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Academy-based travel teams - good model or not?

justbaseballjustbaseball10,000+ posts
I go back and forth on this one...not sure how I feel.

Lets say you own a "baseball academy" and lets also say that you're well known in the area, but not an established travel team program. You've got batting cages, pitching mounds, weights, exercise machines, etc... Got yourself 5-10 instructors who charge by the hour to give 1-on-1 instruction and you get a portion of their fee to use your facility.

But most of your instructors are itching for some real world stuff. Wanna get on the field. So you form some teams...maybe one per age group for these guys to coach. You charge for uniforms, a monthly fee for the instruction and perhaps shared tournament fees.

Is running these teams out of your academy a "good" business model/decision or not?

On the one hand, it probably generates a little extra revenue per month. Might generate some loyalty to good coaches. On the other hand, it PO's some families who don't make your team...or don't play enough on your team...or don't like your coaches in game situations...or just feel gouged a bit at the payment pump.

I know a local academy owner who disbanded all of his teams because he felt it hurt his business in the overall scheme of things. I know another academy owner who thinks its a good model.

Thoughts?
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H Homerun041,000+ posts
I agree it is a slippery slope. The conflicts may be they pay a lot in private lessons but still are not the best players on the team and do not get the playing time, or they do get playing time and the other players resent him because he is getting playing time.

Is the purpose of the team to win or get real life playing experience vs just skills training? Other than the negative aspects of playing on a team which does not win, there is a lot of advantage to putting the skills to the test in a tournament or game situation.

The other point is where do you cut off between working with players on the travel team vs charging them for private lessons per hour.
FungoFungoHighly Regarded and Beloved Old Timer
JBB,
My son played for an Memphis academy based team for three years and from our standpoint it was VERY VERY good. If it generated revenue it was not from the team members because the team had access to the facilities and the instructors (their coaches) at no charge. (I don't know if that is still the case). Sponsors also supplemented the expenses so the cost to the team members was very reasonable. The team was a highly select team that won several national championships. Does it alienate people of that paid for lessons and ultimately don’t make the team?? I haven’t heard any rumblings to that effect. I think a large portion of the academy revenue comes from the younger players that may have a goal of playing for the team and if that doesn’t materialize at age 17 then they may feel passed over but by that time they were going to stop lessons anyway. The academy has also expanded their services into a “prospect service” or a recruiting service to provide a “total package” for the prospective college athlete. The overall operation is very impressive having large facilities and a nine field baseball complex on site. This is quite an accomplishment for someone that started out in his garage giving hitting lessons.
Last edited by Fungo
justbaseballjustbaseball10,000+ posts
Fungo - Thats pretty cool!

Hard to build one of those here in Silicon Valley. Frown

I like the idea of having a super-select team at the top that the players strive to make. A couple of the academies around here don't have that...their teams are pretty mediocre...occasionally a good one. One new academy that is opening has grown out of a super-select program so maybe that one will work a lot better.
B bbdad200710+ posts
justbaseball,

I know the places you a refering to... Another concern is the quality of the teams. If they don't perform well, especially hitting, it had a negative impact on their image (since they are selling lessons). And the team's performance has more to do with the quality of the players than coaching or lessons. Most good hitters are good atheletes that have already been taught or are rare natural hitters that need minimal instruction to perform. These kids are hard to find since there are few of them and the good ones are already playing for other teams... So, starting teams is difficult. I have noticed that some places have more success starting older teams - say U15 on up...
T theEH1,000+ posts
That would be a nice complex to have an academy Fungo.
They need more full size hard ball fields though.

My retirement Dream, is to own my own set of field's.
Play tournament's each week, differant age bracket's.
Be just like Forrest Gump. Just Mowing my yard's during the week, getting ready for the next tournament.

Maybe a RV park and camp ground right next door.

Running an academy would be tough.
To many expectation's from the parent's.

I would not mind haveing ex pro's use my new retirement complex for private lesson's? EH

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