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Parents across America are crying foul over the exorbitant fees and growing demands of organized youth sports — especially club and travel teams that can cost as much as $10,000 a year to play.
“I was an All-American, national championship winner, captain of my team,” said Caitlin Murray, a content creator and mom-of-three who played varsity lacrosse at Middlebury College. “I have never experienced the level of insanity of what sports has become for kids today.”
Growing up, she mastered her sport through summer leagues and sports camps. Now, she said, the only option for kids after second or third grade is to join expensive club teams, which travel to tournaments two or three weekends a month during the season — which can last half a year or more.
“It’s like a conspiracy,” said Murray, whose kids — ages 7, 10 and 12 — focus on lacrosse but are also on soccer, flag football, swim and ski teams. “It’s expensive as s–t. It costs thousands of dollars to be on a team, and then it costs thousands of dollars to attend these tournaments in addition. You’re talking about travel costs, hotel costs.”
Then there’s the time commitment, which typically requires them Murray and her husband, who live in Westchester, NY, to divide and conquer. “Every weekend [he] will have to go with my son, or I’ll go with my daughter, and vice versa,” she said. “I don’t see him during lacrosse season.”
Even Kerri Walsh Jennings — a three-time Olympic gold medalist in volleyball who now has her own tournament, Hero Volley — thinks it’s gone too far.
“When I was growing up, sports had seasons,” said Walsh Jennings, who lives in Nevada and has three children in their teens who all play club volleyball. “Today, many young athletes compete year-round … Every parent wants to give their child every opportunity.”
She wonders whether the intensity of clubs sports, which often see children focus on a single sport, at a young age and year-round is really beneficial.
“I believe kids benefit from playing multiple sports, experiencing different coaches and teammates, having true offseasons, and simply having time to be kids,” she told The Post.
Landon Donovan, the onetime captain of the US Mens National soccer team and now a broadcaster, also questions whether its good for the sports themselves.
After the US men’s team had a disappointing loss to Belgium in round of 16 of the World Cup, Donovan placed some of the blame on America’s club soccer system limiting the country’s talent pool.
“Only 2% of kids who were playing organized soccer in America came from households that made less than $50,000,” he said in an interview. “Think about how many kids you’re missing out on, in this country, because they can’t afford to play the game.”
Newberry, Mass., mom Megan Sherr says her family spends in the five digits annually on youth sports. Her four kids all play club hockey — at a seasonal cost of $3,000 apiece — plus two also play club lacrosse.
In addition to the team fees, there are private coaching sessions that run as much as $150 each, plus equipment and travel costs.
“I just heard about a family this weekend who had to take on a second job to pay for it,” she said. “I think there are just a lot of families who make the sacrifice.”
The number of children playing competitive sports has increased greatly over the last several decades. According to the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, children born in the 1990s were three times more likely to play travel or private club sports than kids born in the 1950s.
Courtney Altamirano, who has a 13-year-old daughter playing club volleyball in Phoenix, Ariz., at a place that charges $10,000 a year, puts the situation more bluntly: “This is your vacation fund, your new car, your new house, your college savings.”
She said one particularly shocking cost of kids’ sports is being charged $20 to $50 per family member to watch her daughter play in tournaments — on top of paying for her to play.
“It seems measly, but it adds up,” Altamirano said. We had friends who dressed up their son in a sibling’s basketball uniform so they could send him through the door [to watch from the stands] without paying, because he was just going to sit on his iPad in a corner.”
And then there’s the time factor: “She can’t even sit out a practice if she’s tired, because they’ll bench her,”
Like many parents, Altamirano hopes her daughter will get good enough to play in college, which will offset some of the expenses.
But she also doesn’t want her to feel any pressure.
“I try to tell her, ‘If you want to play the game, we will open the doors for you and do everything we can. But there is no obligation. Don’t feel like you owe us a career in volleyball just because we’ve sacrificed so much.”
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