This beloved game we play adds up in costs…why?
I know some clubs don’t charge at first, but that means playtime is extremely limited…and then you pay for the membership, which may or may not last a year (unless you pay for a lifetime membership…which is a lot).
It feels like this only benefits those who see this in the same vein as Professional Sports, and only a chosen few with deep pockets can get the full benefits of enjoying this game.
Chess can be an inexpensive activity if all you want to do is play with some friends.
But if you want to be involved in more organized activities, clubs, competitions, etc, then the costs of all that organization can start to add up.
Someone I went to college with had a son who was into figure skating, they were spending upwards of $10,000 a year on equipment, coaching, practice time (often at ungodly hours of the day like 5AM), competitions, costumes, etc. He was ranked in the 200’s in his age group, and they said if he had the talent to move up to the top 50 they’d probably wind up spending more like $50K a year, and several times that for international events.
On a recent trip, we happened to be in the same hotel as several youth softball teams, who were in town for a regional tournament. Unfortunately it rained most of the weekend and the tournament wound up cancelling a lot of games, but the parents were still out for hotel rooms, meals, travel expenses and tournament entry fees.
Chess can get expensive if you start to get into serious competition, but many of the organized sports are probably a lot more expensive.
Thank you for the response, but I feel that it doesn’t really help me with the why…
Every activity has an expense. The level of expense is based on the level of involvement. My brother plays softball and played on teams that competed at a fairly high level back before he turned 50. For adults chess has a basic equipment cost of board, set and clock while softball has a basic equipment cost of mitt, glove and ball - (probably missing something even if we ignore catchers). Chess has club dues, tournament entry fees and travel costs. Softball has league dues, tournament entry fees and travel costs.
Kids in chess and baseball/softball may have paid coaches and significant amounts of practice time - though baseball/softball practice time may involve reserving or renting fields while chess is easier to find a practice area.
In chess if you are not traveling, entering big-money tournaments or paying for coaching then you are looking at equipment you already have, an annual membership around $50 and some entry fees for smaller events.
Bowling has lane fees for practicing. Baseball has batting cage fees.
What are you seeing that is causing you to find chess to be extremely expensive.
What are you doing that you consider expensive?
It looks like you bought a US Chess membership, so that’s probably $54.
Did you buy a state membership for another $10?
Did you buy a club membership for around $39?
I know people who spend more than $100 at Starbucks every month.
It doesn’t look like you’ve played in any major tournaments, where the entry fee can be several hundred dollars, plus travel, food and lodging costs.
Did you buy a chess set, board and clock? That could set you back $200 or so, the set and board will last a long time, the clock should be good for at least a decade.
Did you take lessons or attend classes/lectures?
Did you buy chess books or subscribe to online chess pages?
Are you playing online at chess.com or ICC?
I bought two chess sets with board and 1 clock on Amazon for around $50. I can play anyone, anywhere, any time I want for free for life. I play on chess.com and lichess.com - i wait until chess has its 50% off, like it did at end of year, so like $60 for that. a year sub and unlimited games. $60 for this USCF membership for a website always broken, games not upload, ratings outdated by weeks or months. yeah, so couple hundred and me and my family and friends can play unlimited for 1 year and i get ratings. i drop sub for uscf and chess and im free for life for less than $200. everyone decides if what they want/have to pay for whatever it is they want to do, then go from there. if its expensive to you, get a board and clock and go make a free facebook account and meetup for free in a park once or twice a week 
that would also increase your network. i have no talent or care to be spending 10k 50k or whatever crazy prices schools and comps want to overcharge people with next to zero guaranteed return. put your money in a 4% APY and continue on with your paid-in-full chess set and clock. i enjoy the game A LOT, but i enjoy the conversation with humans WAY MUCH MORE 
good luck with whatever you decide.
There is an old saying that no single format will satisfy everybody.
“Outdated” ratings is a feature for many players, not a bug. When traveling to tournaments people want to be certain what rating will be used, so ratings are set during the previous month. For big tournaments early in a month the official ratings might be pulled from the previous month (the National Elementary in early May will be using the April supplement set in late March because that allows schools to determine which ratings-based sections their students would be best able to field competitive teams in).
If you want to play only casual games then you do not need anything other than a board, set, and maybe clock. If you want to play in competitive tournaments then pretty much any type of competitive activity starts having an expense.
Softball leagues have to reserve fields and pay umpires, so they have a cost. Bowling leagues have various expenses in addition to the lane fee. Competitive bridge tournaments (such a duplicate) have entry fees and the American Contract Bridge League has annual dues. All of those can also be played casually. People gravitate towards what suits them.
The World Team/USATE is in mid-February and it uses the January list because because people want to form up their teams and there are ratings-based limits.
I think there have been years when they used the December list. I know some people start thinking about building their teams a lot earlier than that.
We actually talked once about having a weekly or even daily ‘official’ ratings list. Now that we’re doing an overnight rerate for the last two months anyway, that may be something worth further discussion.
SOME cutoff has to be used for ratings, otherwise people could claim at 8:59 AM that they should be using their new rating updated at 8:50 AM for an event that starts at 9AM.
Let me offer a radical idea … start your own club that’s cheaper.
I didn’t want to pay a club $100/year in 2003 just for casual games and the ability to sign up for tournaments which cost more. So I started my own club in my house at first. My “club” had no fee, had weekly free lessons, and casual games that I rated myself with a database app I wrote. Eventually I became an affiliate for $40/year so I could host occasional USCF tournaments for $10. 20 years later we’re meeting in a restaurant and have weekly tournaments for $10 — because the prizes are only about $20 for first in each section. And I argue $10 is cheap for a night of entertainment.
would you consider this expensive?
Chess is not too expensive until you add up the costs of traveling, hotels, and food over a long period of time. I always found that making the time for chess to be more difficult than the cost. Hotels in my opinion are what make chess expensive. I wish prize funds were higher like World Open and North American Open so that people could make a living at playing events but that is just not possible right now.