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[quote=Anonymous]NP here.
There was an enlightening article in the NYT a while back and one in the WaPo.
The NYT one was "Why Have We Allowed Money to Ruin Youth Sports?" ( https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/opinion/youth-sports.html ) , an interview with author Linda Flanagan. For non-subscribers, here is an excerpt.

[quote]Jessica Grose: I was excited to read your book because it explained something I have been noticing since my kids started wanting to play sports: the lack of low-stakes, local community options. I’d love to hear you explain where these options went.

Linda Flanagan: I identify three main reasons children’s sports has moved from this low-key, relaxed, around-the-corner kind of play to this intense, expensive, privatized version. The first is money.

The seeds of this were planted in the ’70s, when we had a bad recession and public funding for parks and recreation departments declined. Then girls sports really picked up in the ’90s, so there was more demand.

Also in the ’90s, Disney built the Wide World of Sports Complex, which proved to be wildly successful. It started the beginning of travel sports and sports tourism because Disney’s success then was observed by other communities who thought: If they can build a sports complex, why don’t we try it in our little town? Those are the places that are pulling in teams and tournaments and competitions where those private entities have their games.

Then, in 2008, we had another recession, which led to a further decline in public spending and a realization among private enterprise that they can make money off this.
[/quote]
a second reason Flanagan mentioned is the rise of "modern parenting" trends:
[quote]...It used to be that parents were the ones who had the lives, and kids had to adapt to this shift, beginning in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, where kids became the center around which life revolved for the adults.
Now, parents think we have to do everything in our power to make sure that our children have every advantage, and to set them up for a happy and economically satisfying life. If we don’t do it, they will likely fail. As a result, it’s a sign of a good parent to spend $10,000 on travel lacrosse or travel soccer because you’re doing what you have to do to help prepare your kid. That’s the overlay in the back of all this, this mentality that it’s your responsibility as a parent to do this and you’re being a bad parent if you don’t. There’s that guilt that I think many parents feel if they opt out of some of this stuff.[/quote]

The Post article was about an example of trying to reverse this trend by supporting a local ("in-town") sports league that does not require "travel team" -level expenditures of time or money in order for kids to play at a competitive level. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/01/competitive-sports-need-not-be-travel/

On my end, my teen loves to play a certain sport seriously but I've had enough of the 'system'. So, during the season, DC plays on the high-school team and a weekend club/travel team, but on the off-season I've said 'no' to the tournament-only private leagues and DC has a local option connected to the high school. Less "serious"/competitive, but this is IMO what DC needs and it helps develop these local options. Wise parents of some of DC's travel teammates are making similar decisions, fortunately. A few have inflated hopes for their kids' futures and have learned the hard way that (even by throwing $$ at the situation and arranging family life around your kids' sports) you can't engineer an all-star high school (& future) career for a kid that isn't a significant cut above in playing skills/talent and in personal dedication.

On the other hand, a couple of DC's other past teammates have gone on to play in higher (more limited/specialized) tiers of travel-level teams, and I'm genuinely happy to see them flourish, because these kids were very skilled and genuinely very motivated to play hard and fair, and the parents weren't pushing them and were generally quite chill people.

I will add that I have a son and a daughter and the boys' sports teams have always had fathers who are super-intense about the sport they have played themselves and they seem to want to live out their own goals through their sons. There are new-to-the-sport parents who are totally not like this. [/quote]

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