Budget-Friendly Family Sports: Enjoying UMD Soccer

We are a soccer family. My two oldest children, a boy and girl, now 16 and 14 respectively, learned to love the sport during our three-year stint in England from 2001 to 2004. They spent every afternoon there playing soccer with friends. 

After moving back to the States they joined local travel leagues and spent every fall weekend traveling from field to field. I got to watch them develop from cluster soccer players—all gathered around the single ball—to real soccer players, playing full-length games.  

One of the ways we rewarded them for all of their hard work was by taking them to watch professional games. These games offered not only a reward but an opportunity to see the game played beautifully.

In the past couple of years, we have found that we are going less and less. Between the tickets, concessions and parking it became impossible to have a night out for less than $200. It was simply out of our price range.  

Fortunately, we have found a great alternative.  We started attending soccer games at the University of Maryland College Park and quite honestly we fell in love with everything about it. Instead of sitting high up in a stadium, we sat just feet from the field. Instead of being surrounded by loud, booze-fueled professional fans, we were surrounded by other families and loud College Park students.

The game itself, whether it is a men's or women's game, is still fast-paced and beautiful. Both teams are highly ranked within the ACC and the NCAA. 

After attending several games, my children have really gotten a better feel for how a game plays out. They will point out things to their father that the players are doing that their own coaches have been telling them to do.    

Other than my love for soccer, two factors really sold me on becoming a regular visitor to Ludwig Field at UMD.

First, the tickets are incredibly inexpensive. Most games are $5 per person and children under 4 are free. We love the games so much we have bought a four pack season ticket package for $175 that covers all games. That comes to a total of $2 per ticket.  

Second, the parking is free and plentiful.  We seldom walk even a hundred yards to the gate and we are never stuck in traffic after the game.  

While the price itself would have been enough to sell me, the best part is the atmosphere for my four-year-old. During most games (Duke, North Carolina and UVA being the exception), he can run up and down the ramp, roll down the grassy hill and generally stay busy, all while I am able to take in a game. 

This soccer program has become a true gem for our family.  Throughout the fall, we are not stuck sitting at home avoiding spending money.  Instead we spend beautiful fall afternoons and evenings as a family watching a sport that we love, spending very little in the process. 

Ann Brennan, a mother of three, has learned to be frugal with her family's entertainment budget. Most weekends she can be found at one sporting event or another on the University of Maryland campus. She is also the creator of the blog Ann in Real Life and Ann's Running Commentary. If you have a budget-friendly family sports tip for her that you would like to see reviewed in this space, let her know!

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