Anonymous
10/14/2025 16:17
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Thought the article raised some serious questions.
https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/blog/youth-sports-is-the-greatest-theft-in-america
IME I have seen that every other kid plays travel now..and no they are not all that and they don’t need to be playing travel.
OP I agree. One major problem is the alternative to Travel soccer is Rec soccer. Rec soccer is terrible by comparison. Our Travel program is only able to exist by luring families out of of Rec soccer. They recruit them constantly and decimate the Rec teams. The rec leagues are only ran by the same clubs who operate the travel league. They run the rec league to service the community and get access to the county's turf fields by getting blanket permits to those turf field. But then, plot twist, they only allocate the turf fields to their travel teams for all practices and most games.
If the county were to take back the Rec programs and remove all "non-profit" Travel programs from using all the facilities, the Rec programs would be very robust and good to play in -all the while eliminating 80% of the travel programs (that are self serving and ruin the Rec programs and do not get kids into college) and therefore, would leave just a few -strong- travel programs that would be competitive enough & strong enough to mean something.
Agree with all of the above. Though I will say I’m entertained by the people who seem to think many parents force their kids to do travel sports. I’m apparently doing it wrong, because I’m not sure how you really “force” kids to do much once they get to be 10 or so.
Of course it's more complicated than that which you must know. I know a kid still playing travel soccer in high school who has been cajoled the whole time by the parents. They say she can't do other things she likes if she doesn't etc. If she does one more season of travel, she can do/have XYZ.
Plenty of kids probably don't love it but just keep going for a variety of reasons.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 16:05
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Thought the article raised some serious questions.
https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/blog/youth-sports-is-the-greatest-theft-in-america
IME I have seen that every other kid plays travel now..and no they are not all that and they don’t need to be playing travel.
OP I agree. One major problem is the alternative to Travel soccer is Rec soccer. Rec soccer is terrible by comparison. Our Travel program is only able to exist by luring families out of of Rec soccer. They recruit them constantly and decimate the Rec teams. The rec leagues are only ran by the same clubs who operate the travel league. They run the rec league to service the community and get access to the county's turf fields by getting blanket permits to those turf field. But then, plot twist, they only allocate the turf fields to their travel teams for all practices and most games.
If the county were to take back the Rec programs and remove all "non-profit" Travel programs from using all the facilities, the Rec programs would be very robust and good to play in -all the while eliminating 80% of the travel programs (that are self serving and ruin the Rec programs and do not get kids into college) and therefore, would leave just a few -strong- travel programs that would be competitive enough & strong enough to mean something.
Agree with all of the above. Though I will say I’m entertained by the people who seem to think many parents force their kids to do travel sports. I’m apparently doing it wrong, because I’m not sure how you really “force” kids to do much once they get to be 10 or so.
It happens all the time. I've heard many parents freely admit that they require or force sports. Parents today, also just want to keep kids busy and don't want to let them have much free time. Not saying its tons of parents who do this, but it happens.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 16:03
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Thought the article raised some serious questions.
https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/blog/youth-sports-is-the-greatest-theft-in-america
IME I have seen that every other kid plays travel now..and no they are not all that and they don’t need to be playing travel.
OP I agree. One major problem is the alternative to Travel soccer is Rec soccer. Rec soccer is terrible by comparison. Our Travel program is only able to exist by luring families out of of Rec soccer. They recruit them constantly and decimate the Rec teams. The rec leagues are only ran by the same clubs who operate the travel league. They run the rec league to service the community and get access to the county's turf fields by getting blanket permits to those turf field. But then, plot twist, they only allocate the turf fields to their travel teams for all practices and most games.
If the county were to take back the Rec programs and remove all "non-profit" Travel programs from using all the facilities, the Rec programs would be very robust and good to play in -all the while eliminating 80% of the travel programs (that are self serving and ruin the Rec programs and do not get kids into college) and therefore, would leave just a few -strong- travel programs that would be competitive enough & strong enough to mean something.
Agree with all of the above. Though I will say I’m entertained by the people who seem to think many parents force their kids to do travel sports. I’m apparently doing it wrong, because I’m not sure how you really “force” kids to do much once they get to be 10 or so.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 15:44
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Thought the article raised some serious questions.
https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/blog/youth-sports-is-the-greatest-theft-in-america
IME I have seen that every other kid plays travel now..and no they are not all that and they don’t need to be playing travel.
