Article--Parental Spending on Sports

Over the course of the journey I've see two kinds of parents who are mostly the problem. 1) The parent who thinks talent can be purchased, and 2) The parent who is demanding ROI on their expenses. The only time to expect ROI is playing on a showcase team gaining exposure for an opportunity to play in college. Whatever I spent on sports I considered the cost of playing and improving and nothing more.

RJM - Agreed, and I'll say it more bluntly.  There are two kinds of parents:  those that let their kids make choices and those parents that have to control every aspect of little Johnny's life.  I see it all around me.   

I had no problem opening my wallet if my kid demonstrated sincere interest in an activity.   We've been through the gamut of activities (piano lessons, rocketry, camping, Cub Scouts, swimming, basketball, Indian Guides, lacrosse, etc)...and overwhelmingly they showed the most interest and dedication in things they wanted to do with no strings attached except they must complete what we paid for.  Go figure.  It ain't rocket science.

either you have talent or you do not. 

Like most of these studies, I think you can interpret the (very limited) data in a variety of ways.

Maybe the correlation isn't really $$ spend, it's the level of competition.  A lot of pressure comes with playing at the highest level, regardless of the expenses involved. IOW, the "overspending" may be more of a byproduct of the kid's success. Look at those poor kids in the National Spelling Bee every year... remember the kid who fainted a few years ago?

I'm not trying to defend the dad who spends most of the family's disposable income on junior's baseball "career", and expects the kid to land a full scholarship in the SEC. That guy is probably damaging his relationship with his son.

One other data point that I find interesting is the kids' survey. Most kids will probably say that "enjoyment and motivation declined" for pretty much anything that their parents are heavily involved with. Ask them 10 years later.  They may, or may not, have the same attitude about it.

I have 2 boys 15 and 13 playing travel baseball and training about 10 months a year, plus the other nontravel rec sports they play - i spend somewhere around 11k maybe closer 12k on direct costs, lessons, training, teams fees, equipment etc - travel and hotel costs are extra and i don't want to know what that comes to. Heck this weekend one is going 2 hours east and the other 2 hours west - that will be 4 hotel rooms plus meals...ugh I told you I don't want to think about it!

At the end of it - we do it together - mom included - full time and I believe it is loved (mom included) by all. I don't see how the money adds preasure unless it is an overall budget issue to the household.

To me the travel time, the conversations, the laughs and stories make evey $ well spent! I feel like I have a much better then average relationship with my boys and baseball - and the associated time we spend together as a result of it -  has a huge impact on the relationship!

One conversation I had with a parent last week about the costs of travel baseball was that many programs are selling the dream. Scholarship, pro contract whatever - but if you are not spending excess income it is a waste. I won't say travel sports are bad investment - I don't believe that - but if you are only invested to get a return on the money you are probably going to be very disappointed when it is all done.

My son played travel ball from 11 to 17.  He loved to play the game was very good and his mother and i loved to watch him play.  I never was looking for an ROI we just loved watching him play.  You never know when it may be his last game and I don't want to miss it.  He just finished his exit interview at his Juco and they renewed his scholorship.  He had a couple of NCAA D1 schools attend several of the games he pitched this past year.  Next year could be his last who knows when they will finally hit that wall and cannot progress any further but i know God willing I will be their at his last game.

i see it all the time where parents (mostly dads) expect something. Most examples revolve around new gear, was talking to one dad that guaranteed me that his son would hit 5-7 HR's because he bought him a new mako before the season started, Poor kid was in a no win situation from the beginning, either he hits lots of HR's (then it was because of the bat) or he hits none (was not using bat correctly). Kid had so much pressure from the get go that his season was miserable. and yeah he did not hit 1 HR

Kids and parents also get caught up in the marketing of all the new gear every year, giving them false hope that the equipment is what is most important.personally we are on a new bat new glove routine every 2 years, cleats seems to be every 6 months because his feet wont stop growing (14 with no signs of stopping) 

As far as travel, no comment since we don't have that option. but as an example my son and I are going to the headfirst and Stanford camps this year. the entire trip is going to cost in the neighborhood of 8k. We have talked about it and i have made it clear that he needs to take this seriously and must perform the best he can as this is a once in a HS career trip. he fully understands. So i guess i am in one way a parent that does expect something out of him in this case.

FWIW my 17yo (HS Junior) will be on his first major club team so to speak that has a reputation in the MW for placing kids at varied levels.  I gave up coaching him last year b/c it was his motivation that drove him to want to be on a top level club team.  He tried out, made it.  The team he played on last year was damn good and competed with many well known and far more expensive teams.  We did the showcase and traveled 2x.  At the end of the day you have to balance out reasonable goals and I don't personally think most kids know that or get there until after the game goes 60-90, at that point this game will tell you when and/or where you need to be.  IMO if your spending major $ on trying to get there with your kid most will be out enough coin to pay for your kids college had you just used a little better judgement.

I understand it's not a one size fits all situation and if you have the means and you kid is compliant then go for it.

This year will cost me about $5-6k after a 5-8 lessons, a training program, travel for summer (etc).  He has been told he can go to the next level and has a great shot.  I will fund it as long as he complies academically as well as on the field. 

Here is story about wasted money for all of you. this past fall i get a call from a guy I have gotten to know one county over. My son has played for him as a fill in off and on over the years. He asks if we want to go to florida over the holidays and play in a tournament...with very little thought i said sure. go home tell the wife and both boys the offer, everyone is like awesome!

