AA and House Fees 2010 - Mite NIHL Comparison

I've been compiling fees for youth hockey clubs in the Chicago area, but what does it all mean?  When I embarked on this exercise, I stressed that a side-by-side look at the sticker price in no way reveals the value offered by any given program.  Comparing fees for the various Mite NIHL teams illustrates the problem of objectively determining the value proposition.  After the jump, I present an analysis.

Let's look at the Mite NIHL fees sorted from highest to lowest:

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The first thing that strikes me is that if your son or daughter wants to play on a NIHL team as a 7 or 8 year old, you better be prepared to spend $2,650 on average.  That is a lot of money.

Next, let's analyze the highest and lowest fee for illustration purposes.  A player will never be choosing between these two clubs because of geographical distance.  The NIHL Gold team at Winnetka will run you $3,900 this season, and the same team at the Charges will cost $1,800 ... well actually it will cost $2,000 when you add the mandatory fundraiser.  Both are successful mite programs, so why are the Chargers' fees 48.7% less than Winnetka?

Are we comparing apples to apples?  What are the key metrics?  Although imperfect, we can look at wins and losses.  This season hasn't been played yet, but we can look at NIHL's website to see how the Mite Gold teams performed in the 2009-10 season.

Winnetka Mite Gold tiered in the Elite division and finished 5-11-0.  Chargers Mite Gold tiered in the Gold division and finished 10-5-1.  Now we are getting into the nuances of determining the value proposition.  What does playing in the Elite tier mean to you and your player?  No one can answer that for you.

The Chargers' fee includes 3 home ice slots per week, uniform, AHAI and NIHL fees, year end banquet, and goalie clinics.  The Winnetka HC's fee includes 4-5 slots per week, uniform, 2 tournament entry fees, coaches salaries, and administration.  Here are some big differences!  Let's assume that coaches salaries and administration are included in the Chargers' fees and that league fees are included in Winnetka HC's fees.

To analyze the difference in ice time, let's make a call on Winnetka's ice time and set it at 4.5 ice slots per week.  At the mite level, an ice slot is 1 hour.  That's 50% more ice than you are getting at the Chargers, which can explain about half of the difference in fees.  The other half of the difference can be partially accounted for by the inclusion of two tournament fees in the Winnetka Hockey Club's fee.  By the time I add the ice time and tournaments to the Chargers' fee, the cost is in the same ball park.

In this analysis, I didn't get into comparing the coaches, what is being done on the ice as far as skill development, and so on.  However, I hope this exercise illustrates the work you must put in to determine which program is right for you and your player.  Some people would advise you to go to the closest rink and leave it at that.  I would counter that argument by pointing out that depending on where you live, most hockey parents in Chicagoland have 2 or 3 rinks within driving distance.

I conclude this analysis with a call to all area clubs to standardize the presentation their fees.  This degree of variation in disclosure does an injustice to the parents of youth hockey players.