9 Of The Most Expensive Sports In The World

The cost of Youth Sports has been rising steadily for decades but it has spiked in recent years. In the past 5 years alone, the cost of Youth Sports has risen by 46% on average, and that is across the board.

Here we discuss 9 of the most expensive sports in the world across the board. Some of these sports have always been prohibitively expensive due to enormous financial barriers to entry like the cost of a car, boat, or horse. Others have exploded in cost in recent decades as well. The average amount spent per child on sports in the United States eclipsed $1,000 for the first time in 2024 and that number only continues to climb.

The 9 Most Expensive Sports In The World

While the rising cost of sports in recent years has been driven in large part by specialization, year-round competition, ‘travel teams’ beginning at much earlier ages, and local governments no longer investing in youth sports through subsidies, some sports like Racing and Polo have always been reserved for the elite. Even still, they certainly have a place on this list of the most expensive sports in the world and you will soon see why.

1. Auto Racing

At the elite level, Formula 1 racing is unattainable for all but the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. In 2024, F1 increased its annual budget cap for teams to $165 million per GTTG and in 2026 it is set to reach $215 million this year. That’s just the annual budget spent on the team!

Scaling it way down, competing at the national level in Kart Racing can cost well over $50K per year due the cost of specialized equipment (racing karts), travel, parts, repairs, simulators, training, and everything else under the sun. Equipment/Karts can also be rendered obsolete in a hurry as the top racers speed through the levels and constantly require faster, better, and more expensive equipment.

2. Elite Sailing

It should go without saying but anything involving boats is expensive. Especially sailing at the America’s Cup level and other competitive Sailing done in bays and oceans where the boats are under constant attack from corrosive saltwater.

At the entry level, sailing can cost up to $5K/year and at the highest levels a 2013 America’s Cup winner was believed to have spent $300 MILLION on the boat, team, and competition. Even at the mid-level, sailing vessels often exceed $100,000. So as far as barriers to entry goes, Sailing is up there with any of the most expensive sports in the world. And that’s not including having a docking slip, trailer, travel, team costs, logistics, constant repairs, etc.

3. Polo

I know what you are thinking… Polo, the sport of the wealthy elite, is expensive??? Shocker! Well, it does rank among the most expensive sports on earth and if I did not include it here I’m certain I would receive emails complaining about the omission. Alas, Polo is here and it is a wildly expensive sport.

In order to compete in Polo one must first learn how to ride a horse. Lessons can run up to $200/hour. I won’t even include the uniforms required here because those are costs incurred in just about every sport but they’re expensive, to be sure.

A rider must then either own or rent a horse. When owning a horse, the top steeds can cost over a million dollars. Let that sink in for a second! Just getting your foot in the door can run between $40,000 and $100,000. Then there is boarding, tack, and feed. The horses must have somewhere to sleep, be taken care of, treated like royalty themselves. Everything in Polo adds up quickly. All of that is to say, do not tell your kids about Polo unless you are prepared to spend a fortune.

4. Alpine Skiing

There mere name ‘Alpine Skiing’ sounds expensive! And it sure is. Firstly, it requires snow. Lots of snow. Did you know that snow is seasonal? For the extreme skiers, chasing year-round skiing conditions means traveling to the Southern Hemisphere when it is Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.

Lift passes, lessons, skiing equipment, that all adds up to over thousands of dollars every year. Then there are ski academies for elite Alpine Skiers that can cost up to $100K/year and that doesn’t include travel.

5. Equestrian

Equestrian here refers to horse jumping, riding, and showing. It is easily one of the most expensive sports on earth without even getting granular into the details.

For starters, a horse is required. But not just any horse, a specialized horse that is bonded with the rider so they trust one another completely. That can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. As mentioned with Polo, horses need somewhere to eat and sleep and a staff to keep them happy when the rider is unable to.

Then there’s a trailer, a huge truck to pull that trailer, regional competitions, boarding school for elite riders, and the list goes on and on. Spending $100,000+ per year is not uncommon in the sport of Equestrian.

6. Ice Hockey

While Ice Hockey isn’t nearly as expensive as some of the others listed above it is well established as one of the most expensive sports in the world, especially at the youth level. Hockey, first and foremost, requires ice time. That costs $$$$$. All of the pads, skates, and sticks add up.

Travel is an enormous expense in Ice Hockey and a travel team at the youth level can plan on spending up to $20K per year (for kids!!). The overall cost of Hockey can vary drastically across regions. Here in Florida the price and time commitment is significantly higher than throughout Canada or in Minnesota, etc. But compared to most youth sports, Hockey is a bank breaker.

7. Triathlon and Cycling

Triathlon and Cycling are being included together here because, well, they’re inextricably linked as Cycling is one of the three components in Triathlon. My friends are constantly stunned when I tell them how much tri bikes / tt bikes / high end road bikes cost. Think tens of thousands of dollars.

Do you need more than one bike? Well, that all depends how serious you are and what you want to do but the short answer is ‘maybe’ and the long-term answer is ‘this is going to cost you a fortune.’ A good tri suit can run up to $500. The same for top tier wetsuits. Then you cycling shoes, an aerodynamic helmet, elite running shoes, and on top of that you should plan on traveling a LOT.

At the IronMan level, it is a global sport. And if you are thinking just in terms of Youth Sports here and all of that sounds outrageous, let me add that in the last triathlon I competed in back in January 2 of the 3 top finishers amongst all Males were 16 years old and were not from Florida and had traveled here for the race. All 3 of the top finishers on the women’s side were 18 or younger.

Youth participation in Triathlon (and Cycling) is at an all-time high… Now if I could ever afford a Canyon or a Cervélo TT bike I might be able to compete with these kids but that is a pipe dream for me unless some magical sponsor falls out of the sky.

8. Golf

Golf at the Youth Sports level is considerably more affordable than at the adult level but that is often because the sport is being subsidized by adults forking over exorbitant greens fees and private club membership fees.

To get into golf you must first take lessons and learn how to swing a club, that’s $$$. Then you will want to purchase a set of clubs. Budget $1-2K for that. And then plan on spending more and more on new clubs every couple of years because the industry is constantly churning out new technology.

And that’s just the barrier to entry. Once you start playing you will be hit by enormous greens fees. You will constantly lose golf balls and spend $60/dozen if you like Pro V1’s. Gloves fall apart like paper.

The grass is always greener on the other side in Golf so very soon you will want to start traveling to new courses and making vacations out of those trips. That will cost an arm and a leg. And at the end of the day the average golfer has an index of 14.2 which means they shoot mid-to-high 80s on a good day.

9. Lacrosse

Lacrosse is similar to Ice Hockey in the sense that it requires specialized equipment that costs a fortune, lots of travel is involved, and at the elite level you are looking at boarding school fees. At the competitive youth level, Lax can cost around $4K per year for just the sport but that doesn’t factor in the time spent traveling throughout the Mid-Atlantic region on the weekends, hotel costs, injuries, etc. All of that adds up!

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Just like that we have made it to the end of this list of the most expensive sports in the world. Do you think we missed any? You can email me anytime at cass@brobible.com, my inbox is always open. Just be sure to come with facts and figures if you want me to respond!