In 2022, ice and snow sports are still "burning money" - but at the end of this article, we will tell you how ice and snow sports can be "affordable".
Wen / Zi Nan
Edited by / Jenny Ma
In the post-Winter Olympic era, more and more people will participate in ice and snow sports. According to the authoritative data of the "Survey and Statistical Report on 'Driving 300 Million People to Participate in Ice and Snow Sports'", as of October 2021, 346 million people across the country have participated in ice and snow sports, and the participation rate of ice and snow sports has reached 24.56%.
According to Fliggy data, the number of hotel orders around the ski resort increased by more than 40% compared with the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year's Eve-the sixth day), and the number of ski ticket orders increased by 36%. In terms of ice and snow sports equipment, Tmall online ski equipment sales increased by more than 180% year-on-year during the Spring Festival, and ice sports categories increased by more than 300% year-on-year.
There is no doubt that driven by the Winter Olympics, the enthusiasm of the public to participate in ice and snow sports has become more and more enthusiastic. Whether in terms of the number of participants or from the consumption data, the mainland is becoming a "big country in ice and snow sports". But in this sport, do ordinary people really have enough money to "play"?
Today, let's do a good job of calculating the "ice and snow account".
01
There is no mine at home, can you cultivate the next Gu Ailing?
Gu Ailing and Su Yiming, as the most shining athletes of the Chinese sports delegation at the Winter Olympic Games, their excellent sports performance and sunny image make people can't help but sigh "other people's children".
While being regarded as an idol by countless teenagers, many parents have also moved their minds to cultivate the next "Gu Ailing". However, if you also want to practice skating or skiing to a higher level, or even develop to a professional road, can you achieve it without a mine at home?
If you go in the direction of professional athletes, there are currently two paths on the mainland. One is to enter the system from an early age and cultivate the national system in accordance with the model of "municipal sports school - provincial sports school - national team". Such a path to success requires families to pay less, and most of them have countries to bear the corresponding costs and win glory for the country.
In the mainland, many Olympic champions have successfully reached the world's largest podium through this road. Qu Chunyu, Xu Mengtao and other champions of this Winter Olympic Games with ordinary family conditions have realized their dreams through this road.
Another path is similar to Gu Ailing and Su Yiming's "family training model". This training method requires you to bear the costs of skiing, equipment, coaches, physiotherapists, and participation, and after achieving certain results, you can rely on competition prize money and sponsorship to bear the relevant expenses.
Gu Ailing's mother once revealed in an interview that the cost of cultivating Gu Ailing was "at least more than 1 million US dollars". This amount is almost an astronomical amount for the average family.
The training mode of skating is basically the same as skiing, regarding the cost expenditure, Yu Fei, the founder of Wanyu Fangfei, once said in an interview, "In general, learning figure skating wants to reach a higher level, and 120,000 a year is the entry standard." However, because the original intention of learning figure skating is different, the number of lessons and the choice of coaches are different, and the cost between them varies greatly."
And searching for "how much money does it take to skate a year" on Douyin can be found that many parents of children who learn figure skating and ice hockey have said that the cost of training children, including venue fees, coach fees, equipment costs, physical fitness costs, dance class costs, etc. are basically 150,000 or more, and the more related lessons are spent, the higher the cost.
It can be said that the pressure to pay for ice and snow sports is not small.
02
Does it cost money to treat snow and ice as an interest?
Ordinary people do not take the professional path, only as a skill to exercise the body, how much does it cost? Let's do the math.
First look at the price of the ski ticket. Taking the 2021-2022 snow season as an example, the price of a 2-hour snow ticket for the snow parks around Beijing is basically between 200 yuan and 400 yuan.
And because ice and snow sports are high-risk and high-entry sports, if you want to really learn, you basically need coaching at the beginning. For example, for these ski resorts, the 2-hour 1-on-1 coaching fee is 470-600 yuan.
If you buy your own school supplies, plus transportation, accommodation and other costs, the basic cost of skiing for two days on weekends is about 2,000 yuan. In addition, as you improve a little, the desire to buy equipment that is gradually more demanding is also very likely to cost you a lot of money.
Although there is no accommodation and remote transportation expenses for skating, but the venue fee and coach fee are also expensive, taking the Beijing area as an example, the cost of figure skating venues is generally 40-70 yuan / hour; one-on-one training, generally according to the level of coaches, from 240 yuan / hour - 1000 yuan / hour.
