The Price of being pro
The ACL World Championships are just days away. Individuals from all over the country will soon converge on Rock Hill, SC to compete in an array of events for various skill levels. Perhaps the most exciting event of the event of the weekend is the Pro Qualifier which is held on Sunday, August 7th. More than 800 players will battle it out for 32 spots that will grant individuals automatic professional cards for the 2022-2023 ACL season. As I started to think about what it meant to be a pro…the idea of cost slid its’ way to the forefront of my mind. What does it cost to be a pro? Let’s take a look…
Now before we go any further, so I don’t trigger the keyboard warriors….Obviously Costs of flights, hotels, food, etc will vary, so National Averages were used…..I am not talking about the subjective benefits one can gain from being a professional cornhole player. Here we are simply taking a look at the estimated numbers….
-Avg Round trip plane ticket: $330
-Avg Hotel Cost per night: $150
-Avg Car Rental per day: $60
-Food/Beverage: $100 (this is being nice…..)
National Events typically start on Fridays and end on Sundays. So the length of stay can obviously vary, but for the sake of this…let’s say 3 days….
-Cost of a National Event: 330 + (150 x 3) + (60x3) + 100 = $1060.00
There are 4 National events and a World Championship event (5 total):
5x1060 = $5300.00
Then there is the “Pro Fee” of $1000.00. This covers the entry fees for the 5 National events…should they have to pay to be pros? This can be debated without a doubt….but let’s stay focused.
So far we have a total of $6300.00, which would be the cost of travel/lodging for the 5 National events.
Professional players are also eligible to attend Pro Shootout events where they can try to qualify in singles or doubles for a chance to compete for a big-time payday later on in the season. There are EIGHT total qualifying events. Are these events mandatory? Nope! Do some pros choose to play them all? I would assume so. So for the sake of this article, let’s assume Pro Player X attended 4 pro Shoot out events….
$6,300 (total cost thus far) +($1,060 x 4) = $10,540.00
$10,540.00 is the estimated amount it would cost a professional player to attend all 5 National events and 4 Pro Shootout events. This amount does NOT include travel costs for Open events (some do fall in line with Pro shootouts which certainly helps!) or the cost it could take for someone to miss time from work. And these estimated numbers, I would venture to guess, are lower than what is most likely typical (especially food/drink).
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If we took an unofficial poll of all current pro players, it wouldn’t surprise me to find the median number somewhere above this figure. How many pro players obtain enough sponsorship money, from companies like Airwolf Athletics, to cover their costs? Hopefully we will find out soon in another article….
Until then…I hope you throw it straight!
-Sean
