Kids Sports, How Much Money is Enough?
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by Ron Sen, MD
While professional athletes, owners, and television networks make hundreds of millions of dollars, a subculture of athletic wannabes and future achievers thrives in the shadows. And preying upon that group, a plethora of opportunists make a lesser fortune, sometimes promising college scholarships and other times far less.
Off season sports, ranging from private mentoring of high school softball pitchers, to personal trainers, the YMCA, and the Amateur Athletic Union, trains unknown thousands of young athletes, at what cost?
Recently, I'm hearing of "tryouts" capturing hundreds of applicants, whose parents pony up forty or fifty bucks just for their child's right to be seen, for a chance to make an off season team. Sometimes the money goes toward the overall cost of the activity, other times it's a one-and-done non-refundable expense for many already strapped families. No one has any doubt that these sports 'cottage industries' are in demand, and that some coaches and organizers are profiteering. I'm not even going to try to address the endorsement-based programs flowing through de facto 'agents' of high school players.
I've had a number of children through this mill, at variable cost. In some programs parents ended up doing a fair amount of the coaching, while the organization provided the structure (gym time, tournaments, uniforms). The price varied, from several hundred dollars for teams that had corporate sponsorship and traveled throughout the Atlantic region, to sometimes well over a thousand dollars.
Should the free market reign, where consumers pay the going rate and entrepreneurs provide a service for whatever the traffic will bear? Or should a spirit of volunteerism lead, with fees for court-time, officiating, equipment, and tournaments, with unpaid coaching volunteers? Is the system broken or flawed in any way, or can the entrepreneurial system coexist in harmony with the community-based public service system?
I'm conflicted, as I participate in a community-based travel program where participants pay expenses and the coaches volunteer. I'm no hero, just another coach, who coaches because I enjoy teaching basketball, and I enjoy the time spent with the coaches, the players, and of course the competition. Our system is a bit unique in that none of the three coaches have children younger than college-aged, and we coach for both our enjoyment and in a community which has incredible support for the players.
So fellow Armchair GMs, parents, and coaches, is it competition, cash, or both?
