I can tell you that as someone that was involved in applying for a SAP licence prior to last season and as a club committee member, the cost to play football just keeps going up. the clubs make very little if anything, off player fees. The original plan was for SAP coaches to be paid about $1500 a season (I think but my memory is sometimes not fully functioning and this amount was mandated by NNSW at the time).
Costs to consider, particularly for NPL, NEWFM and SAP:
Rego
Insurance
Ground use
Lighting
Referees
Physio

The club I was involved in was considered the premium tenant during football season but as the season now runs for the best part of 10 months with trials and pre season, the clubs in Lake Mac pay a higher rate to use them during cricket season.
Lighting and electricity are far from cheap
Physio can range up to $50 per game for a physio to be there each weekend. Some clubs have a physio available for training ($$)
Rego cost: set at a higher level than the club
For SAP: the cost if using the Lake Macquarie facility

Folks, it adds up fast.

In the first year of SAP, our club figured out that the minimum cost, without the club making a single cent would be close to $700 (including clothing).

If you consider a kid in NEWFM or NPL plays 22 games during the season and let's assume a cost of $1,000 then the cost per game s about $45. That $45 includes 2 training sessions per week during the season plus 6 to 10 weeks of pre-season, a number of trial games and finals (if you are good enough) then the real cost is somewhat less than $45 per game. I don't have kids in music lessons or some other external to school activities so I don't know how much they cost but I'd bet you wouldn't get much more than a 30 minute lesson for $45.

Is it too expensive for football? Yep. How do we get the price down? Don't know. If Council charge less for grounds then they will get worse. If we pay referees less then we might lose referees or fail to attract new ones. Keep power bills down by training during daylight? Not enough grounds for that.

I don;t know the answer, but it would really help if ALL clubs itemised their costs for their players so everyone understands where every cent goes.