There are 4 primary professional sports in America: Football, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey.  Hockey is by far the most expensive. Mostly because the cost of ice can range from $150 to $400 per hour. Serious hockey players will pay between $5,000 to $20,000 per year to train, practice, play (and stay over night). Yes, there are similar ranges to be an elite player at the other three sports, but the low end of the range, $5,000, is not even close in the other 3 sports.

Football: from age 7 to 13, football cannot possibly cost a player more than $500 per year. All bets are off, once high school begins with any sport and money.

Basketball: see above...in the youth years of hoops, costs may exceed $1,000..if there is considerable off season travel a player could spend $5,000.

Baseball: see above. 

Any sport can get expensive the more focused on that sport the athlete becomes. Hockey can be the most mostly due to ice cost and the amount of it needed to become an elite player. Outside of Minnesota hourly rates for ice can run between $300 and $400 per hour. In some northern climates, outdoor ice in your backyard or neighborhood are the most affordable sheets of ice ($0). In Minnesota, rinks tend to be sudsidized by communities driving the cost of hockey down even more.

Minnesota has it's share of great athletes. Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Neal Broten, Kevin McHale, and now Joe Mauer. Mathematically, we produce way more professional hockey players than the other three sports. Participation in hockey in Minnesota is higher than any other state and the numbers reflect that on our Olympic team and in Division I and NHL ranks. 

Is it the numbers? Or is it the athletes?

As YHH grows more nationally, we see hundreds of great kids. Several are great athletes that are now gobbling up DI scholarships that live in sunbelt states. It can be done, but ultimately Minnesota will always lead the nation in participation. Why? 

Our community based model forces City Hall to keep the price of ice down indoors and the availability of cheap ice available outside. This availability makes it easy for a middle class kid from Alexandria or Maple Grove to play the game. If you live in Suburban Detroit, Chicago, Boston...the middle class is getting squeezed out.