Cost of Summer Baseball Program

based on money alone...that sounds like a great deal...

Now there are a few things that can be put in play:

1. Are these legit big boy tournaments or will you be playing "scrubs" (for a lack of better term) teams. I have seen teams go play at "showcase" tournaments but no big team nor big time players there and thus very few if any scouts show up.

2. What is the level of coaching? What kind of practice do they run? Will there be 12 kids watching another kid take batting practice and then they rotate to another kid? Will there be actual drills and stations?

Pricing seems in line. The variable in pricing is also dependent upon number of people on the team as well. Costs such as rentals, tourney fees, gate fees are fixed, with your only variable team cost being how many uniforms are being purchased.

That is very cheap compared to the Northeast,
$2900 for 24 games & 2 Travel Tournaments (13 games)
Winter workouts & Uniforms were included

$1200: 7 tournaments and a couple of practice games.

Played, 3 PG tournaments, Prospectwire, Pro Select, World Scout League. Scouts at most games.

quote:

Originally posted by CBMDad:
That is very cheap compared to the Northeast,
$2900 for 24 games & 2 Travel Tournaments (13 games)
Winter workouts & Uniforms were included

My impression of the pricing quoted here is that this one is very much at the high end. Of course, it depends on where the games and tourney's are, and on how talented the coaching staff is related to how much time they spend instructing.

In RI we have a couple premier programs with roughly 25 games PLUS 4 tournaments, and pricing is generally in the $2,000 range for everything except travel and lodging.

My son plays for one of the "Academy" teams in your area. One thing that really drew us to this team was the off season conditioning. From the first weekend of November, until the last weekend until high school tryouts. His freshmen and sophomore year, that was three workouts a week. His junior year, he got two a week, which was enough as he was a pitcher only by then.

Honestly, you could jack up your price a bit and give more off season workouts. I know a lot of people had the same opinion as us on this.

Our fees this summer were $1200 which included uniforms and shoes.

We played in a total of 7 tournaments including 3 PG tournaments and 4 PG Scout League Tournaments. We had scouts out at most of our games. There were 22 players on our team.

Wow don't any of these teams due much fund raising to take care of much of the cost.

I don't know if our team qualifies as a summer team since we started playin late February and ended in late July but there are no set fees.

Basically each parent has an account set up where money is deposited either through fundraising or from their own pockets.

If I remember correctly we paid about $300 for uniforms and bag. I deposited another $900 to cover tournament fees throughout the year as well as miscellaneous costs such as balls.

Then I had to cover hotel/food cost for 2 tournaments per month.

The biggest expense was the World Series trip which cost me about $1500 total.

The coaches were volunteers but with experience.

I've never heard of a scout team that did fund raising. Maybe local teams or small tournament teams but not the ones that do big tournaments.
Ours through the years have depended on the level of tournaments. The highest were about $2000 which included WWBA and PG events and some D1 college. This also was uniforms and paid coaches expenses.
The lowest was pay per tournament and we had 2 jerseys.

Well don't know how it is done in tn, but have seen plenty of fund raising which helped with the cost and then maybe they could spend there money on individual instruction.

These teams also played in pg events, wwba and at many colleges, but hey everyone does it a little different I guess.

I think that is priced very well and cheap. My concern is this. I would like to see the list of "showcase tournaments". The other thing I would like to know is how many players are getting scholarship offers due to the summer program. If these are big time showcases and players are getting seen I think you are getting a good deal.

thanks everyone for the feedback so far--would love to continue to get others responses/opinions.

As for our case the tourneys are all Diamond Sports/Pasttime/or Mid-American tourneys.

As to the amount of colleges/scouts at each event we are beginning to find out that is more self generated than attended on it's own. The locations of these tourneys (on campus D1 and D2's) help greatly but we do considerable networking to get people to come out and see the kids play.

This past summer we were a primarily 16/17 team that played up, we did have 2 2012's on the team and both are going on to play ball---1 at a JUCO and another at a nice D2 in state.

The hardest part is getting our name out there when being compared to some of the "name" programs out there. We strongly believe that there is a middle ground for kids that dont want to pay $4-$5K and commit 7 days a week vs a rec league team that provides no exposure or training.

