The following calculations are based from South Florida, Fort Lauderdale to be precise since it is a nice midway point for IDPA shooters in the 4 county area (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe) and may not reflect prices where you live.
We in SoFla live in one corner of the US so everything is pretty much far outside the state and with the consequent cost that involves. I selected the next 9 states matches according to the IDPA website and I will assume that each match will provide me with 2 points each for a grand total of 18 points. These point might or might not give me a spot in the WC, I do not know yet since I already know of shooters in other states that have accumulated 20+ points so far this year. I’ll take their word for it.
Let’s start with Air Travel. As origin I used Ft. Lauderdale and got estimates using Expedia.com:
- Arkansas $379
- Illinois $566
- Texas $ 609
- Alabama $ 289
- Oklahoma $ 501
- Maryland $189
- Arizona $ 369
- North Carolina $ 306
- Michigan $ 478
Total Airfare (9 matches): $ 3,686
Average hotel room is $90/night according to HotelNewsNow.com but I am a cheap SOB so I will stay in crappy motels so let’s cut that in half to $45. So for two nights per match I pay $90 and it gives me a grand total of $810 for 9 matches worth of lodging.
Food? Let’s stick to Burger Joints: $7 per combo meal time 3 equals $21 times 9 matches: $189. I should diet though.
Car rental prices for two days are so varied it is just crazy. I used Dollar Rent-a-car and they ran from $62 for Arkansas to $661. I decided to use the rate out of Miami Airport of $102 as “average”and it comes out to $918 for the 9 matches, 2 days per match.
So, the Grand Total for 9 matches comes to be $5,585 or $620 per match or $310 per point. And I cannot be sure I’d be selected to shoot the WC!
If I had that money to spend, I’d would gladly “waste” it is several new guns or donating it to my club to buy cool props.