Why BJJ is so expensive

I pay alot for BJJ, no doubt about it. But I take into consideration what I get for it.

Between the two locations of our school that I go to I could literally do jiu jitsu as a full time job. Seriously 30 classes a week between Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu. That's 120 classes a month!

So am I gonna piss, bitch and moan for having to pay $1.50 for an hour with a BJJ champion? I think not...

exactly
 
Well I gave other reasons prior to the post you are replying to.

For example UFC marketing from the onset. The general public's perception of the sport or not recognizing that other (more affordable) systems are available...ESPECIALLY for your average Joe not looking to be an ADCC champ.


Also supply and demand still plays a role, while people need to eat, they don't have to eat out. They choose to eat out and specifically (in the example above) at my folks restaurant. As soon as they triple the price they will lose business to other restaurants doing something similar (even if not the same) at a reasonable cost.

You did not mention if any of those schools in San Diego charge substantially LESS than the other with similar instruction level.

I doubt that, if they did you would certainly see the effect of supply and demand.

Its almost like price fixing in the case above. All the instructors know what people will pay and continue to charge that rate. As soon as one of them falls on tough times or a NEW GUY with credentials comes in and does it for $100 you will see an impact.

So you think that the instructors in San Diego could be forming a cartel? Where they basically agree on what price they should charge, and they don't compete with each other? I doubt that's the case, and it would even be illegal if they were agreeing on prices as competitors.

I just think that the demand for BJJ is relatively inelastic. Many people decide where to eat based on the price, but I don't think that many people decide where to train based on the price. If BJJ instructors thought they could get more students by lowering the price, they would, and they would advertise their prices openly on their websites instead of making you come to an intro class first. Also nearly all of them offer some kind of discount if you pay a few months in advance, or sign a contract, or make some other kind of commitment. They don't just want to get people in the door, they want to sign up long-term students. The guys that just want to find the cheapest place to train probably aren't going to be the loyal students that keep coming back several times a week for many years. Those guys come because of the quality of the instruction, and the facility quality and location are big factors too.

Personally, I think that the price of BJJ training is just about the last thing I consider when choosing an academy, just as long as it is within my budget. Like, if it's $75 vs. $125, I really don't care about the price difference and will probably even pick the more expensive one because they are going to be open more days per week, have a better facility, have a more highly qualified instructor, or offer bonus classes like no-gi or kickboxing, whatever. If it gets up around $200 though I will probably decide that this is out of my budget and look for a cheaper option.

The other point I could make is, how much does a health club membership cost? A good one probably costs close to what I would pay for BJJ. A 24-Hour Fitness is maybe $50/month but I probably want to get personal training along with that. A fully-equipped Crossfit gym in my area costs $175/month for unlimited! I need to work out anyway, so if I'm not spending that money doing BJJ I'm going to spend it doing some other type of exercise. That's why my demand is relatively price-inelastic as long as it's within the maximum amount that I feel I can afford to pay.
 
As long as people are willing to pay the prices, they won't come down. If it becomes out of people's price ranges, then people won't sign up, and the prices will come down. Eventually it balances out to the point where the schools charge the maximum amount they can without driving people away. And that's how a market works. If demand drops or availability continues to increase, prices will come down.
 
The reason is that our friends from the South wanted to drain gringoe wallets as much as they could, and now, those who literally paid their dues and have opened their own gyms are both recovering on their investment and keeping the inflation-adjusted value of their training.
 
When I talked with Pedro Sauer about opening an academy, one of his words of advice was to make sure you do not charge to cheap, otherwise you will attract thugs and people who will not be willing to pay at all.
 
In Brasil, they have academies in every corner but it is still a sport for the rich kids.

I knew they have a few programs for the lower income people but it is the exception rather than the norms.

Well, anyway, I might be starting some free classes at my local high school if possible.

I hear ya man, the economy is tough right now. I wanted to give something back as well, so i've been parking out by my local elementary school offering free bjj lessons. It's a small training center, only about 4 x 8 but I figure that would be sufficient for a private lesson. Haven't had any bites yet, but i'll keep trying.

freebjj.jpg
 
When I talked with Pedro Sauer about opening an academy, one of his words of advice was to make sure you do not charge to cheap, otherwise you will attract thugs and people who will not be willing to pay at all.

that is a problem with teaching for cheaper or free, you will attract a lot of people that just do not care that much.

If you charge a high fee, you know they will have to take it seriously.
 
The reason is that our friends from the South wanted to drain gringoe wallets as much as they could, and now, those who literally paid their dues and have opened their own gyms are both recovering on their investment and keeping the inflation-adjusted value of their training.

In Brasil, BJJ is only for the rich guys also.
 
When I talked with Pedro Sauer about opening an academy, one of his words of advice was to make sure you do not charge to cheap, otherwise you will attract thugs and people who will not be willing to pay at all.

Yeah good point, there is definitely a "keep out the riff-raff" factor at work here. If someone is only willing to pay $50 a month for jiu-jitsu, he's more likely to be the type of sketchy character you don't really want on your mats anyway, or is going to just disappear a few months later because he spent that $50 on beer instead, or whatever.
 
In Brasil, BJJ is only for the rich guys also.

IIRC Anderson Silva was taunting Demian Maia about this during their fight, like "where's your jiu-jitsu now?" I forgot what name he called Maia exactly but I think he was basically calling him a rich white boy. Definitely some racial/class tensions there.
 
I pay $109 a month for 3 classes a week. The school I train at also has Muay Thai, MMA, and some other programs, and if I wanted to take another class there it would only be an additional $20 a month. I think that's a reasonable price. I'm an 18 year old about to graduate high school, so while I don't exactly pay bills like other people who train, it's not completely out of reach money-wise.
 
