And it's not just about the dollar Slugger is talking about. At some point these organizations realized there was money to be made (not just in softball, but in all youth sports). You get a team of 15 girls with parents willing to pay $2500 a piece, there's a way to make money there. You build in the competitive nature of parenting these days, and throw in private lessons lessons at 60/hr/ a couple of times a week. I think i ran out numbers a while ago that suggested a large organization could net 20 percent per team. Not a lot on its own, but when you have an 10U A and B,, a 12U A and B, a 14U A&B, a 16UA or B and an 18UA, that's potentially 67 grand in one town from just fees. Three or four different regions in a state, and a half dozen states and you're talking decent money.
But on order to make it, you have to convince people that the only reat path to success is through travel ball. The good news is you don't have to do anything -- the girls and the parents will do it for you. By 12 -- 14 at the latest -- girls who play rec are scoffed at, and making a high school team gets tough, not just because of skill but because the high school coach also coaches travel ball and already knows a lot fo the girls.
And then there's the tournaments. On our scale, 700 bucks per team, 10 teams a division, 9 or so divisions, that's 63,000 in revenue per tourney. Say the venue takes half and the walk in gate (200 people at 5 bucks per person per day, so another 2 grand), thats still 30K per weekend. Umps cost money, insurance costs money, but not 30K. And if you get into something like Sparkler -- 700 teams at 2500 each? A million seven. And that's not even counting stay to play kickbacks.
Travel ball grew because of money -- because some organizations realized they could convince parents that the sport had potentially more to offer than a couple games a week on an elementary school field. And to be fair, there's some truth to it. Stricter Title IX enforcement created programs in colleges all over the country and forced the sport out of California, and with more programs, came the possibility of scholarship money. Even without money, though, playing a sport gives a kid a better chance to get into some schools. Paranoid (justifiably) parenting makes parents try to push their kids into anything that might help, and what do you know? Plenty of people out there willing to say that softball might just be the ticket their daughter is looking for, but only if they take it seriously, play for the right program and in the right tournaments. Thus an industry is born.