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How Kids’ Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:24 pm
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:24 pm
LINK with a whole lot more to the article
Disclaimer: sorry If we've covered this topic, it's over a year old article, but first I have seen it.
quote:
Joey Erace knocks pitch after pitch into the netting of his $15,000 backyard batting cage, the pings from his metal bat filling the air in the south New Jersey cul-de-sac. His private hitting coach, who’s charging $100 for this hour-long session, tells Joey to shorten his stride. He’s accustomed to such focused instruction: the evening batting practice followed a one-on-one fielding lesson in Philadelphia earlier in the day, which cost another $100. Relentless training is essential for a top player who suits up for nationally ranked teams based in Texas and California, thousands of miles from home. But Joey has talents that scouts covet, including lightning quickness with a rare knack for making slight adjustments at the plate–lowering a shoulder angle, turning a hip–to drive the ball. “He has a real swagger,” says Joey’s hitting coach, Dan Hennigan, a former minor leaguer. “As long as he keeps putting in this work, he’s going to be a really, really solid baseball player at a really, really high level.” Already, Joey has a neon-ready nickname–Joey Baseball–and more than 24,000 followers on Instagram. Jewelry and apparel companies have asked him to hawk their stuff. On a rare family vacation in Florida, a boy approached Joey in a restaurant and asked for his autograph. But Joey Baseball has yet to learn cursive. He is, after all, only 10 years old. They snapped a picture instead.
quote:
Neighborhood Little Leagues, town soccer associations and church basketball squads that bonded kids in a community–and didn’t cost as much as a rent check–have largely lost their luster. Little League participation, for example, is down 20% from its turn-of-the-century peak. These local leagues have been nudged aside by private club teams, a loosely governed constellation that includes everything from development academies affiliated with professional sports franchises to regional squads run by moonlighting coaches with little experience. The most competitive teams vie for talent and travel to national tournaments. Others are elite in name only, siphoning expensive participation fees from parents of kids with little hope of making the high school varsity, let alone the pros.
quote:
The cost for parents is steep. At the high end, families can spend more than 10% of their income on registration fees, travel, camps and equipment. Joe Erace, who owns a salon and spas in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, says Joey’s budding baseball career has cost north of $30,000. A volleyball dad from upstate New York spent $20,000 one year on his daughter’s club team, including plenty on gas: up to four nights a week she commuted 2½ hours round-trip for practice, not getting home until 11:30 p.m.
quote:
A range of private businesses are mining this deep, do-anything parental love. The U.S. youth-sports economy–which includes everything from travel to private coaching to apps that organize leagues and livestream games–is now a $15.3 billion market, according to WinterGreen Research, a private firm that tracks the industry. And the pot is rapidly getting bigger. According to figures that WinterGreen provided exclusively to TIME, the nation’s youth-sports industry has grown by 55% since 2010.
quote:
The odds are not in anyone’s favor. Only 2% of high school athletes go on to play at the top level of college sports, the NCAA’s Division I. For most, a savings account makes more sense than private coaching. “I’ve seen parents spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars pursuing a college scholarship,” says Travis Dorsch, founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “They could have set it aside for the damn college.” Still, the scholarship chase trickles down to every level. College coaches are now courting middle-schoolers, and competitive high school teams scout the club ranks. In some places, travel teams have supplanted high school squads as the priority for top players. Kids learn early that it’s imperative to attend travel tournaments–and impress. Katherine Sinclair, 12, has played basketball games in Philadelphia and New York City on the same day, but she embraces the grind. “I don’t have that long until I’m in eighth grade,” she says. “That’s when college scouts start looking at me. It’s when I have to work my butt off.”
Disclaimer: sorry If we've covered this topic, it's over a year old article, but first I have seen it.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:27 pm to East Coast Band
its big business because the potential to pay off huge is there
the only way to stop it would go to a soccer style system where the teams pay for the training but have rights to the players at a younger age
the only way to stop it would go to a soccer style system where the teams pay for the training but have rights to the players at a younger age
This post was edited on 1/17/19 at 7:32 pm
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:28 pm to East Coast Band
So this is why my dad laughs at me when I complain about the high cost of quality daycare.