IIRC Anderson Silva was taunting Demian Maia about this during their fight, like "where's your jiu-jitsu now?" I forgot what name he called Maia exactly but I think he was basically calling him a rich white boy. Definitely some racial/class tensions there.

Not sure what it was about but I thought Anderson Silva was from Chute Box.

I mean the modern Chute Box premises looks pretty expensive to go train at:

MT + BJJ = expensive.

My instructor told me that they were heaps of really strong BJJ competitors in the flavellas but they could never afford to enter the famous competitions.
 
I here a lot of people complain about how expensive BJJ is where they live and, honestly, I think often the complaints are reasonable. After all, if you train at a Judo club in the same area you often pay, what, 1/3rd the amount.
The difference, I think, is profit. Most Judo clubs I have come across are run by people who are not looking to make money of it. After all, how could you make money teaching Judo to people at $50 a month unless you had huge classes?
If I ever become qualified to be an instructor (at my current rate of progress probably sometime next decade) I want to start a club style program and, hopefully, share space with either a Judo or Wrestling club. How is our sport ever going to become as mainstream as either Judo or Wrestling until kids have access to cheap quality training? Just my two cents.... I wanted to procrastinate rather than write a research paper about
What do you think? Can BJJ ever become a truly mainstream sport with instruction as expensive as it is?
Dude play tourny paintball. or even rec paintball. One day of play including entry and a case of paint can easily equal to half the prices of bjj memberships for a month. I pay 99 a month that includes all open mats and 5 classes and competitive jiu-jitsu classes when they start those.
 
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I personally pay 50 reais a month for training, and I know it's pretty much the exception and I consider it an insane deal, both for the amount of classes and the price. There's definitely not a school in every corner, at least not in where I live.

I understand that some schools can really be expensive, both regarding money and regarding the amount of classes you get from it, but it really depends on the area. From what I can tell, jiu jitsu is always more expensive than other martial arts on the same area, although definitely not as large as the difference between BJJ and Judo on your area.

Labeling jiu jitsu a sport for "rich kids" is wrong, in the sense that sports as a whole are something that most of the population just don't have access. They aren't taught in schools, they aren't practiced in any way that could actually lead you somewhere, and unless the local government has some kind of sport program, get ready to shell out cash for any kind of training. It's just like it is.

Also, a good way to explain a good part of why jiu jitsu is expensive is that, while some guys are making a living out of it, tournament holders and associations are definitely making a profit out of it, and a huge one.
 
I personally pay 50 reais a month for training, and I know it's pretty much the exception and I consider it an insane deal, both for the amount of classes and the price. There's definitely not a school in every corner, at least not in where I live.

I understand that some schools can really be expensive, both regarding money and regarding the amount of classes you get from it, but it really depends on the area. From what I can tell, jiu jitsu is always more expensive than other martial arts on the same area, although definitely not as large as the difference between BJJ and Judo on your area.

Labeling jiu jitsu a sport for "rich kids" is wrong, in the sense that sports as a whole are something that most of the population just don't have access. They aren't taught in schools, they aren't practiced in any way that could actually lead you somewhere, and unless the local government has some kind of sport program, get ready to shell out cash for any kind of training. It's just like it is.

Also, a good way to explain a good part of why jiu jitsu is expensive is that, while some guys are making a living out of it, tournament holders and associations are definitely making a profit out of it, and a huge one.

good read.

so in general, sports in Brasil is for the rich kids.

What about soccer? We always hear the story of poor kids making big in soccer in Brasil. How does it work in this case?
 
I am not personally from a poor area, and I only heard about one local kid making it big due to football, and he supposedly drives around his own car at age 14 because he plays at Barcelona or something, which is just insane and probably bullshit. Since I don't know much about success stories and about how the football world works, I won't pull stuff out of my ass about it. I know the teams pay people to look for talented players, though.
 
people spend 140$ for private gym lessons and learn very little.

i pay less then that a month and learn life lessons.
 
I pay $163/mo for unlimited classes. I believe BJJ is more expensive than judo, at least in my case, is because the location of the club and the club itself (equipment, etc) is much higher than the gym floor a lot of our judo clubs are based out of.

Plus, speaking for some of the instructors I've trained with, they instruct for a living. That is their job. A lot of judo instructors I've met have day jobs, and offer judo during the evening. They can afford to charge less, while a BJJ instructor who lives off teaching has to live off whatever he makes out of his club.
 
I pay $163/mo for unlimited classes. I believe BJJ is more expensive than judo, at least in my case, is because the location of the club and the club itself (equipment, etc) is much higher than the gym floor a lot of our judo clubs are based out of.

Plus, speaking for some of the instructors I've trained with, they instruct for a living. That is their job. A lot of judo instructors I've met have day jobs, and offer judo during the evening. They can afford to charge less, while a BJJ instructor who lives off teaching has to live off whatever he makes out of his club.
 
In the Jan 2010 edition of Fight Magazine they had an article on the history of BJJ. What was interesting was how they said that when Maeda started teaching his "Kano Jiu-jitsu", he intentionally set the fees high so as to keep the lower-classes out. Can't remember exactly if the writer said or implied that this was to avoid the 'thug' effect (liked mentioned earlier), he specifically wanted to attract the upper class, or both (I'm assuming it's the later). This approach was then carried on by the Gracies. Not sure of the historical accuracy of this claim as the article obviously didn't list references for these assertions, but interesting if true and set ups a historical context for 'high' BJJ training fees.
 

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