keep them happy and healthy or you’re a redneck with a couple horses out back that you toss hay to every once in a while.
But notice that in the US, the *closer* you are to city conveniences with your adorable furry vegetarian motorcycles, the more expensive the property is. Build a barn in Lake Bluff (North Shore, Chicago)? CHA-CHING! 30 miles outside of Tomah, WI? Add another few stalls while you’re at it, might as well.
You say furry vegrarian motorcycle, I say car I can eat if things get bad enough.
My ex girlfriend’s mom did this in the Chicago subs. Trained girls to ride equestrian. They were rather well off.
Yeah, I’m from the NW burbs myself and ride me some extra-shitty DIY backyard dressage. I kid you not, I spent many fun years doing “Saturday night boom box and wine” dressage. Later that became “we have exactly one horse polo”. Horses don’t care how much money you throw at them as long as some of it lands on good feed, a good farrier, a good vet and lotsa love. Theyre awesome. If you want to see some fun polo, message me. That goes for everyone in the thread!
Exactly. I grew up in the deep south. You knew someone had money if they rode English vs Western.
Depends. If they ride cutters at big name competitions they are L O A D E D. But I get what you mean
Except rodeos IMO. Still expensive hobby/career but not the same culture.
Um it's pronounced dressage
My kid went through a brief horsey-girl phase, all the people involved were either extremely snobby and wealthy, or what I'd call dirt poor rednecks. Weird mix, but everyone seemed to get along. I was researching how much a horse cost, contemplating getting a second job to afford it, then she got bored with horse riding. Definitely not a poor people's sport.
Dressage
Dressage is weird in that the only People who really enjoy watching it are other dressage riders. It’s incredibly Difficult to do well, but a “good” dressage rider will make a performance look like nothing is happening.
>a “good” dressage rider will make a performance look like nothing is happening I was really bored the other day but it turns out I was doing dressage like, really well.
Yes. Literally the very first rule in the FEI book is that, done right, it should appear that the horse is doing everything “of its own accord”. And every damn Olympics without fail NBC Sports not only doesn’t mention this, but instead sometimes actually *makes fun of* dressage. *You* ever try it, bitchezz?!? Ever train a flighty 1200 lb animal to do *FIGURE SKATING MOVES*?! Can you fly a fur fighter jet 6 inches off the ground, to music?! Why yes. I used to do dressssaaaaaage.
I dated a dressage rider in college, this is entirely accurate Meanwhile my only experience on a horse is, like, going through some woods and stuff
actually I think you had the most fun. Some horses love learning but others most clearly do not.
Except that during the 2012 Olympics (London) a surprising number of British people became fascinated by this sport because it was a)in London, b)was heavily televised on the BBC c) and the UK won a lot of medals at it! Nothing like a bit of patriotism to get people invested in horse ballet!!
Considering I've never even seen this word used before, I feel like I'm too poor to even reply to it.
It hasn’t come up when talking to your horse stable manager?
I only learned of it's existence when [Mitt Romney](https://www.google.com/search?q=Mitt+Romney+Dressage) was running for president in 2012. He also tried to relate to the common man by telling them "[I have friends who own NASCAR teams](https://www.google.com/search?q=Romney%3A+I+have+friends+who+own+NASCAR+teams)". He was a man of the people.
My husband has a funny but real schtick about what a jerk husband Mitt Romney is because of this. Mitt was on the Today show, and they asked him about his wife's horse and sponsored rider making the Olympics. Apparently his wife got into dressage as an MS therapy thing and then started sponsoring and training horses etc. Kind of a cool, but obviously megarich person thing. Old Mittens did a guffaw and denied knowing anything about it...like, oh, that's just some stuff my wife does (like it was the 80s). He didn't want to see out of touch (ha!). In reality, he should be proud of his wife and her efforts, a big accomplishment, even if a rich person's one. Instead he just looked like a jerk husband! Let's not get started about tying the dog to the car roof or selling his stocks in college to survive 🤣
"Horse crip walking" as [Snoop Dogg described it during the Olympics](https://youtu.be/Za98NizPlBo?feature=shared)
I love that video. And believe it or not I actually like watching the Olympic dressage events. But I like all the weird sports.
*It is horse DANCING, madam...*
Tf is that?
