Club soccer reaching $5k a year??
- Thread starter SoccerFan4Life
- Start date
futboldad1
PREMIER
But they at least get DA or ECNL exposure and competition....plus the travel and experiences makes for some cool memories....btw none of this is advocating for crazy club fees like 5k btw....
Not_that_Serious
GOLD
Just played in a tournament with many ECNL teams in it - teams were not very good. Many of the teams are just cash cows. Very few clubs really can provide quality training that would warrant anything near $4k a year - especially if it isn’t something labeled DA or ECNL. Liverpool/Galaxy just uses the fact parents at lower flights will pay a premium to have their kids play at “higher” levels. So you’ll see a bunch of tier3 kids playing flight2 and flight1 because they’ll pay - nothing new. As long as parents chase the status and the club keeps selling the way they do (harvesting kids from rec) - they’ll keep the cash coming in.
Some of these clubs, like wannabe Liverpool, don’t run training on 10mos cycle. In fact they pretty much lock kids in by end of Dec - coaches actually reprimanded (and worse) if the rosters aren’t full going in to Jan. That means they are paid 2-3 months in advanced and money sitting in the bank. A few clubs work this way but some are more heavy-handed with employees, and manipulative, in order to make the money. Yet same clubs preach “core values”, “family” and “development” - too bad a lot of ignorant customers in the marketplace.
It's $10K now to play serious ball and Hope Solo says for some who have to travel like AZ teams it can be up to $15K. Cash cow plus side thrills for some Docs were all finding out. Pay all this money to join a freaking frat house and I'm the crazy one? Please stop already they say.....
Dirtnap
SILVER
Preach It!! Friends dd had to leave our vacation early over New Years for a tourney. the first game Saturday 7:45 am second game Saturday 7:00 pm. SMH
futboldad1
PREMIER
overall I agree with your post bro....but one thing I gots to say I hear this a lot about DA and ECNL teams, they aren't that good....it's true that several are not, but the overall standard is far higher in DA and ECNL....it's this way by design, not saying it's moral but it's a fact....and most weeks youre playing a talented and well coached opponent.....and most clubs fees for GDA and ECNL are nowhere near $4k which is why this OC Liverpool thing seems out of its mind.....overall couldn't agree more about the $$ manipulation in club soccer....but I'm currently paying for GDA for my kid as she doesn't want to play flight 2 opposition (not saying there aren't some v talented DDs still out there) which is generally what every team is at U14 and above that isn't playing GDA or ECNL....again I want to be clear that I don't love the system but it is what it is.....
SoccerFan4Life
PREMIER
The purpose of this thread was really to show how in a matter of 5 years, we have seen a huge increase in club soccer fees. The fact is that we are the customer and should demand lower fees by saying no to $4k+ a year.
I am not referring to DA or ECNL.
I’m just saying that we are allowing clubs to charge so much because we believe our kids will get better training and can move up to flight 1. This is killing the quality of the sport and the very good players from middle or lower income are getting lost in this money game. Find those clubs that are not charging so much if you have kids at flight 3/2 or even flight 1
I am not referring to DA or ECNL.
I’m just saying that we are allowing clubs to charge so much because we believe our kids will get better training and can move up to flight 1. This is killing the quality of the sport and the very good players from middle or lower income are getting lost in this money game. Find those clubs that are not charging so much if you have kids at flight 3/2 or even flight 1
It actually is... Now if you don't place value on what you're spending your money on OR you're just looking to pay a bunch of money to keep your kid active I kinda see where you're coming from. $4k/yr is $333/month (not factoring in other expenses associated with club) which is equal to a car payment.
The experience of AYSO as it created United to compete in the club environment is instructive here. EXTRAs (the next tier below) is relatively inexpensive (in our area just a few hundred for the entire year) but it relies heavily on parent volunteers. As AYSO began United, it relied on the same model, but it kept the fees low by relying on parent volunteers. Sure, this is the cream of the crop when it comes to AYSO, so the coaches generally knew what they were doing when it came to soccer (YMMV). But there were also some problems that came with it.
In our own local area it led to a lack of accountability in coaches (some bad behavior on the part of some, ranging from not taking preparing a session plan seriously, to not doing the education and meetings, to screaming at the kids and more serious stuff), an attitude obsessed with winning, or coaches just not being on the same page with a training philosophy. AYSO as a result has had to try to reign some of this stuff in and impose uniformity by professionalizing those overseeing the volunteer coaching staff (so the DOCs are no longer volunteers) and some regions going as far as paying coaches to get that accountability. As a result, costs in our local region are rising for United. Not the $4000 for club soccer but also no longer at the EXTRAs level. Costs are also kept low since United has access to the AYSO sweetheart deals for the fields, and only one tournament and State Cup are included in the cost.
