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[quote=Anonymous]One way to look at is is if you look at examples of youth sports with less travel. My kid swims, and swimming is a sport that traditionally has very few travel meets. My kid has gone to 3 out of state meets in 3 years of swimming, but they were zones, or multi state meets that he had to qualify for. Most of his teammates have never been to a meet more than an hour away. There are plenty of kids to swim against locally until you achieve very fast times, and then you might go to one or two higher level meets a year. The very elite swimmers are the exception.

My other kid plays soccer and in three years, he has already been to 5-6 out of state tournaments, all normal ones that you just have to pay the registration fee. Some of them are stay to play, so we had to book a partner hotel. I’ve never seen a stay to play swim meet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some out there.

Some swim teams are going to travel meets that are not very selective, so that the team can travel together and bond, but this is newer trend and it only happens maybe once or twice a year for them. A lot of teams will go to a meet in florida so they can get some Disney time or beach time, for example. Personally, I think it’s a money grab, but I know there are benefits to traveling as a swim team.

So yes- the 9U soccer team traveling to Pennsylvania, the 12U baseball team traveling to Virginia Beach, the 14U hockey team going to a tournament in upstate ny. They are mostly to generate money for the hosting club and the community.

Our soccer club has a soccer tournament every year with 500 teams and each team pays between $500-700. It’s also run off the backs of volunteers, so I think the club probably nets about half of the fees after paying for refs, fields, etc. Volunteers run the concessions, t shirt stands, help register, set up fields, pretty much all of it. Without the tournament, the club would rely on more fundraising. [/quote]

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