OP I agree. One major problem is the alternative to Travel soccer is Rec soccer. Rec soccer is terrible by comparison. Our Travel program is only able to exist by luring families out of of Rec soccer. They recruit them constantly and decimate the Rec teams. The rec leagues are only ran by the same clubs who operate the travel league. They run the rec league to service the community and get access to the county's turf fields by getting blanket permits to those turf field. But then, plot twist, they only allocate the turf fields to their travel teams for all practices and most games.
If the county were to take back the Rec programs and remove all "non-profit" Travel programs from using all the facilities, the Rec programs would be very robust and good to play in -all the while eliminating 80% of the travel programs (that are self serving and ruin the Rec programs and do not get kids into college) and therefore, would leave just a few -strong- travel programs that would be competitive enough & strong enough to mean something.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 08:49
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Seems like this is another consideration in addition to the quality of schools to determine where you want to live.
I guess we are lucky in that there were many fairly strong Rec leagues in baseball, soccer, flag, etc. through 12 so you didn’t have to play travel.
Then there were like 7 travel options for each sport, with several rec leagues also essentially running a complementary travel option (though I think technically under a different company) that was a reasonable cost and didn’t go to tournaments requiring an overnight.
When it was becoming realistic my kid was college level ability we selected a team where if you made the team then in fact he was college level (I.e., you didn’t make the cut if they didn’t think you were recruitable). Didn’t even try until summer after Soph year, so just had one year of any real travel and now he is playing in college.
We never considered any of this when we chose where we live…but glad we ended up where we did.
I guess we are lucky in that there were many fairly strong Rec leagues in baseball, soccer, flag, etc. through 12 so you didn’t have to play travel.
Then there were like 7 travel options for each sport, with several rec leagues also essentially running a complementary travel option (though I think technically under a different company) that was a reasonable cost and didn’t go to tournaments requiring an overnight.
When it was becoming realistic my kid was college level ability we selected a team where if you made the team then in fact he was college level (I.e., you didn’t make the cut if they didn’t think you were recruitable). Didn’t even try until summer after Soph year, so just had one year of any real travel and now he is playing in college.
We never considered any of this when we chose where we live…but glad we ended up where we did.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 08:09
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
I’m sure there are a few parents forcing their kids or living with delusions of scholarship but my experience has been that the kids are passionate about their sport. My DD loves her team and is so happy when she plays. I was lousy at sports so she is not living some dream of mine. I also have no interest in sports scholarships because I know that’s not happening. Yes it really sucks that our weekends are all full and she’s had to give up so much to play and I’d drop it in a heartbeat if she didn’t want to do it anymore but what is the alternative, screen time? She has no neighborhood friends to just scrimmage and if you are good at sports you have to understand how frustrating it is to play with newbies. I wish we didn’t have to travel so much and cut down on practice but there are no options between rec and travel.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 07:51
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
The biggest problem with travel sports is it starts way too young. No 8 year old needs to be doing travel.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 07:34
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Maybe they could have two rec leagues, one for non athletic kids and one for more skilled players. Almost like...tracking.
-Mom of unathletic boy
-Mom of unathletic boy
Anonymous
10/14/2025 07:26
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:I think the system is totally screwed up and a money-making machine. And I tried not to participate.
But my kid fell in love with ice hockey, and by around age 10 then were no kids left playing house league who could actually skate. It was basically watching kids falling down and not passing, and he’d play the same team every week. And because he was decent, people kept coming to to him and asking him to join various travel teams, and of course he wanted to. He’s 15 now, and none of the parents on his team have delusions of grandeur, but we are a family in many ways because we spend so much time together, and it’s been a lot of fun. (And I do not even drink.) But, even though the experience has been good, I still think the system is super dumb. If everyone abandoned travel, we could be having the same fun minus the travel and the expense.
But to stop the madness, all the parents would have to ban together and just stop buying in at the same time. (I’d certainly do it if everyone else did.). But of course that isn’t going to happen—for the same reason we can’t stop climate change. Once something huge gets rolling downhill, it’s very hard to stop it. Maybe it would be easier to stop it in sports where tons of kids play. But here, even with those sports, the rec leagues are pretty gutted by age 10 or so. If your kid is athletic and improves at any decent clip, you would just be watching them own kids week in and out. It’s not that you even think your kid is getting a college scholarship—it’s that the current system guts the rec leagues and almost forces you to move over.
