The costs of travel ball really have become crazy. Tournament fees have tripled. As far as I can tell, field rental, umpire fees, etc have only risen slightly. So it’s simply more profit in a lot of cases. Which is fine. EXCEPT - in a lot of cases, people continue to spend more because they are being convinced by coaches and companies that the only way to play college ball is with their help ie, tournaments, lessons,camps. There is an increasing number of ex players that are not ready to give up baseball and are trying to make a full time income on teaching and coaching kids. Again this is not necessarily bad except that I think many many times, parents and kids are being mislead in order to maintain cash flow. In years past, coaches were primarily volunteers or part time and worked to help kids. Now there is plenty of help available for $40 / 30 minutes. Plus $1500 to 3k per season. Again as long as people are willing to pay I guess that’s ok as well, if the coaches,teams, etc are being honest. It is however hard to be objective and people make emotional decisions because it is for their kids. They want to believe so it’s an easy sell.
i don’t think that most are intentionally trying to mislead people but I don’t think that they are being completely honest either. I have told many people that in the end, the people that I believe have helped my son the most, are the ones that I have given very little or no money to