Are sports pricing themselves out of the market?

[SCDad]

Ive watched some of these top flight travel ball teams and I have to say that they are not very fundamentally sound at all (not all their are exceptions) they just have top flight pitching so their fundamentals are hidden more than the lesser travel ball teams with average pitching at best so the ball is put in play more often. I've watched top tier teams and watch their players and wonder how some of these kids are going to top flight D1 schools with the tools they have just my .02

They pay top dollar to a big org. and get promoted like crazy, that's how.

People seem to think getting a top D1 scholarship is the end of the road. It is really just the beginning for the college level.

Look at how big the classes are for some of the big D1's. They are huge. There is no way all of these players will make the cut. For almost half it will be one and done. Keep track of who is on rosters their freshman year, and just disappear the next. I do. So marginal players who are promoted like crazy sometimes are buying a pig in a poke. One year in college and out, because they are not good enough.

By the same token, every College World Series has a few players in the starting line-up who started playing D2. The announcers always want to say "gee, here is a player the scouts missed coming out of high school". Yeah the "D2" did not have much money. Was not promoted, or had attitude problems, possibly in her teenage years. But here she is, in the college world series batting 5th in the semi's.

 

[starsnuffer]

Ive watched some of these top flight travel ball teams and I have to say that they are not very fundamentally sound at all (not all their are exceptions) they just have top flight pitching so their fundamentals are hidden more than the lesser travel ball teams with average pitching at best so the ball is put in play more often. I've watched top tier teams and watch their players and wonder how some of these kids are going to top flight D1 schools with the tools they have just my .02

Have you watched top D1 schools (especially SEC) play? They have great pitching and great hitting, but play whack-a-mole softball because they're not very fundamentally sound either. If they do make it through school, they end up with garbage degrees anyway.

-W

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Coach Candrea, at UofAZ. says the same thing all of the time. He says that he has to teach them to play catch, because all they did in previous years was take hitting lessons.

 

[Indiana]

I find this topic very interesting; it is something that I've often thought about through the years. My daughter was born in 1998, when the economy was just beginning to really take off. When I was pregnant, maternity clothes were still hard to find, and usually passed along from one mom to the next. Now there are specialty maternity shops in the mall, with $300 maternity shirts; even Target now carries a maternity line.

Ditto with baby gear. DD started her life in a crib from Toys R Us and baby clothes from the thrift store. Specialty baby shops were very rare; now they are everywhere. My mom just bought a very fancy little baby outfit for my yet to be born second cousin. Most parents just served up rice cereal and a mashed bananna to toddlers - maybe some cheerios and a jar of Gerber's; now the grocery stores are stocked with all sorts of gourmet baby food. The "Baby Bjorn" carrier was the fanciest thing out there when DD was a baby - now everyone makes fancy baby carriers, strollers, portable play pens, and much more.

Parents, with the improved economy and two income households, have more money than ever before. We started seeing it with babies, and now we see it with youth sports, private education for toddlers, clothing, and advanced electronic toys. This new economy of child rearing has migrated up to the college level, with gourmet dorm food, cafes, and campuses that rival country clubs.

I'm not sure what my opinion is regarding this shift, it is just something I've noticed over my daughter's life span. Have others of you noticed this as well? As a thrifty person, I do see areas where travel teams can save - for example I don't think button-up jerseys are really necessary, nor are game pants complete with numbers. When it's hotter than heck come July, most kids are perfectly happy to play in a t-shirt and black or white softball pants. Especially now that the jersey style is starting to migrate toward s a short-sleeved look, a t-shirt seems perfectly adequate. I have noticed the exponential rise in tourney fees over the past 3 years or so, and it seems that the tournament "recruiting camp" is becoming more and more common. In a way, I see it as a celebration of women's sports - it used to be that women and girls had to beg to play in a sandlot -now suddenly everyone wants to make a buck off of us - so I guess I take that as a compliment!

 

[JJsqueeze]

Indiana- I think you are seeing just the natural progression of your earning potential here. When we first had kids in 2002 we were in the same boat as you with hand me downs etc, but we have been lucky to be in a position to earn enough to afford some of these things now. I don't think this is the case for the vast majority of people though. I would say that the concept of paying hundreds of dollars a month for your kid to be on a travel team would strike most people as ridiculous and out of reach. For a lot of others it would be a stretch but it means no new car etc. I have seen the same thing you have seen with regards to an upward push of the cost and quality of a lot of things, but at the same time on the other end there is a Walmarting effect going on. if you are the type of person that can even think about buying organic food or expensive baby food, then you are both in the minority and very fortunate. Most people don't even get to consider this type of stuff. I never forget where I came from and the fact that I can even consider, much less afford my daughters to play TB or buy a 300 bat means I am very very lucky.

 

[starsnuffer]

I think it has a lot to do with the sheep culture in the US. Most parents are afraid to let their kids outside to run around, play, eat at whomever's house they are close to, and come home when it's dark. Instead, parents want to control everything, are afraid of everything outside their own house/car/work bubble, and believe that their children need "a leg up" to make it in society.

It's a sad, far cry from how things were just 20 years ago. We're devolving as a species, so maybe it is inevitable.

-W

 

[Indiana]

JJ, you make a very good point. I think that from the mid-90s, we have started to see a split in the middle class. There seems to be a widening gap between the upper middle class and lower middle class (we've always had the wealthy - the Rockerfellers, Carnegies, Roosevelts, etc). The upper middle seems to be driving the culture of our youth, making it much much harder for everyone else to compete.

 

[kenb63]

If there is a buck to be had, someone will figure out a way to get it. So team and tournament organizers will charge what the market will bear. That's the way the system works.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

And sometimes the "helping" parents aren't helping and have motives. I have seen a particular organization order uniforms from the same person everytime because she "helped" with some things and surprisingly, has family in the uniform business (not the high end sub dye business either). She gouged the teams for uniforms and they never knew it because they assumed she was "helping". It was ridiculous. They could have got the same stuff from any uniform place for about 20 bucks less per set.
My point is, when someone can see available money to be made, they will capitalize on it no matter what.

 

[marriard]

I think it has a lot to do with the sheep culture in the US. Most parents are afraid to let their kids outside to run around, play, eat at whomever's house they are close to, and come home when it's dark. Instead, parents want to control everything, are afraid of everything outside their own house/car/work bubble, and believe that their children need "a leg up" to make it in society.

It's a sad, far cry from how things were just 20 years ago. We're devolving as a species, so maybe it is inevitable.

-W

That is pretty much what my father said of my generation. And what my grandfather said about my fathers generation. And probably the generation before that as well.

And although it may not have actually been Socrates that said it, references to following quote are from at least his time (somewhere around 470BC):

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

I've met enough great kids to know this coming generation will be similar to other generations just adjusted to the time they live in.