I also question the agenda. But trying to be objective, I don't think anyone can deny the increased sophistication and money spent on youth sports at "higher" levels over the last decade plus. Often with the hope or dream of giving the young athlete an opportunity to play his/her chosen sport in high school and beyond. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. But it may have an unintended consequence of dampening overall participation, which would be unfortunate. That is, there may be less "rec" leagues b/c there's not enough kids. Or young people drop the sport because they are not playing at a travel or higher level? Not sure. Our community still has "rec" leagues that seem to doing fine , and some of our HS students still "make" HS teams without specializing or playing AAU, travel ball, etc. Like most things, it may swing back the other way if/when parents no longer will bear the cost but for now it does not seem to be slowing down any.