Take a look at the cash-only fees spectators have to pay to watch their kid at a competition. After paying gym fees, comp fees, and stay to play hotel fees, I then get to pay $25-$50 CASH ONLY to watch my kid perform. They MUST be skimming like crazy!
That $3-6k/yr cost is paid to the private all-star gym program alone that covers things like:
* Tuition to pay coaches and staff, often paid monthly to the gym
* Mandatory uniform packages, with the fragile uniforms alone costing upwards of $500 for the most embellished versions, specialized shoes that cost $90-$120 per pair and won't last the season, requiring two pairs, and program-branded practice wear which consists of a sports bra and compression shorts at $60/set or more. Most packages will also include warmups only worn at competitions, branded backpacks, matching competition makeup sets, and expensive embellished bows covered in rhinestones used only at competitions - one bow for each day. Thankfully, male cheerleaders get by on a bit less.
* Competition registration fees (usually for Varsity-branded competitions ranging $120-$180 or more per event)
* Coach's travel and accommodations for non-local events
* Choreography, which can be modified several times in a season to fine-tune a routine
* $30 annual USASF membership (which, starting this year, the gym can no longer do on the athlete's behalf). The membership goes towards accident insurance that covers the athletes at USASF events should an injury happen at a practice at a member gym or at a sanctioned event.
What that $3-$6k does NOT cover is:
* Private lessons that range $60-$75/hr (most of that goes to the coach, some to the gym for overhead), camps, and multi-day clinics
* Travel for athlete and accompanying families to non-local competitions which can be $250-$500 per RT ticket for more distant competitions or gas for local
* Hotel accommodations at "Stay to Play" hotels which can be $150-$300/night or more
* Ground transportation (athletes may just Uber, but families often rent cars)
* Meals (both while traveling and when at all-day local events)
* Competition entry fees which can be $25/day or as high as $50/weekend per attending adult or child. Add $5-$15/day for parking if you drove there.
* Competition-specific accessories, such as optional program-branded t-shirts worn at the event to "rep" the gym for athletes and families.
* Onsite competition merchandise such as shirts, bows, etc. to commemorate the event, which often follow highly marked-up "theme-park pricing" models.
When we had two athletes competing in our family (which offered a small tuition discount and the obvious shared-cost savings on hotel rooms and ground transportation, but otherwise 2x the cost), We easily spent in excess of $20,000 per year once all of the above costs were considered as we'd travel as a family to support our kids.
Want to dive deeper? When is the last time you bought your highschool student a yearbook, graduation package, senior class ring, etc.? Was it by Herff-Jones? Guess who owns that too? Yup, Varsity Brands. So it's no surprise that they also make your Summit rings if you're lucky enough to win one.
And what about Disney’s involvement forcing Summit athletes to buy a 3 day park hopper pass with their Varsity competition fees? A competing athlete does not need a full 3 day park hopper pass to get into the ESPN facility to practice/compete. It was abusive to force that into the fees.
So then a parent is compelled to buy a park hopper pass too because your preteen can’t exactly visit Disney parks unsupervised for 3 days to use the pass we were forced to buy at a 4 day competition. There’s no way to visit a Universal park when you have already paid $350 in park entrance fees per person. Technically Universal was also damaged by Varsity/Disney.
Everyone has always said, "you ve gotta be Varsity, bow to toe" ... As a hairbow vendor their prices destory ours, but their quality has gone down hill. I can tell a varsity bow from a mile away and as a courtesy to these young athletes I repair bows on site at no charge. A majority of the ones I fix are the varsity ones.
Also, for a high school to be permitted to participate in UCA or USA Nationals competition the team must not only qualify at a qualifying competition, but also be "certified" at a pricey summer camp. Guess who runs the camps....
Another important thing to mention is how varsity basically owns all rights to any videos involved in All-star cheer. Videos of routines (even videos not at a competition) are taken down on all social media for copyright reasons. Competitions are live streamed through flocheer owned by varsity if you pay the $30 monthly subscription, but the stream is terrible!! And can only be used by one person. It will be down for 20 minutes at times and then friends/family that paid the $30 can’t even watch the 2 minute 30 second routine. That’s why many people don’t have a clue that all star cheer and high school cheer are very different.