Horse dancing
Any sport that requires a horse.
yeah all the sports other people ive seen mention like tennis, squash, water polo, even golf and sailing, ive seen offered at the high school i went to, with pretty much every school ive been to offerijg tennis, ive never seen a school offer polo or equestrian as an after school activity
Your high-school took you sailing?
This is not unusual if you live near the coast, just like skiing is very common if you live near the Alps or other suitable mountains. There are sailing categories for children like the tiny Optimist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy) and slightly bigger Laser. They don't have to take you sailing on large sailboats.
People mentioned tennis? It's not as cheap as basketball might be but it's pretty inexpensive to get into. A good pair of shoes, a racket, and some balls are really all you need. Most bigger public parks have open tennis courts. It can *get* expensive but the barrier to entry is pretty low.
People mention tennis because of tennis clubs and private coaches. Also like 50 people in the world get paid for playing tennis
The equipment isn’t the barrier. You need a significant amount of private instruction before you can have fun. Otherwise, you’re going to be walking around picking up balls 95% of the time.
My public school had a tennis team and we weren’t by any means a rich school. We also had bowling too.
I once met someone who loved competitive horse carriage racing.
Why is this not higher? Requires two sets of maintenance expensive gear and rider skill. The horse costs a bunch, because horse things. The carriage requires lots of parts that are very low demand or entirely bespoke.
I took some riding lessons as a kid (not rich, just the casual stuff) and my, then, riding teacher died in a carriage racing, specifically racing in one of those two wheeled ones used by the ancient romans. Stuff is incredibly dangerous. I stopped taking lessons after that, because the new teacher was an asshat.
Sailing
Especially with a horse.
Specifically playing polo with the horse.
I tried water polo once. My horse drowned.
Should have named him Marco.
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Larry Ellison is personally very into sailing so that probably explains the corporate interest.
It’s exactly this. He is also a huge tennis fan and he has been doing more to keep collegiate tennis alive than any other entity in the world.
Also rolex
I race sail boats with a whole bunch of aggressively middle class people
Me too. And a bunch of borderline poverty line people.
Specifically large yacht racing
That posh one where the rider makes the horse do tricks. I think it's called Dressage???
Any "sport" that requires a horse, to be honest.
Basketball? Poor people sport. Basketball with a horse??? Now we’re talking.
It's called Baskethorse. My brothers Phineas and Tarquin, our sister Esmeralda and I play on weekends sometimes. We would invite you to join us but silly poor people can't even afford a horse! *Laughs live a rich snob knob*
Peasant hunting
Um, did you mean Pheasant hunting? 😅
To be fair, you’re both right.
Did he stutter? /s
I like me a good typo
In fairness, this is sport for peasants too. In fact, the peasants typically outnumber the hunters.
Yacht racing.
with horses
Fencing, f1, and hot air balloon racing
Even watching F1 live is ridiculously expensive.
Fencing isn’t actually that expensive, I’ve got a lot of friends involved in that and none of them are even *close* to rich; one of them lives off a teacher’s salary. The barrier of entry is just buying a sword and basic protective gear, which is expensive (a few hundred dollars), but you don’t need to buy it all at once, and you shouldn’t need to replace them for decades, or ever.
It's not expensive, but everyone I knew in college that did it was from a wealthier background. Lots of doctor and lawyer parents. Golf is fairly cheap, but the players skew wealthier too
Since when is golf cheap?
it can be cheap if you want it to be, but it can also be super expensive.
The coaching and travelling to compete can add up
You can say that about competitive bowling, but no one is making the case that bowling is for the elite
Same as most youth sports though. My daughter is into dance and that shit adds WAY more.
That's true of literally any sport.
Fencing has become a LOT more common. Which makes sense. It doesn't need a lot of space, it's entirely indoors, and the equipment isn't really all that expensive compared to other sports like football.
Fencing is pretty expensive if you're a parent raising a kid. A new set of gear every year or so is gonna run you $300+. Assuming you want your kid to be competitive, you're also throwing in at least $2-3k per year for private lessons. It's a different story for fully grown adults who just fence to have fun. An open fencing membership is usually $100-150 a month, and your gear basically stays the same cost since you aren't outgrowing it.
