What is the real cost behind playing sports in North America? Discover the money required to participate in sports across North America, and the impact they have.
North America has a long, deep-rooted sporting history, with sports being intertwined with culture for generations. It’s become a part of social traditions and plays a huge role in millions of lives, as evidenced by high sports participation.
The Sports Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) has stated that, in 2024, there were 28.1 million Americans who played basketball, having increased from just 22.3 million players in 2016. They also created another report on baseball participation in 2023, showing that 16.7 million people played the sport across the United States.
Meanwhile, Statista conducted a separate survey on the number of registered ice hockey players in 2023/24, showing that around the globe, the USA and Canada have by far the most registered players: the USA was said to have 486,464 players, and Canada was recorded as having 470,030. This was much more than the next highest country, Russia, which only had 100,263 registered players!
But, though participation in these sports may be high, what is the true cost of playing them in North America?
Before even beginning to play sports, various pieces of equipment and items need to be purchased. Every sport needs different kit, from bats and balls to hockey sticks, gloves, masks, and shoulder pads being required depending on which is being played. So, with such a variety of things needed to even start participating, what’s the real cost of playing sport in North America?
To uncover the underlying cost, the team at Betway created an index. Taking into account all the equipment needed to play and working out the sum of their values, we’ve ranked 22 different sports in order of most to least expensive. Keep reading to find out the actual cost of participating in sports in North America.
How the cost of playing different sports in North America differs
The first sport that we’ll take a look at is one of the most popular in North America: ice hockey. Requiring 19 different pieces of equipment, the cost of ice hockey racks up very quickly, totaling $2,289 USD or $3,115 CAD. This is largely made up of the goalie pads, as they’re valued at $551 USD or $750 CAD respectively. Out of all sports we ranked, ice hockey is right up in the top few, coming in as the second-most expensive sport to play in North America!
Another of the top sports in North America is American Football, with the NFL contributing significantly to its popularity. The cost to participate in American Football after purchasing equipment reaches $1,095 USD or $1,490 CAD, which places the sport as the fifth-most expensive in our list (needing 11 items to play). The costliest item for the sport is the shoulder pads – priced at $391 USD or $532 CAD – just beating the helmet, which costs $333 USD or $454 CAD.
Naturally, we must also take a look into basketball, being another of North America’s most popular sports with leagues like the NBA drawing mass attention. Basketball requires only five pieces of equipment and is drastically less expensive to play than the first two sports discussed. After reviewing all the items, the total cost comes to $314 USD or $427 CAD, with the hoop and backboard costing the most. This makes up a large portion of the cost, worth $182 USD or $248 CAD, dwarfing the price of the second-most expensive item, the basketball shoes ($80 USD or $109 CAD).
The next sport that receives lots of interest due to its popular league is baseball, with the MLB. This is significantly cheaper than all sports listed so far, placing toward the bottom of the list in 19th. With only four items needed to play, it’s certainly a much less complicated sport to get involved with and only costs $123 USD or $167 CAD. The costliest item for the sport is the glove, with a value of $55 USD or $75 CAD, being more than double the price of the ball, which is $26 USD or $36 CAD.
Just edging out baseball is a more up-and-coming sport, pickleball, which is ranked 18th in our index. With a cost of $139 USD or $189 CAD, it isn’t much more expensive than baseball and even requires fewer items (three). However, with the paddle costing $110 USD or $150 CAD, the price easily mounts up.
Lacrosse is another of the more popular sports in North America, placing slightly higher up the rankings. With ten items needed to participate, the cost adds up to $888 USD or $1,208 CAD, meaning it’s just behind American Football and ends up in sixth place. Out of all the various pieces of equipment, the helmet costs the most at $254 USD or $346 CAD, which is over $100 more than the next most expensive item, the shoes ($135 USD or $184 CAD)!
North America’s most and least costly sports to participate in
Finally, let’s view the sports with the highest and lowest costs to participate in. Our findings reveal that North America’s costliest sport is, in fact, cycling, with a total price of $3,062 USD or $4,167 CAD. The sport involves only five items, yet the bike itself is priced at a staggering $2,788 USD or $3,795 CAD!
In contrast, the cheapest sport in North America is swimming/diving. Needing only three items, with none being too expensive, the total cost comes to $67 USD or $91 CAD. A good portion of this total is made up of the goggles, costing $35 USD or $48 CAD.
How does the cost of playing sports in North America affect participation?
Looking at all the data, it’s clear that there’s a huge difference in the money required to get involved with different sports in North America. One of the more popular sports, baseball, is relatively affordable in the overall context, placing 18th in the index and only costing $123 USD or $167 CAD. This is drastically different from another of the most beloved sports, ice hockey, which has a much higher cost (over eighteen times as much)!
With significant expenditures like buying specialist kit and protective gear, it can be more difficult for certain groups to begin playing sports, or prevent them from participating altogether. The impact of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis creates new pressures that amplify the effects of entry costs. Of course, there are some things that can be done to help combat this, such as investing in second-hand equipment, but the issue still remains.
However, don’t let the associated costs let you overlook the way sport can benefit your physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Considering that there are also many reasonably priced choices to get involved with, like swimming and baseball, there should be a sport that everyone can find accessible to them.
Methodology
To estimate the cost of taking part in different sports, we built a list of essential equipment for each sport, from American Football boots and baseball bats to basketball hoops, ice hockey sticks, and swim goggles.
We then collected pricing data from Google Shopping (UK) for every item on the list. For each piece of equipment, we used a specific Google Shopping search term designed to return the most relevant results for that sport and product type.
Where Google Shopping showed a “Popular options” module, we recorded the top 10 product listings shown there. If no “Popular options” module was available, we used the first 10 product listings from the general Google Shopping results instead.
For each result, we captured the visible product information available on the page, including:
Product name
Listed price
Retailer
Other visible listing details where available
We then used those results to calculate the total average equipment cost per sport, by summing the average price of each required item. This gave us a sport-by-sport estimate of how much it costs to buy the essential equipment needed to take part.
Cleaning and consistency
Searches were tailored to each sport and item to keep results as relevant as possible.
In cases where irrelevant products appeared, results were manually checked and cleaned. For example, for curling – broom/brush – unrelated hair products appeared in the wider results, so only the first three clearly relevant curling product listings were retained for that item.
All base pricing was collected in pounds sterling (£) using UK Google Shopping results.
Currency conversions
Dollar and Canadian dollar equivalents were calculated from the pound sterling totals (USD 1.33 and CAD 1.81).
Currency conversions were based on the exchange rates on 13 March 2026.
