Playing to Win is an Audible book by Michael Lewis, it was free with my Audible subscription.
It starts with him describing his trip into sports parent in Berkeley, CA. He describes a girls softball league set in the "Scandinavian" model. Basically, scores were not kept in public (but the league tracked winners and losers). Kids received equal PT and traded positions often so the best would be in rightfield as often as the worst. There is more, but that is a good start. His oldest daughter started playing, she was really good. But she was someone who he describes as a "cooperator" and not a "competitor". She wanted her teammates to have fun and be a part of it.
Berkeley started a travel team, she made it, and still had fun even though they always lost and often by mercy rules to teams from Republican areas (his phrasing). Eventually, they got better and won occasionally, but none of that bothered her, she loved playing. Of course, the cost and travel was horrible.
When she was trying out for an 11-year-old team, he sent his 8-year-old over to a field for the 10-year-old travel team. He thought it would just be something to keep her busy while he watched the 11-year-old tryouts. Well, the 8-year-old did great and made the team. In fact, she was one of the best. Unlike her sister, she cared a whole lot about winning. Since he had two kids on travel teams, he was asked to run the organization. He accepted. He went to U of Berkeley which had a great softball team and hired two players who were all-Americans to coach.
Suddenly he was juggling everything around making sure the teams were taken care of and of course his daughter's games/practices. And not just practices, outside team practices they had individual workouts with coaches for hitting, fielding, pitching, cardio, and weights. For example, he was writing a book about Obama and flew to/from South America on Air Force 1. When he flew into DC, Obama asked him to ride with him in the motorcade to the White House so they could talk. Lewis said no, he had to get back to Berkeley for a softball game. He said he should have realized the extent of his problem then.
The older girl dropped travel, deciding school softball was fun and what she wanted. The younger girl pretty much told him she needed even better competition than what his travel league provided and wanted to move to another travel team. And since he had never played softball, his advice wasn't particularly relevant.
Anyway, he then discusses a piece of software, called League Apps. Some guys who had played high school and college athletics thought there would be money in selling an app that would create schedules, notify parents of rainouts, track officials, etc. They started getting people interested, but they had not expected A) the number and B) the main interest was tracking player fee payments. They were amazed when a lacrosse league mentioned $3000/player. Soon, that number didn't seem high. But at the beginning, it was overwhelming to them. They knew they had a hot app on their hands, but they needed more money. To get that money, they hired people to survey youth sports leagues. They discovered 30,000 leagues/travel teams in America.
They became aware of the huge business. Travel teams tend to start at $2000/season. Many volleyball travel teams charge $6500/season, and there are 3 seasons. Of course, parents have to buy athletic gear, travel, hotel expenses, and then on top of that, an entry fee to attend. As he points out, by the time all the rest is spent another $15 is nothing.
The software creators his a problem, venture capital didn't realize yet the scope. People wouldn't even listen. They soon asked people if they had kids in youth sports, and wouldn't even bother pitching to anyone that didn't. It seemed around 2012 that no one was aware of how much money was being spent on youth sports. All us older people remember our youth.
TD Ameritrade just happened to do a survey on youth sports parents circa 2014. 77% of sports parents said youth sports were affecting their family's financial health. 60% said it was impacting the amount they save for retirement, and 25% had taken on credit card or loan debt. An economist said youth sports accounted for 10.5% of all household income. Sports tourism was seen as not only recession-proof but even capable of making more in depressions than other times as places hosting games would give discounts in a recession allowing the travel team to charge more.
Soccer and softball are inefficient, too much space is needed. Volleyball allowed huge arenas filled in cities with expensive hotels. Boys' volleyball was less efficient, parents tended to send boys off with a minimum of chaperones. Girls' volleyball meant more hotel rooms, more meals at restaurants, and more gate receipts.
A Dallas furniture magnate sold his furniture business and began volleyball events. They would attract 40,000 players to tournaments, making $1,000,000 in gate fees per day.
And of course he gets into people seeing it as an investment in college (though he also says the one thing he has learned from women's college softball players is that college isn't really what they are doing. They are athletes who have to attend a few classes*)
I don't know if the "Scandinavian" model works, but I also don't think this "youth sports to suck parents dry" model is good. I haven't finished the book, but the numbers on savings/debt just screamed out to me when I got to that section. It took the feeling of, "yep, we've been there/done that" to "holy crap, I thought we paid a lot for youth sports 20 years ago".
* I have a friend who had a niece pitch for Oklahoma State. A bunch of players of one major missed practice because they had a mandatory test. He says the coach yelled at the team, they weren't being given the scholarship to take a test. They were there to play softball and had to get their priorities straight. I bet that happens more than we would like to admit.
But as he said early on, watching your kid play is more impactful than watching all your favorite teams play at the same time. We are addicted to it. Maybe Scandinavia (which I do question) is a better route.
