Anyone heard of Game Ready softball series??

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May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
Yes that was what I meant, what would a family pay.

Tough question but I will give you some estimates. Please don't take these as concrete numbers. There are so many variables. Let's assume this is a 16u or 18u team.

Team fee - $3,000 - $4,000
Trip to PGF Nationals - $3,500 - $6,000 depending on how many family members are going. Assuming you have to fly, rent a car and stay in a hotel for a week to play in PGF Nationals.
Private instructor - $1,000 per year. 20 lessons per year at $50 per lesson.
Travel expenses for other tournaments- $3,000- $5,000
Equipment, bat, glove, etc. - $500


We are already at $10,000 - $15,000 for one year.

And I have left some stuff out such as; recruiting tools/video, college visits/camps, maybe your daughter pays for speed and agility, etc.

There are certainly ways to save some money, like sending your daughter with a trusted family to some of the away tournaments. Sharing hotel rooms with a family you actually like or share car rentals.

Regardless, it would be difficult to do this for less than $10,000 per year.

I would be interested in hearing if you live near the Huntington Beach area how much cheaper it would be considering you don't have to travel as much to play top level talent.
 
Dec 6, 2016
70
18
During my daughter's big recruiting year (16u), we spent 17K for the season.

Plane trip to Colorado for Sparkler (Family of 5)
Plane trip to California for PGF (just me and daughter)
Tons of out-of-state/in-state college camps
Weekly lessons for hitting
Weekly lessons for pitching
Yearly fees and Org fees
2 out of town tournaments a month during season = 4 nights in hotel a month

Lesson Learned: If your daughter will not be playing P5, Colorado and Huntington Beach are a waste of money. This is coming from someone who has to watch every dime spent. That year about killed us financially, but we made it somehow! My daughter ended up committing to a mid major D1 and seen at the college camp and at local showcase. Man, i would definitely do things different now that I've been through the whole process.
 
Aug 25, 2019
1,066
113
During my daughter's big recruiting year (16u), we spent 17K for the season.

Plane trip to Colorado for Sparkler (Family of 5)
Plane trip to California for PGF (just me and daughter)
Tons of out-of-state/in-state college camps
Weekly lessons for hitting
Weekly lessons for pitching
Yearly fees and Org fees
2 out of town tournaments a month during season = 4 nights in hotel a month

Lesson Learned: If your daughter will not be playing P5, Colorado and Huntington Beach are a waste of money. This is coming from someone who has to watch every dime spent. That year about killed us financially, but we made it somehow! My daughter ended up committing to a mid major D1 and seen at the college camp and at local showcase. Man, i would definitely do things different now that I've been through the whole process.
What would you have done different?
 
May 16, 2016
946
93
I don't know. I am living with enough softball drama, that I am not that interested in experiencing other people's softball drama... Trailer did not appeal to me. Maybe the series is better.
 
Dec 6, 2016
70
18
What would i have done different?

First, I wouldn't have been so stressed out for my daughter during the recruiting process. I know that sounds inevitable becasue, as parents, we put so much into this process (lot's of money and time), we just want the best for our kids. But things seem to fall in place like they should. Over 2 years, i watched every young lady going through the process get committed. Every single one of them ended up exactly where they should (talking about level - D1, D2, etc). Couple of outliers, but they all ended up where they should.

Second...the money. We spent a boatload of money during the recruiting process. As parents, you truly need to analyze exactly where your daughter is skills wise. Understand, not every kid will play P5. It takes a special kid to play P5. If your kid isn't truly P5, you are wasting your money going to their camps and driving/flying hours and hours.

Colorado/California Showcase - Don't get me wrong..they were the greatest events for my daughter and her experience playing softball. It was also the best trip our family has ever taken. We went twice to Colorado and once to PGF, my daughter played on one of the premier teams in the southeast and not one of our girls were recruited because of those 3 trips. They were all recruited and eventually committed from going to camps and in local showcases (by emailing the coaches). Not saying it doesn't happen, it just didn't happen to us or anybody on my daughter's team or anybody we knew.