He knows what's coming.
He knows what's coming.
This post was edited on 1/17/19 at 7:32 pm
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:29 pm to East Coast Band
Club sports are where you can really blow some money.
If your kid wants to play baseball, basketball, or football, be thankful. Those three are dirt cheap compared to the others.
ETA - club sports as in niche sports. God forbid your kid wants to be a competitive swimmer or tennis player.
If your kid wants to play baseball, basketball, or football, be thankful. Those three are dirt cheap compared to the others.
ETA - club sports as in niche sports. God forbid your kid wants to be a competitive swimmer or tennis player.
This post was edited on 1/17/19 at 7:47 pm
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:30 pm to East Coast Band
quote:
Kids learn early that it’s imperative to attend travel tournaments–and impress.
Guess what?
It's not.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:30 pm to East Coast Band
Baseball Joey will make bad grades and chase women in high school then go to a junior college to the dismay of his dad that is living his life through him.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:31 pm to East Coast Band
Yeah, but the pitching coach tells me that he can have Jaxynn ready to be scouted after only 18 more private lessons.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:31 pm to slackster
I have a family member that has all 3 of her sons in MULTIPLE league travel ball. I can't even imagine what they spend on that shite.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:32 pm to East Coast Band
Money would've been better spent on the parents getting their own lives.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:34 pm to East Coast Band
tl, dr: People are stupid with money.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:36 pm to East Coast Band
I got sucked into this last year. Didn't realize he'd signed up for travel ball until I got the bill and a schedule with games in four different states. We did the one season but never again.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:38 pm to East Coast Band
Some of the 8U teams at Traction at BR right now are literally $2K per season.
8 year olds.
Once they hit 10,11.. It's $3K.
Its a system that I'm not sure how has been created, nor can be maintained. Absolutely fricking insane.
Last season I paid $250 for my kids bball and even then I felt like I was getting hosed.
8 year olds.
Once they hit 10,11.. It's $3K.
Its a system that I'm not sure how has been created, nor can be maintained. Absolutely fricking insane.
Last season I paid $250 for my kids bball and even then I felt like I was getting hosed.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:39 pm to East Coast Band
These are the people that give many of us a bad name.. the system is broke. And sometimes playing tournament style ball is the only option
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:39 pm to East Coast Band
These trainers, coaches & evaluators need to be up front and honest with little johnnie and his parents and tell them he doesn't have the natural raw talent to have an athletic future and save their hard earned money for his education instead.
But, you know how this goes...
But, you know how this goes...
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:40 pm to sgallo3
This is a thread about a real sport. You're talking about soccer.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:42 pm to East Coast Band
Kid is getting robbed of his childhood & doesn’t even know it. His parents have pretty much screwed him out of his entire life ahead.
Can’t say I blame the hitting coach though. $100/hr, wow.
Can’t say I blame the hitting coach though. $100/hr, wow.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:43 pm to East Coast Band
I’m not concerned with the $1,000 a month personal lessons. It’s a drop in the bucket with LittlePerm gets that first guaranteed MLB contract. He had a 22.3 WAR last year in travel ball.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 7:45 pm to East Coast Band
Although I think these parents are out of their mind to treat their kid as a commodity, America certainly does support entrepreneurship! Kudos to these league owners for drumming up this concepts
Let’s hope these young boys aren’t getting passed around like a peace pipe among the creeper coaches.
Let’s hope these young boys aren’t getting passed around like a peace pipe among the creeper coaches.
Posted on 1/17/19 at 8:08 pm to East Coast Band
Bruh, I got me a HELOC so Bradynstyn can play with the Traction team. Dey got LSU playuhs over there, bruh.
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