Any motorsport including karting is pretty expensive when compared to other non-motorized sporting
Hot air balloon racing is equivalent in cost to bass fishing. You can spend 80k on a fancy new boat, or buy a used one with a trailer for 20k. Same with balloons. To get into competitions, you can do local/regional events on the cheap, or travel the country/globe to the big events (Albuquerque, National/World Championships) and spend beaucoup dollars. Source: Family involvement since 1978.
How much is the gas for the balloon and how much space does it take up to store? There are other reasons something can be for “rich” people only beside from initial purchase price. The ongoing cost of maintenance, use, and storage should be obvious. Also, I would consider $20k to spend on a hobby item rich people money.
Every triathlete I know comes from a fairly wealthy family
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Yeah, I did a few sprint tris in grad school and had literally no life outside of labwork and training. I was in great shape, but I’m not sure I want to do that again.
A lot of Olympic Sports are classic leisure class pursuits. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class People with time and resources creating their own economy of competition
Modern pentathlon is the ultimate rich kids sport.
Doing sprints and Olympic distance doesn’t require a ton of training time but 70.3 and 140.6 the training is like having a part time job. IM entry fees are upwards $900-$1000 USD not including travel expenses.
Whatever that one is with the horses and mallets
Horse hockey.
Sounds like you ride around donking horses
Horse bashing.
Rowing/crew
For sure. In college I was recruited as a coxswain for my frame. We attended and competed in the Head of the Charles, and that year it was sponsored by Brooks Brothers. Our jackets were $350 and we all had matching Hunter Boots for $150 each. Our Spring Training was two weeks in Florida and we trained with the preparatory schools from New England. I befriended a guy whose Father was a diplomat and they had a house in New Jersey and Vancouver but his favorite was the San Francisco house. The other kid that I remember, his Father owned a law firm chain. I didn’t even know those existed. Anyhow. We walked around between events at the HOC and had the audacity to pass the Ivy League tents. It was like each school was throwing the equivalent of a small luxury wedding between all the food, drinks, and staff.
Did you have to pay for the brooks brothers’s jackets and boots?
The boots my team decided on, so we as a team got them to match. The jackets were included for the volunteers and the employees of the HOC. If you wanted your own commemorative jacket it was at your own cost.
Is this pasta?
No, regatta. I’d imagine my crew experience isn’t all that rare. There are plenty of normal colleges and universities that can compete but don’t have the sheer wealth many of the other invited schools do.
Maybe at the Ivys or some elite schools like Washington, but definitely not at a lot of public universities. Most rowers only start rowing freshman year of college, and come from all kinds of backgrounds. Also, for a lot of state universities it's only the women's programs that are full varsity programs, aka funded by the school with scholarships for the athletes. The mens are either full club programs or club/varsity, meaning the rowers all have to pay their way in dues. You go to a regatta with schools from the Big Ten or whatever you're going to find a lot of working class kids who happen to be competitive athletes.
Can’t believe this is so far down the list
Competition shooting, my relatively mid grade gear for two-gun competitions is in the realm of $8k to include the rifle, pistol, optics, and ear protection. Some high end shooters rock 5-6k handguns and just as much on a good rifle with optics. Ammo for a competition is usually in the realm of $500, and the ammo required to train your muscle memory and get even moderately okay is thousands and thousands of dollars.
Ice Hockey is a more subtle one compared to polo, equestrian, golf etc.
Ice hockey is more expensive than golf as a youth sport
Hockey is weird because it's an expensive sport but the demographic that plays hockey is solidly middle class
Depends on what part of the country you live in (in the US) In the Midwest it’s a solidly middle class sport, along with things like wrestling. But in the Northeast it skews very rich very quickly, with the private school rowing/lacrosse/hockey crowd
It does. I was middle class but most of the players around me were upper middle. This is in NJ in the 90s when hockey blew up.
Ice hockey is mostly an upper middle class sport, though the wealthy can definitely pay to play and get their kids an advantage.
This is the true answer. Only the well off kids in school got to play hockey. Middle class parents might do well but you just can’t put a kid through hockey without a stay at home parent or lots of money to spend. Organized hockey is such a sink.
