[lookout123]

I'll disagree there. I have a career that takes care of my needs. While it's a job I enjoy, it doesn't fill me with passion. I'm cool with that because I'm a work to play kind of guy. Some people need to be passionate about their jobs and they are willing to earn less money in exchange for that. Coaching club soccer will make no one rich. Most of the coaches make less than $2000/year. A couple make $5-10,000. When the club is successful in full swing the top guys might make $50-70K but that is about it. Unless they are coaching for a large school or university it isn't a path to riches. But some coaches put a lot of time and effort into the job and they should be compensated otherwise they may not be able to do so.

example: I don't accept pay because of my licenses, but the coaches who coach at the level I do at the lowest base pay earn $250-400 every 10 weeks for that. 5 sessions per year = $2000 at the high end. If they coach 5 teams at a time that is $10,000/year. If they do private coach at $30/hr they might pull in a couple thousand more, but they certainly aren't getting rich. Most guys who are trying to live off it are either full time staff at a large club or work for a school as well. These guys are doing it for love of the game and kids.

Let's look at a breakdown of the costs:

A kid who is on the club team from Aug until May will pay $825 in training fees. That will give them 3.5 hours practice per week and at least one game every weekend. They will also pay $400 for state registration and uniform costs (no profit there). They will also pay tournament costs (divided amongst players with no padding for profit).

On a team with 10 kids count on at least one of them receiving a fee scholarship, so let's count just 9 paying kids to bring us to $7,425. If the club has 20 teams in operaton then you've got $148,500 in training fee income during the year. Sounds great.

Then you subtract:
Field rental agreements. Last night we had 6 teams practicing on one field for 2 hours at $130/hour. That means to practice all 20 teams for 3.5 hours each week we need 10.5 hours of field time for a weekly cost of $1365. Figure 40 weeks for a total of $54K+

League fees: They have games each week where you have to pay the refs $10 x 2, plus the league for the field and admin average of $40 per game. So $60 x 20 games = $1200 per week x 40 weeks = $48,000

Equipment costs: Balls = avg $4.50, Nets $50, cones $10 for 10, etc. So if we say $15 in equipment for each kid during the year that is another $3000 conservatively.

Just those areas run out to a little over $100K before we get to advertising, insurance, wages, etc.

It really isn't going to make anyone rich in the short term. A club director could do well if committed and willing to work hard enough to build a club of 50-70 teams but that really is a lot of work that takes them away from the kids so most guys never go that far.

Just a little peak behind the curtain.