Thank you so much for writing this. It is true a lot of cheer is about back stabbing and sabotage UNFORTUNATELY. We left cheer because gym owners are not regulated or held accountable for illegal behavior within their businesses. As a parent who has a child who participated in both competitive school and all star cheer there will continue to be drama until there is a clear set of rules and an enforcement oversite body like in every other sport. The GREAT thing about cheer is in the 2 1/2 minutes these teams are on stage tumbling, stunting, and dancing. When done well it is breathtaking, exciting like a roller coaster ride, and leaves you with an awesome feeling inside when you see these athletes hit their routines. As cheer is now slated to be included in the 2028 Olympics it makes sense that company like Varsity will have to be dismantled to make way for a legitimate governing body and independent competitive events to validate the SPORT of cheer. It appears progress is working out the world of cheer. Yeah!
Matt, this article is incredible. I hope and pray that it will deliver some insight to the gym owners in this industry who have been brainwashed and strong armed by Varsity brands.
Here are some things you could touch on to peak some other readers interest:
1. Gyms that franchise their names and likeness. Their varsity kick back checks are astronomical and set their franchisees up to fail in the long term.
2. Music licenses. How cheer music has evolved in the last decade and how and more importantly WHY varsity created a sub industry for music creation.
3. Infinity shoes origin story and their battle with varsity
4. Varsity’s iconic Team USA has to pay to play. They actually encourage their athletes create go fund me pages to participate at Worlds each year. Most of these athletes will swear by the experience but they are treated worse than NCAA football and basketball players when you do the math on how much money Varsity profits off of marketing their Team USA brand and their likeness.
5. The amount of college coaches that receive kick backs and job opportunities through varsity for continued business with varsity
Reading through the comments there are several points you missed, including their grasp on the HS market as well, and the crazy fees charged to spectators to attend the competitions.
Overall, I thought it was a well written article and you highlighted the points well.
But I am commenting because I take exception to the fact that you dismiss entirely the contribution of boys and men in this sport.
As the parent of a male all star cheerleader who has been doing it since 9 years old, I can tell you at the 2 gyms we have been involved with thus far in his cheer career at least 40-50% of the staff/coaches have been male cheerleaders, and there are far more boys involved than you note. Is it a majority of girls - yes absolutely. But your passing acknowledgement of how this impacts the boys is laughable. Our uniform fees are usually the same as the girls - which means we are also paying for bows, poms, and accessories my son neither uses or even receives (considering we paid for it). Makeup and hair products seem to be the only thing excluded from our fees.
They also have issues with employee wages. I am a former summer camp instructor with a varsity company and they charge each participant loads of money and almost none of that money goes to those who work the camps. For example, a 4 day camp for instruction only (no food/lodging) it will cost about 300 dollars per athlete. Most instructors will only bring home a couple hundred bucks for the entire camp working 12 hour days plus some extra time each day for working up material and an extra prep day before the camp starts. I did camps where I was in charge of 35-40 cheerleaders (two teams). So the income for those cheerleaders was roughly between $10000-$12000 (instruction only) and as the instructor I took home a couple hundred dollars. Now I know, they Have to pay for the venue, but the amount of money they are taking in per camp is astonishing.
To follow up with this you should do an article about the three Varsity events being held in Disney this year. Mandatory commuter fees for Athletes at 390.00, yet the parks are at full capacity. Varsity knows how many people this comp brings. They didn’t prepare and not thousands are paying all this money to not be able to even walk into a park.
Great article filled with a ton of truth. My kids have been cheering in AllStar for over 10 years. Everything he has written about is spot on. Those who deny the facts are either blind in their beliefs or not ready to accept the truth and go through a massive overhaul as an Industry and sport. That is the hard part here- what will the sport look like on the other side of all of this. I hope we can all come together and help our kids, gyms, coaches etc fight through this together. At the heart of it truly is an incredible sport that brings so many people from all walks of life and backgrounds and beliefs-together. 1 common goal each team is fighting for together backed by their families, gyms and communities! Let’s not judge each other’s words or beliefs regarding all of this....... let’s come together as one cheer community around the globe (yes cheer is a global sport and community) and unite our common goals and new ideas to help our gym owners figure out a better way to compete. That will be a lesson all of these kids will live and carry with them into the world and hopefully help guide them as adults in the future. We are training the next generation of leaders within the walls of these cheer gyms.
Side note- I believe varsity also bought out a streaming service/network (in Texas) that provides streaming service, commentary, articles, information etc about ALL UIL sanctioned sports now. In Texas, Cheer is now a UIL sport also regulated and controlled by Varsity. I think the network is NFHS if you look at it- kinda reminds me of flocheer - varsity TV.
As a cheer mom... I have sat back and watched this and thought over the years how could no one else notice the lack of competition... Finally this is brought to light.