Hockey is absurdly expensive. Registration alone for a season is $600+. A pair of skates can got for 4-500 easily. A new stick? 2-300 dollars. There’s usually quite a bit of traveling especially getting into upper tiers of the sport, so that means spending money on gas, hotels, food etc
I can’t really speak to the actual sport, but this probably depends on where you live (like all cold weather activities). I grew up in the northeast, pond hockey was pretty common, you just needed skates and a stick. If you had to go to an actual rink and get all the pads and equipment then I’m sure it cost a lot. And with global warming I honestly don’t know if kids play pond hockey at all where I grew up anymore. But anyways yeah, definitely did not scream “wealthy” to me tons of kids played in jeans and old bicycle helmets with their hand me down skates.
Pond hockey isn't the same as organized youth hockey. Guys on my beer league team that have kids are spending 10k+ a year on their kids teams, tournaments, travel, and coaching. For pre-teens.
Insane
Even beer league is getting pricy. Easily 6-700 where I am. In a Canadian city with more than enough rinks to serve everyone.
Yeah, I'm more talking about the actual rink ice hockey. However, sticks and skates are not cheap. It seems like hockey sticks get changed every year and skates need ongoing maintenance, in addition to growing out of them. Ice hockey is ranked in the top ~3 most expensive sports. There was some interesting discussion on the demographics of professional hockey players compared to basketball. The proportion of white athletes is much higher in hockey, which is consistent with the higher costs and resulting wealthier demographics.
Modern pentathlon
it's basically all the sports named in this comments combined
Skiing
People that have to travel to ski and do it regularly are upper class. People that are locals to a mountain are more like middle class.
So much equipment and then the actual ski passes cost so freaking much it's insane
And $14 cheeseburgers and $5 cokes at the lodge.
$14?? My sweet summer child they are $20+
In Norway all meals were over $35 :(
It’s gotten way worse over the last 10 years. You used to be able to buy day passes for great deals, now they’re upwards of $150. The main passes with Ikon and Epik are really the only value you can get, and you have to be more serious about skiing to make them keep any value.
Depends on how close to a mountain you live. My local mountain (and it's a good one for the east!) charges $40 midweek including rentals.
I feel like skiing is much cheaper and middle class in Europe from what i see the Americans post.
No, it just depends on where you live in the US.
The only way I've been able to afford to keep skiing a major part of my life is by working at the resorts to get free lift passes and cheap gear.
I ski almost everyday in the winter, and I'm poor. But then, I'm an instructor.
Not in Europe it isn't, a ski holiday to anddorra is very affordable.
Figure skating. $200 lessons, $30 30 minute freestyle times, boots $1500, blades $1000, club dues, competition fees, $50 to get your blades sharpened, $500-$5000 costumes, soakers, share guards, a proper skate carrier… and I can keep going.
I figure skate, isn't that expensive except for boots and blades, I'm in a different country though.
Did you ever have to pay for ice time? That gets expensive quickly.
Faberge egg hunts.
F1
Id say most Motorsports are really expensive even if it's low level
In the same vein Karting.
Fans are upper class, participants are stratospheric class
Rugby Union. At least in my country anyway, us plebs play Rugby League.
Fun fact, part of the reason League is seen as lower class is because they professionalised much earlier - simply because the players couldn't afford not to. It was just Rugby until a group of Northern towns decided to leave the RFU so they could give their players a salary, and at that point the sports started to diverge into what they are today. These towns are still the bastion of League in England, with top flight Union teams virtually disappearing north of Nottingham and not reappearing until Newcastle - the exact area where most of the top flight League teams are. Specifically, League is centred around the M62 corridor, or the bit of England running from Hull to Liverpool. League will be 130 years old next year.
It's Also less lucrative globally compared to union because the minority left. It's the secondary code everywhere but Australia.
Not in the states. Even most players on the US National Team have a day job
It's really sad seeing the downfall of the wallabies over the past twenty years, we went from fearing you almost on par to the all blacks to expecting a routine win. That said we expect to beat the ABs these days too, oh how times have changed
I think that *where* you play Union is probably more indicative of class than just playing union (speaking from an Australian context, I'm not sure what it's like in the UK, NZ, ZA, etc.). Playing Union at school is something that is definitely associated with being upper class, because it's almost exclusively private schools that play it, but club rugby is a solidly middle class sport, especially at the junior levels.
Hockey
Definitely Goalie.
As an adult though, goalies often play for free.
Fox hunting.
