Great Neck and Port Washington Youth Soccer: What the Higher Price Actually Buys

It is 9:40 on a Tuesday night and you are looking at a number on a screen. One thousand nine hundred seventy five dollars. One kid, one year, travel soccer in Port Washington. Your cousin in Levittown pays $550 and her son also trains twice a week with a paid coach. You scroll up to check that you read it right. You did. Neither club is doing anything wrong and neither number is a typo. They are two different purchases, and nothing on either website tells you which part of that gap matters for your kid. Here is the arithmetic, and the five questions that settle it.

Written by Fernando, founder of Tiempo Soccer Academy (Rockville Centre, NY). Last reviewed: September 2026.

The short answer for Great Neck and Port Washington families

Both towns charge close to $2,000 a year for travel, both publish the number, and both sit near the top of the Nassau County range. It is not a badge tax. Port Washington lists $1,975 for 2026-27 and folds the Adidas kit, a ball, league fees, a tournament stipend, a preseason camp and eight winter sessions into it. Great Neck lists about $1,950 plus $120 to $140 for the kit, bought separately. Each fee buys 90 to 110 hours of professional coaching across twelve months, which is about $20 an hour with a dozen or more other kids standing in the same hour. What it does not buy is more coach per kid than a $550 program nine miles south. That distinction is the whole article, and it gets its own section.

Scale first, because it explains why these clubs can charge it. LIJSL runs roughly 60,000 players across 97 member clubs and more than 3,500 teams, over 1,600 of them travel teams (NY Red Bulls / LIJSL, 2026). Demand is not the problem on the North Shore. Price is. The average American sports family spent $1,016 on one child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% jump in five years, with soccer families up 69% over that stretch (Aspen Institute Project Play, 2025). These two towns run at roughly twice that. If the words travel, intramural and academy are still slippery, read the Long Island youth soccer development guide first, then come back for the local map.

What each club publishes, and what is inside the number

Port Washington Soccer Club is one of the few clubs on Long Island that puts its travel fee on a public page, and it says so out loud: “Why do we openly publish this number, unlike virtually all other clubs? Because we have nothing to hide” (Port Washington Soccer Club, 2026). Great Neck Soccer Club publishes one too, as an approximation: its travel program “typically runs around $1,950,” kit on top (Great Neck Soccer Club, 2026). Two published numbers in neighboring towns is unusual here. Most clubs make you register to find out.

Now read the last column against the fee column, because they do not line up the way the totals suggest. Port Washington’s $1,975 already contains the uniform, the ball, the winter and a set stipend of tournament entries. Great Neck’s $1,950 contains the trainer, the leagues, the cup and the tournaments, but the kit is a separate $120 to $140 and winter league play is described as optional and funded by each team. Add the kit and the two towns land within about a hundred dollars of each other. The real difference is where each club puts the line between “included” and “we will tell you in January.”

What roughly $20 an hour actually buys

Port Washington publishes its own hour count. Fall and spring together run about 40 to 50 practices at 90 minutes each and 14 to 18 league games, with a Jigs Soccer School trainer present at all of them, which the club totals as “more than 100 hours of professional training in practices and games,” plus a 6-hour preseason camp and up to eight winter hours. Take them at their word and $1,975 is a shade under $20 per coached hour.

Great Neck does not total it up, so do it yourself from its published schedule: two 90-minute sessions a week from early September to mid-November, one indoor session a week from January to mid-March, two a week from mid-March to mid-June, plus a summer camp of 1.5 to 3 hours a day for 3 to 5 days. That is around 90 to 100 hours of training before you count roughly 16 league games, a Columbus Day tournament and a spring cup, all run by the team’s professional trainer. Add the kit and you are at about $2,080. Call it $21 an hour. The two towns are buying the same thing at the same price.

Here is the part that is on neither page. A 90-minute session is 90 minutes of soccer. It is not 90 minutes of your kid. A travel roster at these ages runs from about eleven players at 7v7 to sixteen or more at 11v11, and one trainer divided by fourteen kids is about six minutes each if the coach split it evenly, which no coach does and no coach should. That is not a criticism. It is what a team practice is. But it makes the honest sentence about the North Shore fee this one: you are buying a professional adult in charge of the environment your kid trains in, not a professional adult looking at your kid. Both are worth paying for. They are not the same product. If that distinction is new, the rec, travel, academy and ECNL breakdown maps the whole ladder.

