Tour Budget Calculator

Read this before you trust the number

This calculator prices a tournament block — a run of events — not a full year. It's deliberately narrow, because the block is the unit families actually decide on: do we go to this swing or not?

What the defaults assume

• Hotel per night assumes one room. If a parent and player travel together, that's usually still one room — but two if a sibling or coach comes.
• Flights per event assumes one traveller. Juniors don't travel alone, so for most families this number should be doubled.
• Food per day is per person. Same doubling applies.
• Coach per event covers on-site coaching. If the coach travels, add their flights, room, and day rate separately — it's often the largest single line in a block.
• Entry, strings, local transport is a catch-all. Stringing alone can run higher than people expect during a long event.

Five costs this calculator doesn't include

1. Lost parental income. Usually the biggest real cost in the exercise and never in anyone's spreadsheet.
2. Schooling catch-up — tutoring or online school fees that scale with travel.
3. Insurance — travel and medical cover, particularly for international blocks.
4. Visas and documentation for international events.
5. The failed experiments — the block that turned out to be the wrong level. Budget 5–10% for this.

How to make a block cheaper without making it worse

Cluster geographically. Three events in one region beats three events in three regions, every time. Flights and the number of travel days are what actually cost money.

Choose fewer, better events. Twenty tournaments chosen badly produce less than ten chosen well, and cost more than twice as much. Entries are cheap; everything attached to them is not.

Share coaching coverage. If other players from the same program are in the draw, splitting a coach's travel across families is standard practice and perfectly acceptable.

Book the block, not the tournament. Decide the swing eight to twelve weeks out. Entry deadlines sit around four weeks out, and that's also when flights get expensive.

For the full annual picture rather than one block, read What a Junior Tennis Season Actually Costs — a line-by-line breakdown across three levels of commitment.

Using this for sponsorship

A real budget is the most persuasive document in a sponsorship conversation. "We need support" is a request. "This block costs $8,400, here's the breakdown, here's the gap, here's what you get in return" is a proposal. The Sponsor Pitch Builder turns that into a pitch, and this article covers why most pitches get ignored.

Output is an estimate based on the figures you enter, not a quote. Verify every number against real prices before committing. See our Disclaimer.