Sporting is a part of human nature.
It promotes teamwork and athleticism while making spectators feel like they’re part of something by rooting for their home team.
Although we all enjoy tossing the pigskin around, hitting a baseball, and shooting hoops, some rich people sports are beyond the reach of the middle class.
Rich People Sports
So what sports do only rich people enjoy?
I scoured the internet (and asked some of my wealthier extended family members) to discover what, if any, sports are “rich people sports” that the rest of us can’t afford.
The answers are entertaining and enlightening.
Did you know that some sports cost thousands of dollars just to start?
Here are the most popular rich people sports that the rest of us probably can’t afford to try.
Polo
Nothing screams “I have money” like owning a polo horse.
Sure, you can get a “starter pony” for between 3-10K, but you still have to feed and house it. And people who take polo seriously spend upwards of $100,000 on their horses!
Many top-tier players have more than one horse too. You can easily spend millions of dollars a year playing polo.
Though rich spectators gobble up box seats costing thousands of dollars, middle-class spectators can still enjoy a match for less than fifty bucks.
Dressage
Dressage is an Olympic horse-riding event involving intense training for both horse and rider.
The best dressage horses look like they’re dancing in an ethereal “horse dance.” Although it’s impressive, the sport is so niche that many average folks don’t even know what it is.
Most of us can’t afford a horse, and we definitely can’t afford expensive training to make our horses dance.
Show Jumping
Have you noticed a theme in the top rich people’s sports? A lot of them involve expensive horses.
Show jumping, another Olympic-level horse riding sport, will cost a pretty penny.
Like with polo, the major cost is in the horse. A good jumping horse can cost six figures. And of course, you still need to pay for boarding, training, and all the other costs associated with competing.
Car Racing
Internet users joked that car racing is the easiest way to turn a large fortune into a small one.
Our vehicles are one of the biggest expenses in our budgets, so most of us can’t afford a second vehicle just for racing.
But it’s not just the car and maintenance. You’ll have to pay track fees, transportation fees, and travel fees to participate in the events.
Sailing
One Redditor said sailing is only for the rich, but other users pointed out that although yachting and owning a large sailboat is prohibitively expensive, savvy sailors could pick up the hobby for far less.
“I race sailboats on Wednesdays. I have a partner in our boat. The boat cost us $3k total, and our monthly storage is about $100. Races are about $40 to enter,” stated one, showcasing how cheap it can be if you go with a tiny boat.
Another said you could sail for free by joining a crew on a larger boat. “Owning a boat can be expensive,” they started, “but sailing is cheap. All big boats need crew, and some of the positions can be learned really quickly with no prior experience.”
Skiing and Snowboarding
Fun winter sports can get pricey even for casual participants.
One user broke down the price of one ski weekend, saying it’s “$300-400 for a board/ Skis, $100-200 for shoes to attach to your board or skis, $40-100 for a helmet, $40-100 for the privilege to be on the mountain, and then like $60 bucks for a lift ticket.”
I’ve been skiing in the past few years, and I can affirm that $60 for a lift ticket is a steal. Most big places charge $100-200 for a ticket.
Plus, if you don’t live near the mountain, you’ll have to pay for a hotel to enjoy a ski weekend. I must admit that it’s worth the cost if you can afford it, especially at places like Beaver Creek in Colorado!
Rowing
One user said they’ve only seen rowing in relation to Ivy League schools, so they assumed it must be a rich people’s sport. Others said that their wealthy relatives participate in rowing.
A rowing boat can cost up to 10K, but that’s far from the only cost. You must also pay for oars, coaching, maintenance, and competition fees.
But time ranks as one of the highest costs. To row competitively, you need to spend a lot of time practicing and training. Because most of us have jobs and other commitments, we can’t afford to spend our time rowing.
Lacrosse
The interesting thing about Lacrosse is that it’s not really much more expensive than most other sports. Sure, you need a lot of equipment that can cost upwards of $500, but it’s not much different than hockey.
Lacrosse is a rich people’s sport because typically, only rich people play it. We see it offered at private schools and associate it with the upper middle class. One user even jokingly called the Lacrosse stick a “trust fund stick”.
However, the tides might be turning. As the sport has gained popularity in recent years, more and more public schools and communities have started fielding Lacrosse teams.
Golf
Golf can be affordable, but like Lacrosse, it has a stigma that it’s only for the wealthy.
Exclusive country clubs gatekeeping membership seek to maintain the idea of golf as a rich people’s sport, and those in the middle class don’t even bother.
Although golf may be out of reach for the poor, the middle class can enjoy this sport on a budget. There are plenty of “public” clubs offering course access for less than $100, and you can rent clubs for about $50.
If you love it, you might want to buy your own clubs, and although there are budget options, a good set can cost nearly $2000.
Fencing
Anyone can grab a football and throw it down the field. Anyone can hit a tennis ball around. You can practice and improve at either on your own (though of course a coach would help!).
But if you want to try fencing, you need someone to teach you. And you need protective equipment. These two necessities make the sport out of reach for most of the middle class.
Fencing can cost upwards of $1000 just to try, and if you want to get competitive, you’ll probably pay closer to $10,000 a year.
Ballroom Dancing
One user said that the monetary costs of ballroom dancing are pretty high, but the actual price is the time sink. They said clothes can cost upwards of $2k, but “don’t underestimate the time you have to invest, and you can only do so if you are rich.”
It takes a lot of time to learn how to complete all those complex dance moves well enough to compete.
Most of us are too busy working to have that much free time.
Bonus: Youth Sports
Many users lamented the rising costs of youth sports, saying they’d love to have their kids play a sport, but the price is becoming too much to bear.
Users specifically mentioned hockey and cheerleading as two common youth sports that are outrageously expensive for regular folks.
Hobbies Don’t Have to Be Expensive
The sports Reddit users listed as reserved for rich people can get pricey, but engaging in sports and hobbies doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
We commoners may never get to play polo or compete in Formula 1 racing, but there are tons of other hobbies we can enjoy that are far cheaper and likely more fulfilling.
These cheap hobbies offer fulfillment for less!
Playing vs. Watching
One important thing to note about these sports is that the highest cost is actively participating in the hobby.
You can watch most of these sports with a streaming subscription, and if you want to see it live, you can usually score tickets for less than $100.
But outside of the Olympics, most rich people sports aren’t spectator sports.
Time and Money
The other crucial difference between rich people sports and sports for everyone is the time commitment.
Some of these sports don’t actually cost a ton of money. You can take up rowing or ballroom dancing for less than $1000.
But time is money. And unless you’re independently wealthy, you probably don’t have enough free time to join a rowing club and actively train. You probably do have time to play a pick-up basketball game in the park, or join a local softball team, though.
So tell me, which rich people sport would you want to try if you had the time and money?