The same academy coaches the $210 program and the $1,975 one

This is the fact that reframes the price question in both towns. The Great Neck Park District intramural program, $210 for residents, advertises “Professional Coaching provided by JIGS Soccer Academy” (Great Neck Park District, 2026). Port Washington’s entire travel program is staffed by Jigs Soccer Academy, and its Director of Coaching, Gerneil “Jigsy” Lorne, is the same name on the Intramural Plus and Diamond League pages (Port Washington Soccer Club, 2026). A four-year-old on a Saturday morning in Great Neck and a U13 travel player in Port Washington can be coached by staff from the same organization, nine times apart in price.

So what is the extra $1,700 buying? Three real things. Volume: eight one-hour weekend sessions becomes 100-plus hours across three seasons. Competition: LIJSL and NY Club Soccer games against other towns instead of in-house play, and Port Washington is the only club in its town authorized to enter both, which is how a Port kid reaches the LI Cup. And a paid adult on the sideline Saturday instead of a parent volunteer. Legitimate purchases, all three. None is a guarantee about your kid, and a club that sells you one is selling something it cannot deliver.

Most training builds technique. Tiempo builds skill.

Where this price actually sits in Nassau County

The North Shore has a reputation for being the expensive end of the county. On published travel fees that reputation is roughly right, and not dramatically so. Massapequa Soccer Club runs $1,900 for Classic and Academy at U8 to U12 and $2,250 for Elite at U13 to U19, higher than either North Shore club, as covered in the Wantagh, Seaford and Massapequa guide. Oceanside travel runs $900 to $1,375. Levittown’s top Elite tier is $1,565.

And then there is the number that should stop you. Levittown Soccer Club’s Interleague program for U9 to U13 is two 90-minute training sessions a week, run by New York City Football Club Youth Program coaches, fall and spring, for $550 (Levittown Soccer Club, 2026). That is about 60 hours of professional coaching at roughly $9 an hour. The games are run by volunteer parent coaches and the competition is interleague rather than LIJSL travel, and those are real differences. But it means the honest answer to “does the North Shore price buy more coaching?” is no. It buys about double the hourly rate for a higher level of game and a paid coach standing on the sideline during it. Compare the two towns yourself in the Levittown and Hicksville guide, then decide whether the delta is worth it for your specific kid.

Five questions to ask before you pay in Great Neck or Port Washington

1. “What is included, and what will come as a separate ask in January?”

Port Washington answers this on the page: not included are tournaments above the stipend, winter league fees beyond the eight sponsored sessions, destination-tournament travel, and optional team activities. Great Neck lists winter play as optional and separately funded, and the kit as a separate $120 to $140. Get the January list before you pay the September number. Team costs are set by managers after rosters are, which is after your money is in.

2. “How many kids are on the roster, and how many trainers are on the grass?”

Neither club publishes roster sizes, and it is the one number that decides what you are actually buying per hour. Ask for last year’s count at your kid’s age group. One trainer with eleven players is a different purchase than one trainer with eighteen, at the same price.

3. “Is there financial help, who do I ask, and does the team find out?”

Both clubs have written policies. Great Neck’s travel page states that no child will be refused entry for reasons of need, and that payment schedules and financial support are available to those who qualify. Port Washington runs a 2026-27 scholarship application and points families to its Director of Coaching. Ask the second half too. Confidentiality is the part nobody writes down.

Both clubs are tryout-based, so ask early. Great Neck evaluates starting the week of May 25 and notifies players by June 14. Port Washington runs May tryouts at Harbor Links and Salem, two dates per age group, with no formal tryout at U7 and U8.

4. “Will there be a team at this age group next year?”

Port Washington says it plainly: the goal is at least one boys and one girls team in every age group, but the numbers that commit each season decide whether that is possible, and when it is not, the board and Director of Coaching work on alternatives. More honest than most clubs manage. Take it as the answer, then ask which age groups are thin this year.

5. “What happens to the fee if we quit in October?”

Neither club publishes a refund schedule, and both are tryout-based programs expecting a full school-year commitment. Reasonable from the club’s side. It also means a $1,975 decision in June is a $1,975 decision, not a monthly subscription. Get the refund policy in an email before you accept the spot, not after.

The money, annualized

Travel in either town, with the kit, is about $2,000 for one kid for one year. Two kids in it and you are at $4,000 before a single tournament hotel. Then the upsells arrive, early: private trainers list from about $50 a session on CoachUp and run $75 to $125 around here (CoachUp, 2026), another $1,500 to $3,750 a year at 30 sessions.