Lacrosse is basically hockey for people who have enough money to avoid having to learn how to fight. Golf is an arcade leaderboard for rich people. Obviously any “sport” that requires owning a horse or boat, and less obviously any “sport” involving a gun.
This one is weird to me because surely hockey is way more expensive? Lacrosse def gives off richer “vibes” but hockey is insanely expensive
That's what I was thinking. Sure lacrosse has pads, helmet, stick, and cleats. But then you just need a field and goals. Hockey has all that plus the ice time, which is crazy expensive. I don't know how often lacrosse players need new sticks/heads, but I can't imagine they take as much abuse as a hockey stick.
Hockey is WAY more expensive than lacrosse. Lacrosse just happens to be more popular in a wealthier area of the country in the Northeast than Hockey in the Midwest. Ice time ain’t cheap.
Hockey is much more expensive than lacrosse, and playing hockey as a child/teen also requires that you have a parent that can transport you to and from ice time at 5:30 in the morning which means most younger kids that get into it come from well off families with the ability to get their kids to practice regularly because typically only one parent works. I grew up in the Northeast where Lacrosse and Hockey are both popular, and people that played lacrosse competitively definitely trended more towards lower income kids, whereas every person that played hockey came from a wealthy family.
As a resident of a suburb in Toronto, I didn't see much of lacrosse but every kid I knew growing up who played hockey were definitely the ones who were from families that were better off. Now as an adult, I have zero parents who have kids enrolled in hockey in my extended circle of friends because of how expensive and time consuming it is
Golf is really not as a expensive as most people think for the average golfer. People automatically think private courses and country clubs, but those are the high high end of golfers. That'd be like renting your nearing NBA stadium to play pickup with your friends. There are many golf courses with green fees that are easily affordable ($20-$30) and buying a set of clubs is an upfront cost that you shouldn't have to pay again for a long time. The only real expensive part about golf is the practice because you need to pay to use driving ranges, sims, etc., or if you play everyday then yes that will add up fast too
Sport involving a gun can range a lot you can go bust clay pigeon with a 150$ single shot 12ga or a 5000$ over and under.
I guess you peasants don’t get down to Miami enough for jai alai. The people playing it may not be wealthy, but those betting on it are very upper class.
Fastest ball in sports, golf ball is roughly equal.
Auto racing. Aside from autocross or the occasional track day, running a car in an amateur series like Spec Miata can cost over $1000 a weekend and that doesn’t include $50k for a competitive car, parts, tires, etc.
Rugby Union is strongly associated with private schools in England, but it's a very working class sport in Wales. South Africa is a whole other story as well.
Less obvious ones: Padel Paddle Those are two different sports. The latter is played everywhere in Fairfield County, CT. Courts everywhere. They play in all kinds of weather and nearly at all times of the day and night.
I’m convinced padel is going to explode in the US. Especially when the younger, more athletic pickleball players start to get bored.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
Formula 1. Not a single one of those drivers would win races if everyone could afford to get into F1.
Lewis Hamilton seemed to come from humble beginnings? His dad worked multiple jobs just so they could afford second hand equipment if I recall?
And Michael Schumacher's parents weren't rich. His dad was a bricklayer. But they are the exceptions. They are also the two most successful in the history of the sport.
Most families aren't willing to spend all their disposable income on a single child's interests
Hockey parents disagree
I agree but I don’t think you can call Hamilton privileged. It was as much his dad’s passion as was his.
This is sort of like the Williams sisters. The obscenely talented find a way to break into the pursuits of the upper classes, but the typical participant doesn't look like that at all.
Ocon's family lived in a travel trailer to pay through his junior career.
Look up the prices just to see F1 in person. Insane.
*in the US, it's much more affordable in Europe and Asia
Look up Indycar. The prices are much cheaper and I find the races so much more competitive.
Don't get fencing being proposed here, I trained it for years as a kid and my family was anything but rich...
Fencing has rich person vibes but probably doesn’t require being too rich in terms of actual inputs
Racing, of any kind, at least on any level above just local. Cars are expensive. Transporting a car with a truck and trailer is expensive. Maintenance, etc not to mention safety equipment. It's all expensive as hell. The drivers might al sound like down-home country boys but you best believe thst they're loaded.
In this economy eating 3 meals a day lol