So the United experience is a mixed bag: much more affordable than some other clubs, but it also comes with some negatives, and it's also not accessible for the true poor either (though richer regions like ours do provide scholarships which suppose to be need, not performance, based, though YMMV). There's one maxim that's been repeatedly true in my life: you get what you pay for....sure you can find a bargain but it takes some looking, a little luck, and they are few and far between.
As I always say, you can have your soccer accessible, developmental, or competitive (pick 2).
Soccerfan2
GOLD
What competitive level activities can you put your kid in 4 days a week for 1-2 hrs a day that cost less than that?
Are dance, baseball, volleyball, football, cheer, piano less than that? I don’t think so.
It’s up to each person to decide how much they want to spend on kid activities each month. I just don’t find soccer to be an more expensive per hour than anything else comparable.
I know, right! What a first-world problem we have here. Gotta spend few thousand dollars a year to pay some adults to let kids play sports. We all rationalize however we can to continue the cottage industry of youth sports as we bitch, moan and snivel how bad the coaching is, or that the tournaments suck or starts too early....
In our case, we have two kids that play(ed) club sports so we have helped continue the youth sports industry - guilty!
The biggest problem I have with club sports is that they monetary interest ahead of the sports. I believe when CSL was the only game in town, how they limited only 3. teams per age group per club, they forced clubs to be more selective as to who they took onto their teams. Additionally there were plenty of competition between clubs for different cost structure as well as quality of the organization. Today, we have handful of mega clubs that boasts 5, 10, 15 teams per age group, when looking at all of their locations. There is no limit to how many teams they can have for any age group - more the merrier because its more money! They have given a new definition to what an economies of scale means.
Just for the record, I understand why this has happened and, while I don't like it, it is what it is. That said, the SoCal soccer scene in particular is ripe for disruption. It just requires group of smart people to understand the true objectives of club soccer from the consumer perspective, and start a new structure.
It’s like dealing with a car dealership... you shop around for the best offer and research which one will include all the bells and whistles! But in the end you always feel like you’ve been had lol. I want a contract that stipulates no early games. early start games are BS.
My dd car was all free and with unlimited gas. Not a bad deal, right? Why would I (poor dad) walk away from free money at the #1 club in da country and a chance for her to claim her prize? Like I said in my other personalities, we only got free for a few months until I saw all the stuff and confronted the great Doc of all time. We bailed for greener pasture with JH and Legends and the story continues.....
Not_that_Serious
GOLD
What I was getting at. At some places you are training 4x a week. Places like Galaxy and other “premier” teams still train 2x a week and have skill days done by other staff or by trainers hired just to do skill training. In the 80s there were teams charging $3-4K - but were also the top travel teams. As a business you get what you can, but as mentioned, not at the expense of treating people (coaches and children) like crap
Nothing in life is free... You have to pay the piper one way or another brother!
Trust me, I know brother
I spend more on keeper gloves and keeper training than team fees as we are fortunate to find a small club that is able to keep its players. This is So Cal. You can find good coaching and competitive teams without spending 5K per year, which isn’t even that high compared to many other sports. Be happy we have tons of choice. Many other states aren’t as fortunate.
met61
GOLD
I'll take school voucher before club sports.
Freedom dividend from andrew yang gives you complete freedom how you want you spend it.
zebrafish
SILVER ELITE
I'll comment here that bashing OC Blades/Slammers/Galaxy/Liverpool has some merit (as does bashing virtually every club out there for something), but let's also take into account the cost of living in OC is way above that in many other places, and this naturally trickles down into other areas.
As an example, my kid's orthodontic quote in OC was like 3-4k out-of-pocket beyond my dental insurance. When I drive an hour and enter Riverside County, I found an orthodontist where I had to pay nothing out-of-pocket for braces-- so the cost was like double in OC. Same goes for real estate and just about everything else.
So I could probably find myself a cheap soccer team far from my home, but driving there 3-4x per week is just not feasible.
As an example, my kid's orthodontic quote in OC was like 3-4k out-of-pocket beyond my dental insurance. When I drive an hour and enter Riverside County, I found an orthodontist where I had to pay nothing out-of-pocket for braces-- so the cost was like double in OC. Same goes for real estate and just about everything else.
So I could probably find myself a cheap soccer team far from my home, but driving there 3-4x per week is just not feasible.