By the time is all said and done with 4 flights, car, hotel (orlando from 12/26 to 1/1) and everything we were almost 10k into the trip....in December for baseball!! LOL the team didn't have more the 5 kids who knew eachothers names when we got there! Several we did know by site just being around the travel circuit - not one scout was there, there honestly wasn't one really good team in the entire event!!

We did however have a blast, the kids thought it may have been our best family vacation ever (not including their respective trips to Cooperstown at 12u the last of which had been 5 whole months before) and we are planning on going back with them next year!!

Anytime you can get summer weather and baseball over the holidays in the Northeast you have to jump at that!!

BAAAHAHAHAHA.... there is no ROI from a $$$ stand point.  If you think this is expensive, my kids also rodeo, and that will drain a bank account in a hurry.... I hear people on here whining about $400 on a bat. Try$ 80K on a horse.  I look at both of these activities as time we get to spend together as a family.

damn that is a lot of money for future glue!!!

I do remind the boys to study hard and be ready to work because this is not the real world! The day they get out of college (I will even give them 4.5 or 5 years depending on the major and potential baseball) they are on their own!!

old_school,

Were you expecting a lot of scouts at a 13U tournament? Or am I mistaken and this was an older age group?

This sounds like Stars and Stripes. I had a parent a couple of years ago that i had to convince not to go. He was willing to miss playing with us (his full-time team) in USSSA Winter Nationals because he was convinced at the tryouts that this was a chance to get noticed. The kid was a good player, but they had built him up at tryouts to the dad as somebody who was going to turn the heads of scouts and recruiters at a 13u event. He decided not to go, but was still leery until i showed him the roster for the team he was supposed to go on. The vast majority of the roster was made up of kids who played at the USSSA AA level and three or four who we knew to be mediocre at best. This was the type of scam that upsets me. They really told him there would be scouts at the games.

I would imagine the only way you might see a scout at a game for that age is if he had a son playing in the game. Even if there is a 13 year old phenom (Bryce Harper, Justin Upton, Delmon young) people will know about them, but scouts will wait until they get older before going to watch them. They have 5 years of draft classes to work on before the 13 year olds even become eligible.

It was 15u but even at that age scouts are virtually nonexistent anyway. IMO the truth is for 99.9% of the players the term scout should be deleted from the language. Recruiter has some merit but not scout.

There were a few upset parents because they came to Florida and saw nothing... now the realist in me says - it is the holidays, you are on a pickup team and none of the teams here are worth a damn...and yet you are thinking the MLB people should be here?!?! But i just kept my mouth shut and had a good week.

As I stated earlier we are not in the game for money, my boys are going to go to college with or without scholarship and or grant money and from the looks of things I have very little doubt that D3 will be in my future! My boys don't have the combination of size and speed the D1's are looking for. Unless he continues to be the best hitter possible, however, from what I can tell that deosn't seem to matter much unless it is projectable!! I do know there are very few 15's that hit better - now off to speed training LOL!!

The sad thing is the boy could be a hell of a golfer but wants nothing to do with the game other then a handful of rounds a years with me in the off season.

when I was a kid my home town had 6 little leagues with 10 teams, so 60 teams ages 9-12, if the teams averaged 4 players at each age that's 240 players, this feed babe Ruth which had 15 teams ages 13-15, each team had 5 of each ages so now 75 kids.  Next was one 16u legion team with 18 players.  So from 240 to 18.  Did the other 222 have parents that pushed to hard?  This is a tired argument, some can hack it some can't and some just don't love it enough.  By the way of the best kids at twelve (with only only a few exceptions) where the best kids at 16.  burn out happens mostly to those that don't love it.

Generally speaking i have found the bolded to be true, somewhere in the 70% or so range. in our town there is a handful of late bloomers who are growing up quite nicely but the core is the same 8 or 10 out of 13 or 14 kids.

I wonder if there is a correlation between the amount of money spent and the talent of the child.  The more money spent, the less talent the child has.  The majority of the posts on this site refer to talent winning out.  Any money spent should be for the ultimate enjoyment of the child and never as an "investment." 

I have 2 boys that play now, a pitcher and a catcher and other than team fees for seasons, we've spent about $700 over the last 5 years.  As a respected high school coach once told me, it's not the arrows, it's the indian.  I just hate to see parents spend and spend hoping upon hope that their son will develop traits/skills that may never be there.  It seems to be more prevalent at the younger ages too.  As I've witnessed this past 3 years as my oldest has progressed through high school and my youngest is entering, baseball studs at age 12 are not the studs at age 17 and vice versa.  My oldest played little league, was not voted for an all star team, and just finished his junior year as the #2 pitcher on his high school.

I would say there is no coorelation at all on money spent that is meaningful. many very talented kids spend a lot to hone their skills, play a lot, and get exposure and many lower talent kids spend a lot or nothing.

I will say I don't agree at all on your assesment of 12yo studs. I'd be willing to say that, for the most part, the studs in any given area at 12u make up a majority of the studs in high school. Are there late bloomers that break into the secen late? Yes, but they just join the group. I guarantee you high school baseball is not made up primarily of late bloomers. just the opposite. If you want to see the high school roster in four or five years in a small community, go watch the LL/CR/BR all start teams.