Take a look at the cash-only fees spectators have to pay to watch their kid at a competition. After paying gym fees, comp fees, and stay to play hotel fees, I then get to pay $25-$50 CASH ONLY to watch my kid perform. They MUST be skimming like crazy!
Matt, have you looked into their high school cheer competitions? School teams, that use federal funding, are also subjected to the Varsity Monopoly.
That $3-6k/yr cost is paid to the private all-star gym program alone that covers things like:
* Tuition to pay coaches and staff, often paid monthly to the gym
* Mandatory uniform packages, with the fragile uniforms alone costing upwards of $500 for the most embellished versions, specialized shoes that cost $90-$120 per pair and won't last the season, requiring two pairs, and program-branded practice wear which consists of a sports bra and compression shorts at $60/set or more. Most packages will also include warmups only worn at competitions, branded backpacks, matching competition makeup sets, and expensive embellished bows covered in rhinestones used only at competitions - one bow for each day. Thankfully, male cheerleaders get by on a bit less.
* Competition registration fees (usually for Varsity-branded competitions ranging $120-$180 or more per event)
* Coach's travel and accommodations for non-local events
* Choreography, which can be modified several times in a season to fine-tune a routine
* $30 annual USASF membership (which, starting this year, the gym can no longer do on the athlete's behalf). The membership goes towards accident insurance that covers the athletes at USASF events should an injury happen at a practice at a member gym or at a sanctioned event.
What that $3-$6k does NOT cover is:
* Private lessons that range $60-$75/hr (most of that goes to the coach, some to the gym for overhead), camps, and multi-day clinics
* Travel for athlete and accompanying families to non-local competitions which can be $250-$500 per RT ticket for more distant competitions or gas for local
* Hotel accommodations at "Stay to Play" hotels which can be $150-$300/night or more
* Ground transportation (athletes may just Uber, but families often rent cars)
* Meals (both while traveling and when at all-day local events)
* Competition entry fees which can be $25/day or as high as $50/weekend per attending adult or child. Add $5-$15/day for parking if you drove there.
* Competition-specific accessories, such as optional program-branded t-shirts worn at the event to "rep" the gym for athletes and families.
* Onsite competition merchandise such as shirts, bows, etc. to commemorate the event, which often follow highly marked-up "theme-park pricing" models.
When we had two athletes competing in our family (which offered a small tuition discount and the obvious shared-cost savings on hotel rooms and ground transportation, but otherwise 2x the cost), We easily spent in excess of $20,000 per year once all of the above costs were considered as we'd travel as a family to support our kids.
Want to dive deeper? When is the last time you bought your highschool student a yearbook, graduation package, senior class ring, etc.? Was it by Herff-Jones? Guess who owns that too? Yup, Varsity Brands. So it's no surprise that they also make your Summit rings if you're lucky enough to win one.
And what about Disney’s involvement forcing Summit athletes to buy a 3 day park hopper pass with their Varsity competition fees? A competing athlete does not need a full 3 day park hopper pass to get into the ESPN facility to practice/compete. It was abusive to force that into the fees.
So then a parent is compelled to buy a park hopper pass too because your preteen can’t exactly visit Disney parks unsupervised for 3 days to use the pass we were forced to buy at a 4 day competition. There’s no way to visit a Universal park when you have already paid $350 in park entrance fees per person. Technically Universal was also damaged by Varsity/Disney.
Everyone has always said, "you ve gotta be Varsity, bow to toe" ... As a hairbow vendor their prices destory ours, but their quality has gone down hill. I can tell a varsity bow from a mile away and as a courtesy to these young athletes I repair bows on site at no charge. A majority of the ones I fix are the varsity ones.
Also, for a high school to be permitted to participate in UCA or USA Nationals competition the team must not only qualify at a qualifying competition, but also be "certified" at a pricey summer camp. Guess who runs the camps....
Another important thing to mention is how varsity basically owns all rights to any videos involved in All-star cheer. Videos of routines (even videos not at a competition) are taken down on all social media for copyright reasons. Competitions are live streamed through flocheer owned by varsity if you pay the $30 monthly subscription, but the stream is terrible!! And can only be used by one person. It will be down for 20 minutes at times and then friends/family that paid the $30 can’t even watch the 2 minute 30 second routine. That’s why many people don’t have a clue that all star cheer and high school cheer are very different.
