High Cost of Travel Team

[sluggers]

Coach Al, you are whining about nothing. I was involved with many others in starting a huge softball program, with six travel teams and 10 rec league teams. It is still going more than 16 years later.

$400 sounds very reasonable for a six-tournament travel ball team. Tournament entry fees are high. You have to pay for umpires, lights, fields, balls, insurance, uniforms, and other equipment. And, for $400, you are getting a Daddy coach (you get what you pay for) who will probably sink another $200 of his own money in the team.

The ways to fund a travel team are by the parents, sponsors, or selling junk.

Sponsors come and go with the years. Sometimes you get sponsors, and sometimes you don't. You cannot reliable count on sponsors if you want the program to survive for several years. "Selling junk" -- parents hate it, kids hate it, and someone always has his/her hand in the till. You never make as much as you think you should. The only way to fund a team if you want the team to last more than a year or two is to charge the parents for the cost of running the team.

You're right, many families can't afford the cost of the program. When you figure out a way to run a tournament for free and get someone to donate the balls, umpires and uniforms, let us know.

 

[mudbug]

I hate to disagree, but $400 is cheap. You obviously dont want to be a "travel " team, you want to be a "tournament " team. Travel costs $$$.

For instance say you drive to a tournament 3 hrs away and spend 2 nights. Hotel =200, gas =50, food, water, powerade, snacks for a family of 3-4 will likely be 200. Families will likely spend $500 per tournament like that. Do that 6 times a season and thats $3000. Nationals? 1500 for a week even with no airfare/rent car. Dont forget the $300 bat, $100 glove, $75 cleats, underarmour, sliders, kneepads, batting gloves, sunglasses, facemask, etc. A solid $700 of gear not counting bat-bags, helmets, uniforms.

An average family on an average team can easily spend $4000-6000 per year. $400 is peanuts by comparison.

Some teams will charge for all the hotels up front in the fees, and pay them for you when the time comes. Helps insure that lack of $ doesnt keep girls from participating later.

Obviously, low income and that kind of $$$ dont go together. You will play local and minimize travel. But regardless you should really try to be up-front about costs, you dont want anyone that cant handle it later and drops. Try to have a fundraising possibility to work -off all costs, and even keep what you earn in excess of fees to defray other expenses. Working concessions at sporting events is popular, about minimimum wage or less really, but its something everyone can do together.

 

[PEPPERS]

The current team my daughter plays on requires $600 from each player. Dad and mom can pay it up front or we do projects , we sell candles we give $3 and sell for $6, around Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays they sell well, people come back for more. We do donuts, sonic cards, and t-shirts and sell sponsors name on the back (we have sold as much as $5,000 sponsorship on t-shorts when the economy was better). Each girl’s account is credited on the amount of sells she does or divide on team project among the ones who work, those who can’t afford have a chance to earn the money.

As one guy advised earlier there is more than one way to skin that cat!!!!!!

 

[Coach Al]

Thank you for some very good ideas. To those of you who think I am whining, maybe I was brought up differently. I just am tired of this ME, ME, ME generation!

 

[Mark H]

The costs are real. Someone has to bear them.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Look at it as an investment. If your kid gets good enough to play in college, then the money could be well spent. The big money is traveling to many different states , motels, food, gas, and other expenses.

 

[Duane]

$400 is less than it costs to play on our team but I also understand the economic / job times we are all dealing with. We do quite a bit of fundraising to offset costs (superbowl pool, bowling night, dinner/dance + raffle among other things). Depending on the fundraiser, families have the opportunity to have funds go directly into the daughters account. For example, we've had families offset an entire month of fees by selling squares in our supwerbowl pool.

 

[mudbug]

Look at it as an investment. If your kid gets good enough to play in college, then the money could be well spent. The big money is traveling to many different states , motels, food, gas, and other expenses.

Travel ball can be described as "Spending more than a college education costs, to try to get a college scholarship"

But, its also a hell of a lot of fun at the elite level. It is so cool to see young girls that are really disciplined stud athletes, while still adorably cute and innocent. You have to do something with your life, and its well worth a few years, as long as you wont have to eat dog-food when you retire.

I remember the day I realized my young daughter now had a stronger throwing arm than her old man. Humbling and proud and really cool at the same time.

 

[StacieM]

It's really tough when an organization is newer because there are no funds from previous years and no methods in place to raise money for the cost of running a team (equipment, transportation, uniforms, league fees, tournament fees, etc). With a new team here in Hawaii, just to pay for the ASA season, a a low cost uniforms (no visors, no team helmets), umpire fees charged by the league, case of game balls, and the tournament fee for the state tourney that all girls/teams want to play in at the end of the season, the cost is around $120 per player that's if the girls go out and buy their own black pants to play in as well as provide their own helmet. That includes NO team equipment either - no balls for practice, no bases for practice, no nets for hitting drills, no bats for the team to use if players don't have their own, no equipment bags, etc).

For organizations that are established that have been doing events to raise money each year, that have go to methods for fundraising, it's definitely easier to keep the cost down. In order to cover the expense of additional tournaments, food for the girls between games/after games at tournaments, visors, travel cost, jackets, trophies, coaches shirts, etc, etc, etc - it's either going to cost the players a lot of money or require a LOT of fundraising.

With the number of daughters I have that play this game, I certainly wouldn't be able to afford thousands each. I would hope that an organization would offer a way for families to raise some of the funds due as many football organizations here do.

 

[mudbug]

It's really tough when an organization is newer because there are no funds from previous years and no methods in place to raise money for the cost of running a team (equipment, transportation, uniforms, league fees, tournament fees, etc). With a new team here in Hawaii, just to pay for the ASA season, a a low cost uniforms (no visors, no team helmets), umpire fees charged by the league, case of game balls, and the tournament fee for the state tourney that all girls/teams want to play in at the end of the season, the cost is around $120 per player that's if the girls go out and buy their own black pants to play in as well as provide their own helmet. That includes NO team equipment either - no balls for practice, no bases for practice, no nets for hitting drills, no bats for the team to use if players don't have their own, no equipment bags, etc).

For organizations that are established that have been doing events to raise money each year, that have go to methods for fundraising, it's definitely easier to keep the cost down. In order to cover the expense of additional tournaments, food for the girls between games/after games at tournaments, visors, travel cost, jackets, trophies, coaches shirts, etc, etc, etc - it's either going to cost the players a lot of money or require a LOT of fundraising.

With the number of daughters I have that play this game, I certainly wouldn't be able to afford thousands each. I would hope that an organization would offer a way for families to raise some of the funds due as many football organizations here do.

Wow, Hawaii. Im guessing you dont play many teams from out of state unless go to nationals. I know of organizations that charge $3000 and still allow you to work it all off where you pay nothing (includes hotel rooms for season), It is a great help for many, its time consuming, may take 100-150 hrs of fundraising work throughout the year though. Some prefer just to pay and be done.

But the travel costs on some teams may still be significant even after this. Especially when airfare gets involve.