It starts with him describing his trip into sports parent in Berkeley, CA. He describes a girls softball league set in the "Scandinavian" model. Basically, scores were not kept in public (but the league tracked winners and losers). Kids received equal PT and traded positions often so the best would be in rightfield as often as the worst. There is more, but that is a good start. His oldest daughter started playing, she was really good. But she was someone who he describes as a "cooperator" and not a "competitor". She wanted her teammates to have fun and be a part of it.
Berkeley started a travel team, she made it, and still had fun even though they always lost and often by mercy rules to teams from Republican areas (his phrasing). Eventually, they got better and won occasionally, but none of that bothered her, she loved playing. Of course, the cost and travel was horrible.
When she was trying out for an 11-year-old team, he sent his 8-year-old over to a field for the 10-year-old travel team. He thought it would just be something to keep her busy while he watched the 11-year-old tryouts. Well, the 8-year-old did great and made the team. In fact, she was one of the best. Unlike her sister, she cared a whole lot about winning. Since he had two kids on travel teams, he was asked to run the organization. He accepted. He went to U of Berkeley which had a great softball team and hired two players who were all-Americans to coach.
Suddenly he was juggling everything around making sure the teams were taken care of and of course his daughter's games/practices. And not just practices, outside team practices they had individual workouts with coaches for hitting, fielding, pitching, cardio, and weights. For example, he was writing a book about Obama and flew to/from South America on Air Force 1. When he flew into DC, Obama asked him to ride with him in the motorcade to the White House so they could talk. Lewis said no, he had to get back to Berkeley for a softball game. He said he should have realized the extent of his problem then.
The older girl dropped travel, deciding school softball was fun and what she wanted. The younger girl pretty much told him she needed even better competition than what his travel league provided and wanted to move to another travel team. And since he had never played softball, his advice wasn't particularly relevant.
Anyway, he then discusses a piece of software, called League Apps. Some guys who had played high school and college athletics thought there would be money in selling an app that would create schedules, notify parents of rainouts, track officials, etc. They started getting people interested, but they had not expected A) the number and B) the main interest was tracking player fee payments. They were amazed when a lacrosse league mentioned $3000/player. Soon, that number didn't seem high. But at the beginning, it was overwhelming to them. They knew they had a hot app on their hands, but they needed more money. To get that money, they hired people to survey youth sports leagues. They discovered 30,000 leagues/travel teams in America.
They became aware of the huge business. Travel teams tend to start at $2000/season. Many volleyball travel teams charge $6500/season, and there are 3 seasons. Of course, parents have to buy athletic gear, travel, hotel expenses, and then on top of that, an entry fee to attend. As he points out, by the time all the rest is spent another $15 is nothing.
The software creators his a problem, venture capital didn't realize yet the scope. People wouldn't even listen. They soon asked people if they had kids in youth sports, and wouldn't even bother pitching to anyone that didn't. It seemed around 2012 that no one was aware of how much money was being spent on youth sports. All us older people remember our youth.
TD Ameritrade just happened to do a survey on youth sports parents circa 2014. 77% of sports parents said youth sports were affecting their family's financial health. 60% said it was impacting the amount they save for retirement, and 25% had taken on credit card or loan debt. An economist said youth sports accounted for 10.5% of all household income. Sports tourism was seen as not only recession-proof but even capable of making more in depressions than other times as places hosting games would give discounts in a recession allowing the travel team to charge more.
Soccer and softball are inefficient, too much space is needed. Volleyball allowed huge arenas filled in cities with expensive hotels. Boys' volleyball was less efficient, parents tended to send boys off with a minimum of chaperones. Girls' volleyball meant more hotel rooms, more meals at restaurants, and more gate receipts.
A Dallas furniture magnate sold his furniture business and began volleyball events. They would attract 40,000 players to tournaments, making $1,000,000 in gate fees per day.
And of course he gets into people seeing it as an investment in college (though he also says the one thing he has learned from women's college softball players is that college isn't really what they are doing. They are athletes who have to attend a few classes*)
I don't know if the "Scandinavian" model works, but I also don't think this "youth sports to suck parents dry" model is good. I haven't finished the book, but the numbers on savings/debt just screamed out to me when I got to that section. It took the feeling of, "yep, we've been there/done that" to "holy crap, I thought we paid a lot for youth sports 20 years ago".
* I have a friend who had a niece pitch for Oklahoma State. A bunch of players of one major missed practice because they had a mandatory test. He says the coach yelled at the team, they weren't being given the scholarship to take a test. They were there to play softball and had to get their priorities straight. I bet that happens more than we would like to admit.
But as he said early on, watching your kid play is more impactful than watching all your favorite teams play at the same time. We are addicted to it. Maybe Scandinavia (which I do question) is a better route.
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