I swim with a combined age group and masters team and am the master representative on the team's board. Our team is roughly 100 swimmers from 5 to 50+ and we live in one of the wealthiest counties in the country. Last week, our board adopted a new budget that added about 20,000 on to the monthly expenses. Sadly, I'm also a scout leader and had to go to a scout event and missed the budget. Our current fee structure doesn't support the new budget so the board is looking to raise the fee the swimmers pay. So I'm looking in to what other masters pay for their team. I'd also like to know how many hours a week you are offered coached workouts, if your fee includes the pool entry and if it's a combined masters and age group team.
A board member claims he read on the ASCA web site that the average monthly fee to masters is $50 and that was in 2004. I'm looking around the area and out of state and I don't see anything to support higher than that today. My fear is that if they raise the fees too much for the masters, the members will leave (we currently only have 6 - with additional 5 recently leaving over coaching issues and lack of lane space as they moved to to 1 lane to give the kids a morning practice).
So here's where we are now:
$45 a month/ 3 hours a week offered/ pool fee not included/ age group and masters combined.
This is great. Thank you.
I swim at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex....The “Hall of Fame” pool. We have several options. I pay $90 for unlimited practices. We have 4 coached practices per day available M-F, 2 on Saturday. Our practices have a coach on deck, with 3-4 options as to intervals. I think 3 days are $80, and one day per week is $30.
I pay almost nothing. My health insurance gives me free YMCA membership. Otherwise it would be $50/mo for seniors. The additional fee for master's practice is just $18/mo. There are team practices, Tue & Thu, 12:00-1:00 and 8:00-9:00 PM. It is not offered Jun/Jul/Aug because most of us, including the coach transition to open water.
We're $80 per month for 3x per week 5:30 to 7:00 AM or $60 per month for 2x per week. We share the pool with the senior AG team and set aside 2+ lanes for lap swimmers and we have our own very good masters coach.
When the pool is setup scy there are quite a few lanes (24+ I think) with the bulk head splitting the pool between the AG and masters teams. We generally have 10-12 swimmers and do share lanes on occasion. When the pool flips to LCM, lanes are a premium but they are really wide. The masters get 3 lanes (3 or 4 per lane) and the AG team gets 5 lanes (I think), which leaves one or two lanes for the lap swimmers.
In past recent years I swam for a Y-masters team and solo at LA Fitness - this is far and away the best masters swimming experience i've had and worth it.
Here are the fees that I know of in the Raleigh Area:
Raleigh Area Masters - $50/month, Practices - M,W,F 5:30- 6:45am, M, W, F 12-1:15, T, Th 6:45 - 8pm, Sat & Sun 8-9:30
Triangle Aquatic Masters - $70/month, Practices M-F 6:00 - 7:!5am, 11:45-1:00pm
Lifetime Masters - $50/month + membership dues for club - Practices T, Th 6 - 7:30 am.
I pay $50/month along with an annual fee of $60. Our workouts are 5:00 am to 6:00 am MWF, 4:30 to 6:30 pm M to Th, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Fr, and Sat 7-8 am. The Saturday workout is long course meters and depending on the time of year, Monday and Friday mornings are also long course meters. The number of lanes available varies on the workout times and the number of age groupers present from our parent club. Generally we have 4 to 5 lanes in the weekday mornings with one or 2 swimmers per lane. The afternoons we have 2 to 3 lanes available but those are 2 workout sessions so it generally isn't crowded. The long course meters setup we have 2 lanes with up to 4 per lane but it can be adjusted to 3 lanes if not enough age groupers are present to bring it back down to 2 swimmers per lane. All workouts are supervised by our one and only Masters coach. One of the other age group coaches supervise our workouts on those rare occasions he isn't there.
It’s too bad, but I think running a Masters program requires a lot of almost unlikely elements to be successful.
I also think our Masters program is going to be canceled soon too. Currently one of the practices is just a workout on a whiteboard with no coach. They can’t find anyone who wants to do it.
Thank you all for the help. I am jealous of those of you who have so many options. At this time, I told the board to come up with a fee structure that didn't include masters. As this discussion has gone on, and more kids were added to the masters practice time, fewer masters have attended practices. It's often down to just me. I don't see our masters program continuing in Sept. :(
I forgot to include my OWS costs previously. Again, it's fairly minimal compared to others here. I swim with a local Tri club every Tuesday at a lake in upstate NY and while I have done a couple Mini Triathlons, I am not much of a biker and cannot run at all due to arthritis (I walk the 5K), so I joined primarily for the swims. To join the club is $60/year and the fee for the whole 14 week season of OWS is $100 if prepaid, or $10 a night if paying weekly. There is another local Tri club in Saratoga with Thursday night swims with a similar fee structure.
The Triathlon clubs, as with local running clubs do not depend only of member fees to balance their budget. They make most of their money through race entry fees and sponsors.
My master's group is a class at our local YMCA. You can attend as many practices as fit your schedule, but for most people that works out to 2-3 / week. Options are Tusday-Thursday at 6 AM, Tue-Thurs at 7:15 PM, Mon-Wed at lunch time, and Sunday at 7:30 AM. It costs $40/month for YMCA members plus YMCA membership
Our masters groups is organized under a county park & rec, and uses a punch card system. It VERY CHEAP and we have been asked them to raise the fees to the county park & rec and city that owns the pool can generate revenue. We only pay $6 per 90 minute workout with a certified masters deck coach, and we have 3 weekday morning workout, 4 weekday evening workout and a Saturday morning workout option (in the winter we loss one the evening workout, but during the last two Fall-Winter seasons, the pool has been closed due to issue with the air filled dome that covers the pool or the heater/blower that keeps it inflated).
