08/28/2026
ADMISSION PRICES
Over the past several years, we have seen increasing costs across the board. One of the increases has been in admission costs. Why is talking about this so important… because this use to be a small part of the overall cheer budget. It used to be an easy $10-$20 a person in CASH to get watch our kids compete. Then in 2020, we saw the shift to buying tickets online. With online ticketing came the fees. And then also we’ve seen the shift comps are becoming more of a family event. Mom, Dad, siblings all travel to the comp. Put all of that together, and spectator admission has become a much bigger piece of the family's cheer budget.
(Don’t even get me started on the costs of hotels - different rant for a different day).
And here's another part that bothers me: the advertised ticket price isn't always the price you actually pay. A ticket may be advertised at $55, but by the time you get through checkout, you're paying $60-plus after taxes and fees. For this analysis, whenever possible, I recorded the actual price including taxes and fees — because that's the number that matters to a cheer parent's bank account.
I will never forget one competition we attended that went completely cashless. The idea was that buying tickets online would supposedly save on staffing. Except...they had more staff. They needed staff to help people buy the online tickets. Staff to answer questions about the tickets. Staff to look at your online ticket and hand you a wristband. And then additional staff to check that you were wearing the wristband. Years earlier, at that same competition, you walked up to someone, handed them cash, they gave you a wristband, watched you put it on, and you walked through the door. Sometimes I wonder if we've actually made this easier.
After watching admission prices continue to climb over the past two seasons, I wanted to sit down and actually look at the numbers. Last season, I tracked admission pricing across 723 All Star cheer competitions through March, ranging from smaller independent events to some of the largest competitions in the country.
The average one-day admission was $29.14, with a median of $29.01. For two-day events, the average was $55.76, with a median of $55.
In other words, $30 for a day or $55-$60 for a weekend has basically become normal. About two-thirds of the one-day admission prices fell between $25 and $35. Now, $30 may not sound like a huge number by itself. But start doing the family math.
For a family of four with one athlete competing, that's three spectator tickets — nearly $90 for one day. Attend six one-day competitions in a season and you've spent more than $500 just on admission. And that's before a mega competition or end-of-season event. For six two-day competitions at the average weekend price, that same family is looking at more than $1,000 in spectator admission alone. That's $1,000 just to walk through the doors and watch your kid compete for a few minutes.
No hotel. No gas. No airfare. No parking. No food. No competition merchandise.
Just admission.
I also broke down the 10 most affordable event producers and the 10 with the highest average spectator admission. You can see those numbers in the attached graphics. I also want to give credit where credit is due. Canadian Cheer held multiple events in my data with $0 spectator admission. Yes — FREE. And these aren't throwaway competitions. Canadian Cheer puts on great events. And these aren't throwaway events. Canadian Cheer puts on great competitions. So clearly, there are different ways to approach spectator admission.
Now here are my two cents.
When you look at the five highest two-day admission prices in my data, they are all major Varsity events. At the same time, over the past couple of seasons we've watched the competition landscape shift toward fewer events in some areas and larger mega competitions. (More on this later). And bigger destination events don't just mean higher admission. They can mean airfare, longer drives, additional hotel nights, higher hotel rates, parking, meals and more. I'm not saying gyms shouldn't attend these events. Big competitions are exciting. Athletes want to compete against the best. Winning one means something, and those experiences can become some of the best memories of an athlete's career. But I do think there needs to be another question asked when gyms build their schedules: Is this competition also a good choice for our families? Because a great competition schedule can't only be about bids, prestige, competition size and where the best teams are going. At some point, we also have to look at what we're asking families to spend just to be there and support their athletes.
One expensive weekend may not break the bank. But stack six, eight or ten competitions together — plus a mega event or two — and suddenly spectator admission isn't a small expense anymore. It's part of the cheer budget. So parents, I'm curious: At what point does spectator admission become too much? $30 a day? $40? $50? And maybe the bigger question: Should spectator admission and the total cost to families factor into the competitions a gym chooses?
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