Anyways, rambling on but it is nice to see all of the feedback thus far, keep it coming please!

15 yo
$2,200 for summer includes:
• 40ish “Showcase” games against top level teams. Players required to arrive 1 hr before games for stretching, throwing, hitting, and fielding workout.
• College, mostly Juco, coaches.
• 2-3 2.5 hr practices per week at local college.
• Couple uniforms, workout shirts, shorts, etc
• No specific winter workouts but classroom 2hrs per week.

$600 for Fall
• Mid Aug – Oct
• 6 hrs practice/scrimmage per week.
• Couple tournaments

$100 for summer HS team
• 8 weekday games and 8 practices.

Other
• $400 Camps
• $150 indoor facility for winter workouts
• $500 lessons
• $800 for equipment
• A lot for gas and hotels

$4,750
Crazy – Right!?

crazy is 10-12K + hotels, gas etc. 40-50 games + extended US trips.

Good programs but given 75% of grads play D2, NAIA, or JUCO; the payoff re investment/return just doesn't make sense. Love makes people do strange things.

quote:

Originally posted by liner:
crazy is 10-12K + hotels, gas etc. 40-50 games + extended US trips.

Good programs but given 75% of grads play D2, NAIA, or JUCO; the payoff re investment/return just doesn't make sense. Love makes people do strange things.

As I shelled out money each year for my son to play the sport he loved, can't say that I every really wanted to count how much I was spending. Moreover, a ROI for the money spent was never, ever a thought that entered my mind.

Are there actually parents out there that consider money spent raising a child to adulthood, as an Investment that will someday pay a return?

Talking about people doing strange things, that indeed would be strange to me!

god bless people with $ to burn.

Guys its like going to Disney World. You can't worry about the cost because it takes all the fun out of it.

Bottom line, spend what you can on your kid for that which he loves and enjoy the ride. They get old too quick. Good luck.

Costs…

Basically you need to ask two questions:
1 – What is included (Examples below)
2 – Will this get my son a scholarship that will be worth the investment?

First I’ll address #2….the easier one. Play the local pick 3 lottery – your chances will be better at recovering your money. If you add everything up – unless they make it to the major leagues and or get a huge signing bonus – its not going to pay for itself. I expect a lot of criticism for that comment….

A better question #2 is what are you willing to spend to help him enjoy the game and potentially take it further (play college ball). Are you willing to take on this cost to continue watching him and allowing him to continue?

From what I’m hearing an average scholarship for baseball is 35-37% Some get more, MIN D1 are 25% and not everyone gets one. Lots of these are at higher priced schools that even with the baseball money, cost more than local colleges. At best, many scholarships help ‘offset’ costs of going to the providing school vs the local / state school – that’s it. Now I hear there are full rides but not like basketball or football so I wouldn’t even think about it….

So now back to 1:

Program A Fall Ball 6-8 weeks, uniforms, 2-3 practices, conditioning, van rides to games, airline tickets to 1 out of town major (FL or AZ), hotel rooms included…$1700

Program B Fall Ball 6-8 weeks, jersey / hat, 1 practice a week plus open cages / facility, some training plus conditioning $600

Program C Summer: 8-10 tournaments, uniforms, indoor cages / practice 1X a week from Jan-Feb, Open cages year round. $1500

Program D Summer: 8-10 tournaments, free indoor cages but you must add additional lessons, winter workouts. $3800

Just know what the fees include and what you might be willing to pay for that service. There are no guarantees in life so why would you expect it from a select program.

Now LAST THOUGHTS….did we go the select route. YES

Is son going to be a major leaguer (nice dream) but NO

Did it help him extend his playing career – MAYBE

Would I do it again – DON’T KNOW

Will I ever regret NOT getting him this training – NO

Did it pay off (investment vs gain) – PROBABLY NOT

Would I miss it if he hung up the cleats today….HELL YES (Sorry MN mom)

--16U team. 32 games in 6 tourneys.

--4 jerseys, 2 pants, 2 hats

--Hotels included for the boys the first two tourneys...4 to a room

--Pizza/Grilled items included those first two tourneys.

--$620 per kid. Coaches didn't get paid.