Beginners to go to the ice rink to practice 1-3 times a week, the annual cost must be between 10,000 and 40,000, the higher the level level, the more time on the ice, the higher the corresponding expenditure.
According to Qunar data, in the 2021-2022 snow season, southerners' ski journeys "from south to north", including air tickets, accommodation, snow tickets and coaching fees, cost nearly 7,000 yuan per capita.
The "2021 China Ice and Snow Industry Development Research Report" pointed out that in the distribution of the city level of the mainland ski population in 2020, first-tier cities accounted for 38.7%, and the mainland ski population income of more than 10,000-20,000 accounted for a total of 43.3%.
Compared with many sports that can be played for tens of yuan, ice and snow sports are indeed a relatively "money-burning" sport.
03
How can ice and snow sports be "affordable"?
Seeing this, you may feel that the cost of participating in snow sports is too high. But don't worry, let's see how to easily "get on the ice".
"The main reason for the high cost of ice and snow sports is that on the one hand, the supply of ice and snow venues is not available, and the demand for ice and snow sports is strong. On the other hand, the ice and snow industry has a large upfront investment and high operating costs, which objectively also pushes up the price of related products, and there is also a serious shortage of instructor talents, resulting in high coaching costs." A professional who is deeply involved in the ice and snow industry said about Krypton.
In fact, this view is not without reason. According to the "2020 National Sports Venues Statistical Survey Data" released by the General Administration of Sport, as of the end of 2020, there are 1888 ice and snow sports venues in the country, with a venue area of 0.67 billion square meters, of which 1187 skating rinks, accounting for 62.87%; 701 ski resorts, accounting for 37.13%.
The area of ice and snow venues accounts for only 2.1% of the national sports area, and because the main venues are distributed in the northeast, north China and northwest, the attributes of ice and snow sports vacation tourism are more prominent, and the related expenditures are relatively high.
According to the statistics of the Prospective Research Institute, the construction cost of the mainland ski resort is mainly composed of three parts: site construction, facilities and equipment, and other costs, of which venue buildings and facilities and equipment account for nearly 90% of the cost.
Operating costs are mainly composed of three parts: equipment energy consumption, labor costs, and marketing expenses, of which equipment energy consumption accounts for 44.5%, and labor costs account for 43.5%, which are the main operating expenses.
Among the energy consumption costs of equipment, most ice and snow venues pay electricity bills with reference to industrial and commercial electricity prices, which is nearly 50% higher than that of residents' domestic electricity. Some also have to pay an additional "energy management fee" to commercial complex properties, which further increases the operating costs of indoor ice rinks.
In terms of water charges, some venues pay water charges according to the price of non-resident water, while the price of non-resident water and residential water in various places is quite different, basically the former is 2-3 times that of the latter. Most ice and snow venues account for one-fourth to one-third of the operating costs, some reach one-half, or even as high as 60% or 70%.
The person said, "Although in 2014 the State Council issued the Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry to Promote Sports Consumption, which clearly stipulates that 'the price of water, electricity, gas and heat in fitness places such as sports venues shall be implemented according to general industrial standards.' However, some ice and snow venues, instead of enjoying preferential treatment, pay water fees with reference to the water prices of special industries such as car washing and bathing."
"In addition, whether an indoor skating rink operated in conjunction with a commercial complex can be identified as a sports venue referred to in Document No. 46 is not clear in various local policies, resulting in high operating costs for ice and snow sports venues."
With the increasing public interest in participating in ice and snow sports, the shortage of related coaches has led to a rise in the price of training fees, especially high-level coaches.
"Competition in the industry is particularly fierce, some ice rinks in order to dig up high-level coaches, at great expense, and even to provide housing and other related benefits, a large part of the operating costs of ice rinks is the expense of coaches," an ice rink leader told Krypton.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has come to a perfect end, drawing on the experience of the United States and Japan in hosting the Winter Olympics, the participation rate of ice and snow sports and the ice and snow sports industry will surely continue to develop under the impetus of the Winter Olympics.
However, in order to bring more people to participate in this sport, measures such as increasing the supply of ice and snow venues, increasing the localization rate of ice and snow equipment, and cultivating more ice and snow coaches must keep up. Only when the cost of snow and ice sports is further reduced can this sport truly become a "national sport".