Lastly, when you commit, get off that team that wants to travel across the country to play. We are lucky enough to have a ton of teams around that provide great competition, so now we don't break the bank. Currently, our team dues are $1,700 with a couple of tournaments out of town and then 1 big one in Florida for the week.
 
May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
So this covers tournament fees, uniforms, facility/field expenses, coach salaries? What else?

I think you pretty much covered it all. Some teams may have a package included in their team fees such as Blast Motion, cleats, turfs, bat deals, glove deals. Usually this is associated with a sponsorship with someone like Wilson, New Balance, Mizuno etc.

If you are just another travel team those sponsorship deals are not very good. Usually something like 20% of msrp. If you are with one of the top 10 teams in the nation, the sponsorship deals are much better.
 
May 7, 2015
842
93
SoCal
Tough question but I will give you some estimates. Please don't take these as concrete numbers. There are so many variables. Let's assume this is a 16u or 18u team.

Team fee - $3,000 - $4,000
Trip to PGF Nationals - $3,500 - $6,000 depending on how many family members are going. Assuming you have to fly, rent a car and stay in a hotel for a week to play in PGF Nationals.
Private instructor - $1,000 per year. 20 lessons per year at $50 per lesson.
Travel expenses for other tournaments- $3,000- $5,000
Equipment, bat, glove, etc. - $500


We are already at $10,000 - $15,000 for one year.

And I have left some stuff out such as; recruiting tools/video, college visits/camps, maybe your daughter pays for speed and agility, etc.

There are certainly ways to save some money, like sending your daughter with a trusted family to some of the away tournaments. Sharing hotel rooms with a family you actually like or share car rentals.

Regardless, it would be difficult to do this for less than $10,000 per year.

I would be interested in hearing if you live near the Huntington Beach area how much cheaper it would be considering you don't have to travel as much to play top level talent.

I can only speak to one of the orgs represented in the series and DD plays for the 14u team. Anyway, none of the team cost break downs will ever be circulated to the families.

Our org is $200/month which includes strength and conditioning. In 14u, minimum attendance is 2x per week. As they age up that number goes up.

Lessons - group lessons $40 / half hour, privates $50 / half hour. I think the 20 lessons per year is WAY light. DD currently has 3 lessons per week (well currently before the lockdown). We've had up to four if she's having some problems somewhere, but the breakdown is

1 - Batting lessons
2- Batting, Live Pitching
3-Group Catcher

Also, DD is a catcher and has been put with an org pitcher to catch 1 time per week.

We have 2 travel tournaments per year, 1 in Florida in January, 1 in Kansas City in July/Aug. Everything else is local (1.5hr drive or less)

We are local to PGF, so no travel for that.

The 18u org teams, there's two, will get all equipment paid for. Everyone else in the org pays for their stuff. Some of the older teams will get some free bats and catchers gear.

this is our costs, YMMV
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Anyway, none of the team cost break downs will ever be circulated to the families.
As it should be based upon your strong opinion voiced in the thread I started on team finances...right?

Anyway if you are not paying extra for uniforms, tournament fees,facility fees, coaching salaries then that pretty much covers most of the 200 I would guess...
 
Last edited:
May 7, 2015
842
93
SoCal
As it should be based upon your strong opinion voiced in the thread I started on team finances...right?

Anyway if you are not paying extra for uniforms, tournament fees,facility fees, coaching salaries then that pretty much covers most of the 200 I would guess...

Ho-Lee-Smokes... Who pee'd in your wheaties??

@flash277 asked a simple question, (paraphrasing) "what's a family on that type of team spend?"

@Gambler Bob answered with the disclaimer "Please don't take these as concrete numbers. There are so many variables..."

I answered in the best way that I can, maybe people know way more of the intricacies of being on one of those teams, but I tried my best as I'm pretty familiar with the teams and families. But as I've said, DD is only in 14u so I'm not "in it"...

And I caught and reacted to the cult statement you've made, but I see you've taken that out, so I guess there's nothing to get chuffed about.

I tried my best to answer the questions, that's it
 

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