This is it exactly and what happened to us too in a different sport.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 07:01
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
I think the system is totally screwed up and a money-making machine. And I tried not to participate.
But my kid fell in love with ice hockey, and by around age 10 then were no kids left playing house league who could actually skate. It was basically watching kids falling down and not passing, and he’d play the same team every week. And because he was decent, people kept coming to to him and asking him to join various travel teams, and of course he wanted to. He’s 15 now, and none of the parents on his team have delusions of grandeur, but we are a family in many ways because we spend so much time together, and it’s been a lot of fun. (And I do not even drink.) But, even though the experience has been good, I still think the system is super dumb. If everyone abandoned travel, we could be having the same fun minus the travel and the expense.
But to stop the madness, all the parents would have to ban together and just stop buying in at the same time. (I’d certainly do it if everyone else did.). But of course that isn’t going to happen—for the same reason we can’t stop climate change. Once something huge gets rolling downhill, it’s very hard to stop it. Maybe it would be easier to stop it in sports where tons of kids play. But here, even with those sports, the rec leagues are pretty gutted by age 10 or so. If your kid is athletic and improves at any decent clip, you would just be watching them own kids week in and out. It’s not that you even think your kid is getting a college scholarship—it’s that the current system guts the rec leagues and almost forces you to move over.
But my kid fell in love with ice hockey, and by around age 10 then were no kids left playing house league who could actually skate. It was basically watching kids falling down and not passing, and he’d play the same team every week. And because he was decent, people kept coming to to him and asking him to join various travel teams, and of course he wanted to. He’s 15 now, and none of the parents on his team have delusions of grandeur, but we are a family in many ways because we spend so much time together, and it’s been a lot of fun. (And I do not even drink.) But, even though the experience has been good, I still think the system is super dumb. If everyone abandoned travel, we could be having the same fun minus the travel and the expense.
But to stop the madness, all the parents would have to ban together and just stop buying in at the same time. (I’d certainly do it if everyone else did.). But of course that isn’t going to happen—for the same reason we can’t stop climate change. Once something huge gets rolling downhill, it’s very hard to stop it. Maybe it would be easier to stop it in sports where tons of kids play. But here, even with those sports, the rec leagues are pretty gutted by age 10 or so. If your kid is athletic and improves at any decent clip, you would just be watching them own kids week in and out. It’s not that you even think your kid is getting a college scholarship—it’s that the current system guts the rec leagues and almost forces you to move over.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 06:47
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Both of my kids play travel soccer. We don’t do it for a random college scholarship…and have told our kids we DONT want them playing in college.
We want them to be active and something they love. If they want to quit we’re fine with that, as long as they swap it out for another sport. Rec or through school is fine.
You should work on trying to stop the rigid control you’re using once they are adults in college. I know you’ll be paying but that shouldn’t come with conditions. You probably insisted they play sports and now you want to tell them when to stop. That’s not good.
Anonymous
10/14/2025 04:43
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Thought the article raised some serious questions.
https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/blog/youth-sports-is-the-greatest-theft-in-america
IME I have seen that every other kid plays travel now..and no they are not all that and they don’t need to be playing travel.
It’s so sad how many parents force their kids into these ridiculous sports-ball lifestyles.
No sadder than parents who don’t allow sports because they believe these stupid made up articles.
Made up articles, come on, parents like thos exist, not all kids that play sports actually want to be there whether you admit it or not. And nobody said anything about saying no to sports at all. Just these all consuming sports that parents get sucked into.
+1
These sports-moms are cray-cray
Anonymous
10/13/2025 23:07
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Both of my kids play travel soccer. We don’t do it for a random college scholarship…and have told our kids we DONT want them playing in college.
We want them to be active and something they love. If they want to quit we’re fine with that, as long as they swap it out for another sport. Rec or through school is fine.
We want them to be active and something they love. If they want to quit we’re fine with that, as long as they swap it out for another sport. Rec or through school is fine.
Anonymous
10/13/2025 21:37
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
South Park has a great episode on little league. I think it sums up the state of kids sports perfectly
Anonymous
10/13/2025 21:27
Subject: Travel Youth sports scam?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why do you care op?
Why don’t YOU care? Youth sports are taking over family lives.. leading to burn out, injuries, etc. Every grown up should care.
We don’t care fool
Why wouldn't you care? These are serious problems.