Is no one else concerned, that working class kids are being priced out of youth sports?

[Dorian Breh]

its a shame.

sports arent an avenue to riches. not directly.

its a short list of athletes who would not have made it if not for investment. made it as in a multi year 7 figure contract.

mostly thats just genetics and work ethic/psychology.

what children get out of sports is learning how to work as a team. learning how to fight though the difficult times.

maybe a college scholarship. a scholarship that wont mean much if you dont go to class but could mean everything if you do.

the difference between selling burgers and selling real estate.

but were paywalling it like its a winning lottery ticket. disgusting.

 

[Goat poster]

10k holy shyt

Yeah but I mean as far as everything adding up.

They are going to Cali twice
Vegas and Arizona

If you just take those 4 games and add plane tickets, hotel, transportation, and food that's probably at least 2k for each trip.


.this is all in a less than 2 month span

For 10 and 11 year olds.


Nah, I'm good

 

[big bun]

I'd rather see this thread pop up than yet another "Tariq Nasheed" or "Divestor Says Dumb shyt on Twitter" or the daily "Seoul Gleow bashes Democrats because the Israeli Government Is Evil"

There are other things to talk about.

 

[Nero Christ]

I've been making the argument that as US public institutions are allowed to degrade and crumble, this is a side-effect of that. Parents with means have always used them to get their kids ahead but public schools use to be a legit avenue for lower income kids to develop actual skills and structure that would aid in progressing in their sport of choice, and also allowing them the opportunities to explore their talent by being the "man" on their school's team.

Public schools been under attack for decades and this is the effect of that.

 

[OneManGang]

I've been making the argument that as US public institutions are allowed to degrade and crumble, this is a side-effect of that. Parents with means have always used them to get their kids ahead but public schools use to be a legit avenue for lower income kids to develop actual skills and structure that would aid in progressing in their sport of choice, and also allowing them the opportunities to explore their talent by being the "man" on their school's team.

Public schools been under attack for decades and this is the effect of that.

Great point

 

[daboywonder2002]

Whatever happened to recruiting athletes from the hood?

Everyone can't afford AAU, private school or some high priced basketball camp. Before you had recruiters going to hoods nobody wanted to go to. Even now that's not an excuse because you can do zoom calls. Dajuan Wagner jr might be one exception. I just don't get why more recruiters don't come to...

www.thecoli.com

I made a similar post a few years ago. Glad you are mentioning other sports as well.

 

[GoldenGlove]

I think you're talking about exceptions and not the broader population of athletes.

IDK breh

The broader population of athletes that don't go pro but grew up playing a sport are still more equipped to have a career in sports/fitness.

How many coaches out there never played at least at a HS level? College level athletes can easily transition to all kinds of recreational careers and coaching.

There's physical/personal training
Instructional training for a particular sport etc
Broadcasting and analysis
Sports Agent
Marketing
Content/Media Production

All I'm saying is, if you look at it as a skill and simply supply and demand, athletes are rare, they already have experience working within a team structure and order. The mindset is transferrable to most professions.

That experience within a sport definitely matters if applied depending on the opportunities a young person has

 

[Tres Leches]

quantitative easing

 

[Marc Spector]

With prices ranging in 1000’s yearly in sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball, and tennis how are kids who come from a disadvantaged background able to join? It seems as if you don’t have undeniable top skills off the bat, or wealthy parents; then you can forget about those dreams of joining an elite sports program. The only sport that this doesn’t pertain to is football, which is odd because of all the equipment that comes with it. Youth programs in most countries don’t operate this way, so why do we do it?

I don’t really think this is a real issue and is not a new issue for a few sports.

I don’t know what you’re talking about with tennis as that has been gatekept by rich people for decades worldwide at that. Novak Djokovic, Nadal, and Roger Federer all come from money. in fact it’s in America that players of lower to middle class emerge, even before the Williams sisters became prominent.

MLB has put talent camps all over the Caribbean hence why a bulk of their players are from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico…, not exactly rich countries.

In the other thread I was one of the folks saying that the basketball phenomenon of “ rich kids running the league “ is extremely overblown. Most NBA players are from the lower to middle class what we’re seeing now is that the league is so competitive that a significant number of players have parents who were pro athletes in some capacity to have the genetics to compete (Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown come to mind as having parents who were pro athletes but not world class athletes).

I’ll give you soccer but the US does not turn out high caliber soccer players as is, well not male soccer players anyway .

It’s actually funny because you didn’t name any of the sports that are infamous for having money ceilings and have very popular professional circuits such as motorcross, golf, cycling, horse racing…

 

[Marc Spector]

In fact the numbers show that sports participation is on the rise among young people as the link below says, the pandemic has been the biggest hurdle for sports participation more than anything

More Students Are Playing High School Sports | LendingTree

The number of high schoolers who participated in school sports climbed in the 2022-23 school year, but still remained below pre-pandemic highs.

www.lendingtree.com

 

[feelosofer]

This is the reason why so many Black kids from the hood play football. The barrier for entry is the lowest (relatively speaking).

 

[The Villain]

As someone that works adjacent to youth sports, that cart been left the stables and it isnt going back.

They still have cheap Rec Ball programs and there's public school ball but outside of football, college coaches aint recruiting you if you not playing travel ball.

 

[mastermind]

Yeah part of the wider web of problems which comes with pricing out the poor. Whether it’s housing, education, or any other important need for human development the predatory and very short sighted nature of the economics we practice is creating an increasingly narrow path of opportunity for people.

For all we know, the next great minds that’ll advance our civilization are stuck in some slum with little to no chance to develop into their fullest selves. Culturally speaking, this arrangement is incredibly stagnating and makes the possibilities often advertised to us as quintessential hallmarks of American society seem like the same bullshyt products they peddle in commercials every single day.

For sure. We are fukked as a species because the wealthy have taken all these positions.

 

[Loose]

Even boxing expensive at least relatively, shyt was free at my local community center when I was young.

 

[mastermind]

Yea but it’s gotten untenable. I remember when I was hooping as a kid, in the late 90s/early 00’s, my dad would legit complain that he had to pay for the jersey and buy sneakers cause it was all provided when he was a kid. Even socks were provided.

My son is 2 and we paid $180 for him to do some rinky dink soccer shyt for toddlers that I swore I’d never waste my money on but my wife convinced us to do. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like in 5 years when he’s more serious about it.

Think about all the great bands that came out of every major city. Instruments used to be more freely available in schools and community centers.

Jimmy Jam said he stopped playing drums as a kid because he heard Prince playing it at the community center they used to goto. That center is now a police department.