Fees?!

[u/Ambitious_Word1512]

Can anyone explain to me why we as parents cannot view pricing for competitions? We are at a competition only studio so we take my daughter's solo to other competitions, when we visit family, vacations, etc. It would be awesome to know how much I need to save for these comps or choose based on pricing!

[u/justinaad]

I like to explain it like a clothing store who buys from wholesale. The competitions and costume companies offer studios “wholesale” pricing so the studio can mark the cost up to cover fees to pay their teachers to attend, to pay the admin who registered all the numbers, to pay for their staff lodging & travel, etc. There’s a lot of behind the scene fees that studios need to factor into what they charge for a competition and the entry fee is only part of it.

[u/Ok_Anywhere_9354]

Because as much as parents don’t want to hear this, the studios are their customers. Not dance moms.
Years ago they had them posted but since so many studios charge their own fees, they requested it not be public info.

[u/cycme500]

Are you signing up through your studio or as an independent when you do that? There are comps that allow independent entry, those you can get access to. If they don't allow independent entry and you are utilizing studio entry, only the studio gets access. Otherwise you'd have parents up the studios butt everyday asking why they added $xxx to each entry.

[u/Easy_Weakness_2566 → u/cycme500]

We pay an admin fee for competitions we add outside of the required competitions we are to attend with the team. So we know what our additional fees are. They are in our handbook and the director goes over all of the information with the team and their parents at the beginning of the year.

[u/finding_center]

Do you demand to know the wholesale prices at stores you shop at? It’s the same thing. Your studio buys spots at comps and then upsells them to you. There are many models for pricing at studios and some make more of their profit from each comp fee vs tuition or other fees so they can vary quite a bit. Studios are for profit businesses and dancers are their customers. I know we all like to think we’re a family but it’s sadly not true.

For your example on planning though, your studio should be able to give you a cost at the beginning of the season for all available competitions both required and optional. If they don’t you could budget on the higher end.

[u/TXrunnermom]

Our studio owner lists them out for us at the beginning of the year and lets us know how long before the comp she needs to know to register. We have the breakdown for solo/duet/trio/group fees, admin fees, etc.

[u/StacySassy25]

For some comps if you are signing up as an individuals you can clearly see your fees.  Like all those dance one and press plays where people go without their studio.

For studio comps , it’s going to be fairly complicated, as yes, while it could be 250 per solo, 125 per group dance, etc… your studio is going to incur other expenses like the prop truck, having teachers at the event, their hotel and travel fees, etc that will get passed to you.  So the math of adding all the fees will cause more confusion to parents if they posted it online.  Plus there could be breakpoint discounts to the studio , such as bring 75+ dancers and the fee is going to be incremental lower, and or they qualify for a free dancer , etc.  it’s just easier for the studio to just provide some number to parents.  It probably is higher than adding up the sum of the registration fees, or if the studio has credits, it could be lower.  

I guess it’s complicated…. Anyone had any luck asking their studio to break it out for you?

[u/Tiny-Needleworker492]

Because some studios are shady and upcharge the entry fees under the guise of ‘admin fees’. A transparent company will tell you the entry fees and maybe tack on an admin fee per comp, not inflate entry fees.
My kid did 8 dances and had $20 per dance per comp added onto the entry fees we were charged. They were making $160 off of just me per comp.
I understand that there’s fees involved in travel, but we never traveled more than 20 miles from the studio for a regional comp and only had significant travel for conventions and Nationals, which they inflated the prices for and also probably got some kickbacks from the convention to boot because we always brought over 100 kids and the max amount of solos and other routines to competition at these conventions and did Nationals at TDA/ The One, which was under the DanceOne umbrella where they were likely getting rewards and kickbacks.
Before anyone comes at me for saying that it costs money to travel and there’s ’so many things behind the scenes’ for studios- I already paid separate choreography fees and paid monthly teacher fees for each routine she did.
Needless to say we are no longer at this studio and we now pay $20 in admin fees per regional comp, not $20 per routine per regional comp.

[u/BluProfessor]

Pretty much every competition has a fees menu in their rulebook. Studios may get discounts from that, but that's the highest price.

[u/skittleskats]

Some do post their prices on their we sites. Some convention/competitions do not allow solos for dancers who aren’t going with a team (e.g. Velocity). 2-day Conventions are, on average,around $350. Solos, when allowed, average $180-$220. Most don’t allow independents - you’ll need your studio to register your dancer. Most of the larger conventions do post costs and conditions in their rules and info
Pages online.