Thank you so much for writing this. It is true a lot of cheer is about back stabbing and sabotage UNFORTUNATELY. We left cheer because gym owners are not regulated or held accountable for illegal behavior within their businesses. As a parent who has a child who participated in both competitive school and all star cheer there will continue to be drama until there is a clear set of rules and an enforcement oversite body like in every other sport. The GREAT thing about cheer is in the 2 1/2 minutes these teams are on stage tumbling, stunting, and dancing. When done well it is breathtaking, exciting like a roller coaster ride, and leaves you with an awesome feeling inside when you see these athletes hit their routines. As cheer is now slated to be included in the 2028 Olympics it makes sense that company like Varsity will have to be dismantled to make way for a legitimate governing body and independent competitive events to validate the SPORT of cheer. It appears progress is working out the world of cheer. Yeah!
If you want stories, I'll give you stories. No fear here.
Matt, this article is incredible. I hope and pray that it will deliver some insight to the gym owners in this industry who have been brainwashed and strong armed by Varsity brands.
Here are some things you could touch on to peak some other readers interest:
1. Gyms that franchise their names and likeness. Their varsity kick back checks are astronomical and set their franchisees up to fail in the long term.
2. Music licenses. How cheer music has evolved in the last decade and how and more importantly WHY varsity created a sub industry for music creation.
3. Infinity shoes origin story and their battle with varsity
4. Varsity’s iconic Team USA has to pay to play. They actually encourage their athletes create go fund me pages to participate at Worlds each year. Most of these athletes will swear by the experience but they are treated worse than NCAA football and basketball players when you do the math on how much money Varsity profits off of marketing their Team USA brand and their likeness.
5. The amount of college coaches that receive kick backs and job opportunities through varsity for continued business with varsity
Reading through the comments there are several points you missed, including their grasp on the HS market as well, and the crazy fees charged to spectators to attend the competitions.
Overall, I thought it was a well written article and you highlighted the points well.
But I am commenting because I take exception to the fact that you dismiss entirely the contribution of boys and men in this sport.
As the parent of a male all star cheerleader who has been doing it since 9 years old, I can tell you at the 2 gyms we have been involved with thus far in his cheer career at least 40-50% of the staff/coaches have been male cheerleaders, and there are far more boys involved than you note. Is it a majority of girls - yes absolutely. But your passing acknowledgement of how this impacts the boys is laughable. Our uniform fees are usually the same as the girls - which means we are also paying for bows, poms, and accessories my son neither uses or even receives (considering we paid for it). Makeup and hair products seem to be the only thing excluded from our fees.
They also have issues with employee wages. I am a former summer camp instructor with a varsity company and they charge each participant loads of money and almost none of that money goes to those who work the camps. For example, a 4 day camp for instruction only (no food/lodging) it will cost about 300 dollars per athlete. Most instructors will only bring home a couple hundred bucks for the entire camp working 12 hour days plus some extra time each day for working up material and an extra prep day before the camp starts. I did camps where I was in charge of 35-40 cheerleaders (two teams). So the income for those cheerleaders was roughly between $10000-$12000 (instruction only) and as the instructor I took home a couple hundred dollars. Now I know, they Have to pay for the venue, but the amount of money they are taking in per camp is astonishing.
To follow up with this you should do an article about the three Varsity events being held in Disney this year. Mandatory commuter fees for Athletes at 390.00, yet the parks are at full capacity. Varsity knows how many people this comp brings. They didn’t prepare and not thousands are paying all this money to not be able to even walk into a park.
Great article filled with a ton of truth. My kids have been cheering in AllStar for over 10 years. Everything he has written about is spot on. Those who deny the facts are either blind in their beliefs or not ready to accept the truth and go through a massive overhaul as an Industry and sport. That is the hard part here- what will the sport look like on the other side of all of this. I hope we can all come together and help our kids, gyms, coaches etc fight through this together. At the heart of it truly is an incredible sport that brings so many people from all walks of life and backgrounds and beliefs-together. 1 common goal each team is fighting for together backed by their families, gyms and communities! Let’s not judge each other’s words or beliefs regarding all of this....... let’s come together as one cheer community around the globe (yes cheer is a global sport and community) and unite our common goals and new ideas to help our gym owners figure out a better way to compete. That will be a lesson all of these kids will live and carry with them into the world and hopefully help guide them as adults in the future. We are training the next generation of leaders within the walls of these cheer gyms.
Side note- I believe varsity also bought out a streaming service/network (in Texas) that provides streaming service, commentary, articles, information etc about ALL UIL sanctioned sports now. In Texas, Cheer is now a UIL sport also regulated and controlled by Varsity. I think the network is NFHS if you look at it- kinda reminds me of flocheer - varsity TV.
As a cheer mom... I have sat back and watched this and thought over the years how could no one else notice the lack of competition... Finally this is brought to light.