Travel baseball teams - how expensive

[Anonymous]

My 17 year old has been on travel baseball teams since he was 12. Now it is showcase ball for recruitment (and it’s a heck of a lot of fun).

$2,000/season max for fees, the lowest has been $800. Airfare is the most expensive thing, followed by hotels. For many years his “travel” team played locally with one big fun travel tournament a year. These kids weren’t going to the LLWS - there is plenty of local competition.

My son loves gear, so add to the above all the Christmas and birthday presents of new bats, gloves, arm sleeves, ridiculous gold chains, and pitching grip gizmos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 17 year old has been on travel baseball teams since he was 12. Now it is showcase ball for recruitment (and it’s a heck of a lot of fun).

$2,000/season max for fees, the lowest has been $800. Airfare is the most expensive thing, followed by hotels. For many years his “travel” team played locally with one big fun travel tournament a year. These kids weren’t going to the LLWS - there is plenty of local competition.

My son loves gear, so add to the above all the Christmas and birthday presents of new bats, gloves, arm sleeves, ridiculous gold chains, and pitching grip gizmos.

Forgot the private training - that is expensive. $80/week through most of the year.

[Anonymous]

Cooperstown it was either a home run or a single. Loathed the money grab and general scene but boys had a blast and although I’d do some things differently, I’d go again if we had a younger kid.

We paid $3200/year—winter workouts, spring and fall seasons. Includes a couple tournaments per season, uniforms, coach salary. We do additional private training so over the course of the year that tacks on an additional 3-4K. Travel is minimal but typically two tournaments/year where we need a hotel so maybe figure another 1k. Gear wise—that’s Christmas and birthday gifts so don’t factor that into bottom line expense. Not cheap, but reasonable given DS interest level and abilities—and I think that’s the key here. If you are spending $$$ and kid doesn’t love it or show growth in their skills, you need to reevaluate.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. Above expenses are 13u. 12u was a bit more on the team expense because of Ctown. Team did fundraising but it was a substantial chunk of change to go to Ctown and then stay for the week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

They also play rec. travel starts at 8u and yeahs are formed. Do you think kids can just play rec a few times a year and then get on a travel team at 11u? No. At our high school, even done travel kids won’t make the team. It’s very competitive and baseball is about reps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp here. Above expenses are 13u. 12u was a bit more on the team expense because of Ctown. Team did fundraising but it was a substantial chunk of change to go to Ctown and then stay for the week.

This. The share houses run about $1000 a night.

[Anonymous]

At 10U we are $1K per year, but the Head Coach is a parent (he played in college, asst. coach in college, wooden bat league, etc). A couple local-ish tournaments per year. Maybe 25 games in the spring and 25 games in the fall. Winter gym workouts in Jan/Feb, but they are local too -- not baseball academies. 3 jerseys and tons of swag -- helmets, cage tops, etc

Might be more like $1,300 next year as the kids are outgrowing uniforms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

They also play rec. travel starts at 8u and yeahs are formed. Do you think kids can just play rec a few times a year and then get on a travel team at 11u? No. At our high school, even done travel kids won’t make the team. It’s very competitive and baseball is about reps.

Yes, it’s definitely possible to wait for travel until 11u. Because that’s what we did. Now with varsity starter on WCAC team you would know. The travel ball industrial complex is powerful and it’s hard for parents to fight back. But fight back we must.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

They also play rec. travel starts at 8u and yeahs are formed. Do you think kids can just play rec a few times a year and then get on a travel team at 11u? No. At our high school, even done travel kids won’t make the team. It’s very competitive and baseball is about reps.

Yes, it’s definitely possible to wait for travel until 11u. Because that’s what we did. Now with varsity starter on WCAC team you would know. The travel ball industrial complex is powerful and it’s hard for parents to fight back. But fight back we must.

I agree with this...you can even wait until 12u especially if you have a competitive LL and are putting in the work on your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

My kid does play rec as well (most travel teams require it at this age). But the kids in rec can goof off at times. My DS gets frustrated when other kids are digging in the dirt in the outfield while the ball rolls past.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there are valuable lessons to rec sports and it’s nice when they can be on teams with their friends. But some kids are really athletic, actually are decent pitchers who can throw strike outs at 9, and want a little more challenge. If that isn’t your kid that is totally fine. But OP seems interested and asked for costs so I shared. Luckily for my family 3k isn’t a particularity noticeable sum of money so I’m glad we can do this for our kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty hard to advance and win at Cooperstown, if you’ve been. It is a tournament after all. Agree that LLWS is also a wonderful tournament.

I don’t think this is true. Two teams I’ve known go to round of 16 and round of 8 out of 100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

They also play rec. travel starts at 8u and yeahs are formed. Do you think kids can just play rec a few times a year and then get on a travel team at 11u? No. At our high school, even done travel kids won’t make the team. It’s very competitive and baseball is about reps.

Yes, it’s definitely possible to wait for travel until 11u. Because that’s what we did. Now with varsity starter on WCAC team you would know. The travel ball industrial complex is powerful and it’s hard for parents to fight back. But fight back we must.

Good for your kid. He must be a stellar athlete. He’s not the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9U we spent about 3k plus some hotel rooms (although most tournaments were driveable within an hour or so, so we didn’t get a room).

At 9U you should be playing rec for $200/season. Kids can barely pitch at that age. Stop the madness.

They also play rec. travel starts at 8u and yeahs are formed. Do you think kids can just play rec a few times a year and then get on a travel team at 11u? No. At our high school, even done travel kids won’t make the team. It’s very competitive and baseball is about reps.

Yes, it’s definitely possible to wait for travel until 11u. Because that’s what we did. Now with varsity starter on WCAC team you would know. The travel ball industrial complex is powerful and it’s hard for parents to fight back. But fight back we must.

I agree with this...you can even wait until 12u especially if you have a competitive LL and are putting in the work on your own.

Maybe in Vienna or in another competitive LL. We don’t have that in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty hard to advance and win at Cooperstown, if you’ve been. It is a tournament after all. Agree that LLWS is also a wonderful tournament.

I don’t think this is true. Two teams I’ve known go to round of 16 and round of 8 out of 100.

By definition getting to round 8 out of 100 is hard! Just because you know some who have done it doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. That’s like saying “oh, it isn’t hard to make a million bucks a year. I know two people who’ve done it!” Still hard.

[Anonymous]

We didn’t do travel until 12u. I agree it’s harder to qualify but at the same point - many of the kids that qualified at 8 wouldn’t at this age.