Charlottesville: Why does it cost $25,000 to host a local swim meet?

A Jefferson Swim League parent wrote to me about the upcoming 2026 JSL championship meet, which will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Brooks Family YMCA in Charlottesville.

According to the parent, the 17-team swim league – with teams in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Culpeper – sent out a fundraising plea to its teams asking for help coming up with the $25,000 fee for holding the annual meet at the Brooks Family YMCA, which is part of the Piedmont Family YMCA association.

“I don’t know exactly what that fee includes, although I do know the JSL also covers many of the other event costs like security, tents, food and other logistics. I’ve also heard the rental fee has increased pretty significantly over the years,” the parent told me.

“The problem is that the JSL doesn’t have many options. Since UVA’s Aquatic & Fitness Center is no longer available to host the meet, there really isn’t another facility in the area that can accommodate an event of that size,” the parent told me.

The “fair question to ask,” per the parent: is there a larger conversation to be had about how community resources are being used and whether there are ways to better support organizations like the JSL?

I reached out to the Piedmont Family YMCA, and got this answer back from Chris Carr, the chief operating officer.

“We negotiate all fees directly with the JSL, and they reflect direct and indirect costs for closing down the entire YMCA facility for two days,” said Carr, noting that “the fees are consistent with what we charge external groups to rent YMCA facilities.”

I’ll note here: a pop-up on the Piedmont Family YMCA website does highlight that the Brooks Family YMCA will be closed on Friday and Saturday, which is an inconvenience to Y members, to be certain, but a necessity, given what will be going on.

I can see there being a cost for that inconvenience, plus the cost for staffing and infrastructure – physical and human.

From a look at the JSL website, the league has been able to secure the help from some prominent sponsors in the Charlottesville region – The Covenant School, ACAC, Boar’s Head Resort, Crutchfield.

This is how youth athletics should work, it seems to me.

Let’s just hope that the costs can be kept in line in future years.

Update: Tuesday, 1:16 p.m.

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A reader identifying himself as a “swim parent” and active volunteer with the Jefferson Swim League wrote in after reading our first report on this to let us know that “the YMCA has asked the JSL to pay twice the cost for next year’s championship event – $50K.”

“If the $25K fee currently is consistent with ‘what we charge external groups to rent YMCA facilities,’ as Chris Carr says, how is $50K next year still consistent? Is everyone’s rental fee next year doubling? The JSL is not proposing to do anything bigger or different next year – just the same two-day event.”

We posed this question to Chris Carr, the COO at the Piedmont Family YMCA, and got this back in response:

“We have not finalized a contract for 2027. As you mentioned in your article, closing our facility down for two full days is a large inconvenience for our members.”