Do that math before you sign anything. At $50 an hour, $1,975 is about 39 private hours. At the club, the same $1,975 is about 100 group hours. You are choosing between undivided attention and volume, and for most kids under twelve, volume with friends wins and it is not close. Port Washington makes the same argument from the other side, warning families to know the difference between for-profit programs that call themselves academies and the MLS academies that are free to players. I run a private program and I agree with them. The academy versus club breakdown says why the word on the sign tells you almost nothing.

Where Tiempo fits, and why the drive is probably wrong for you

Start with the part that costs me money. We are in Rockville Centre, with fields in Rockville Centre, Lynbrook and Valley Stream. Port Washington to Rockville Centre is 35 to 45 minutes each way on a Tuesday evening, and Great Neck is not much better. For most North Shore families that drive is the wrong purchase, no matter how good the session is. Pay your club fee. It is the best per-hour deal in this article, mine included.

The exception is narrow enough to name. A kid two seasons into that $1,975 program, training twice a week, playing Saturday, still stuck on the same thing, has a problem a fourth group session does not solve. That kid does not need more soccer. He needs someone to name the one thing and build six weeks around it. That is what we do: the structured individual development layer next to the club, built on the PaC Method and a six-week Athlete Development Blueprint. If your kid is under about ten, the pediatric guidance is on the club’s side, not mine. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends delaying single-sport specialization until around age 12 (Brenner, Pediatrics, 2016), and highly specialized young athletes carry roughly 2.25 times the odds of overuse injury (Post et al., 2017). Play in town. Come find us later, or not at all.

Frequently asked questions

How much is travel soccer in Port Washington in 2026-27?
$1,975 for the year, published on the club’s travel page and described as a fairly all-in fee. It covers league registration, carding and insurance for fall and spring, a tournament stipend, a full Adidas kit worth over $200 retail, a club ball, a 6-hour preseason camp, up to eight winter gym sessions, and a Jigs trainer at every practice and game. Not covered: tournaments above the stipend, extra winter league fees, destination-tournament travel.

How much is Great Neck Soccer Club?
The travel program “typically runs around $1,950,” plus $120 to $140 for the kit, charged separately. Intramural runs with the Great Neck Park District at $210 for residents and $230 for non-residents, an 8-week weekend season, with an optional weekday session for $65 more. The club also states that no child will be refused entry to travel for reasons of need.

Is the higher North Shore fee worth it?
It buys about $20 per coached hour, a fair price, and about 100 hours a year, which is a lot. It does not buy more attention per kid than a $550 interleague program with paid trainers, and it does not buy a guarantee. Worth it if your kid wants LIJSL or NY Club Soccer competition and a paid coach on the sideline. Not worth it as a way to buy improvement you could get cheaper closer to home.

Is there a girls travel team at my daughter’s age?
Ask the registrar in writing before you pay, and ask what happened to the girls who aged into a gap. The 2026 New York East listings show 23 Great Neck teams, 22 boys and one girls U11, while the club’s own About page says it fields 24 boys and girls teams across LIJSL and NYCSL, so some girls sides sit in a listing that source does not cover. Port Washington lists 33 teams, eight of them girls, U10 through U20. The girls youth soccer guide covers what to do when the team is not there.

My kid is 7. Should I pay for travel yet?
Probably not, and Port Washington’s own U7 and U8 page argues the same: travel used to start at U10, the pressure keeps pushing younger, and pushing too hard too early is how kids stop playing. At that age, $210 in Great Neck or $385 in Port Washington buys the right thing. The travel readiness guide lists the signals actually worth watching.

Sources

• Port Washington Soccer Club, accessed September 2026: travel program and 2026-27 fee, tryouts, programs, Intramural Plus, Diamond League, U7/U8 pre-travel, club info.
• Great Neck Soccer Club and Great Neck Park District, accessed September 2026: travel program and fee, intramural, about the club, Park District fees.
• Team counts, 2026 New York East listings: Great Neck, Port Washington. Comparison fee: Levittown Soccer Club Interleague, 2026.
• League and research: NY Red Bulls / LIJSL, 2026, LIJSL, Aspen Institute Project Play family spending survey, 2025, CoachUp, 2026. Brenner JS, Pediatrics, 2016; Post et al., American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2017.

Fees, age-group rules and tryout dates change every season, and both of these clubs are run by volunteers with day jobs. The registrar is the source of truth. This page is the shortcut to knowing what to ask.

¿Prefiere leer en español? Lea esta guía en español: qué compra de verdad el precio más alto en Great Neck y Port Washington.

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– Fernando, Tiempo Soccer Academy · Rockville Centre, NY · tiemposoccer.com

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