Sticker shock

[santirx]

We paid around $1,300 for a Travel Ball team that plays 1 tournament during fall and 7 during Summer. Then we take our DD to a specialized softball training school from Sept to March ($800, 2.5 hrs per week) for their catchers and hitting program where she train with former D1 collegiate level players. Then we also do catching camp with the New England Catching Camp (which we went last week). 4 intensive 1/2 days for about $300, not bad.

My DD was also doing rec softball during Spring, Summer and Fall. But after two injuries, she is not playing rec softball any longer. We figured that at the level my DD is playing, she is very aggressive and these girls are doing strange things to try to stop her and she ends up injured. Also, some of them don't know how to swing and in one of the cases one of them ended up hitting my DD on the elbow when she was catching... Too much risk.

All in all, about $2,400 per year, not counting hotels, gas, etc... That was probably about $1,500 because 50% of tournaments were within 40min to 1hr drive...

I don't think this is a bad deal. She gets to learn and then apply what she had learned during the Summer travel season...


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[WARRIORMIKE]

The fee schedule for our org came out recently and the monthly dues for HS age players is now $300 a month. For younger players it is $225 a month. During the HS season we are still being asked to pay $160/month even thought the girls can't play or practice with their team. This seems outrageous to me, it means we would be paying $525 to have both girls play and they would still be on the hook for 4 fundraisers each per year.

Granted this is SoCal and everything is expensive but man, this is ridiculous. Add in gas to/from practice and games, and private lessons and we are looking at about $900-1000/mo for two girls to play softball.

This is a pretty healthy increase over last year's dues and I am wondering if everyone else is seeing something similar.

I am really bummed, we can afford it, in the sense that it won't make us homeless or take food off the table, but it seems like my wife and I will be acting irresponsibly if we dedicate this much money to a sport. I let the org pres know that something is wrong with this and that the decisions they are making about which tourneys to play and how many may be out of line with the wishes of the families if it drives up costs so much.

It is a real dilemma because my kid loves her team so changing teams is not an option, but sitting out the fall is. She could play rec for fallball to get innings or guest here and there and rejoin during the dec/jan tryouts.

Add that she is a top pitcher in the org and it makes things really hard, the team/coach are relying on her being a part of this and I already verbally committed prior to seeing the new costs.

If this is going on all over then worthy girls are being priced out of our sport and it is time to start putting pressure on orgs that enough is enough.

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[Rocketech1]

Here I go again, being a "old school backward thinker" I am fortunate enough to be friends (close with a few) with a group of retired (not old) MLB STUDS (Two WS MVP's). I have sat down with them and asked a lot of questions (probably too many) about their personal path to MLB and what they feel is the best (Best being: cost effective, player improvement, chance of being seen) way to achieve personal goals in the sport. (some DD's goals may differ) A couple of them coach in youth sports and a few just help out. The two WS MVP's both have kids in baseball & softball and said this is how they are choosing do it. Instead of playing TB they are spending their $$ (and they have lots of it!) with personal one-on-one coaches! They feel this is the quickest way for their kids to get better and learn the correct ways to play the position. They also spend a lot of time (because they can) doing repetition work during the week on lessons learned by their coaches. One had said to me that "he doesn't understand why parents spend so much $$ on TB and not "one-on-one lessons"? Sounds good to me! Both of these guys came from really small colleges and were scouted at their college games. They did not play TB and both had outside coaches during the week. (On a side note I have seen both of their kids play school ball and they are OUTSTANDING players and very disciplined! GO AHEAD AND LET THE RIPPING BEGIN :0)

I hear what you are saying but many of us do both: pay for travel ball AND all of the private one on one pitching and hitting lessons, softball camps, etc.. I also think there is something to be said about being part of a team for a year (or two) and working towards a goal (qualifying and maybe winnings a big tournament, regional or national championship). Not everyone's goal is to be a top 25 D1 player and the journey is as much as an important part of the process as the end goal (i.e. elusive scholarship). Softball is in many ways different than baseball in that in baseball you can play college, double AA, triple AAA, MLB as an adult where for softball, the game pretty ends after college. You might as well enjoy the team environment and build friendships with your teammates along the way since it will be over in a blink of an eye.

 

[JAD]

I would suggest checking with parents of players in other organizations to see how their fees compare. Also, beware of marquee organizations who fund their 18U gold teams through their younger age groups. It basically becomes a pyramid scheme, and most organizations add teams at the younger age groups to increase their bottom lines.