Daddy Gurl
Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2016
- Messages
- 77
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 8
What’s the benefit of having so many teams under 1 organization name?
The head of the Org. makes more money that way.
Yep....at the end of the day, it's all business. Some are scaled larger than others. People assume that all these orgs. are non profit, but that isn't the case. I know the head of my DD's Ohio based org. takes a cut from each player's fees.Take a look at some of these numbers...
https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/firecrackers-softball-staggering-numbers.25880/
When I see Organization Names from other States trying to break in the Ohio market with their brand and you look behind the numbers franchise fee per player...
T
Another change is lot of organizations seem to be going away from the birth year specific teams because there is not a lot of odd year age tournaments and second you can build a stronger team with the best talent at a combined even age year. 10U-12U-14U-16U-18U.
Another change is lot of organizations seem to be going away from the birth year specific teams because there is not a lot of odd year age tournaments and second you can build a stronger team with the best talent at a combined even age year. 10U-12U-14U-16U-18U.
While I have seen a few teams out there with an even mix, this still seems to be the exception and not the rule from my observations. Most teams I see are still predominantly birth year based, with maybe a couple of "off year" (usually younger) kids thrown in. It really doesn't make any sense if you have a team where half of the kids need to move up the next year, and the other half can (and want to) stay down. Maybe the mixed age teams is a thing with orgs. that don't do much for college recruiting? Also, I have never seen an odd year age specific tournament. If you're playing at 16U, your '02 team and '03 team play in the same tourney.
I wasn't around in 2000, so I can't speak for what was going on back then. No doubt in my mind that the sport has changed, evolved, progressed, (or whatever term you want to use) very much since then. Like any business model, you have to keep up with the times and provide what the customer wants, or you will wither on the vine.When we played there was more options for odd year/age specific teams and they were "true" age specific teams. Generally teams now need 2 to 4 players to field a team that may be older or, younger than the core of the team.
In the early 2000s USSSA was big with odd year events and World Series however most of the USSSA parks around SW Ohio are gone. Most TDs no longer even bother with separating odd year teams and just lump them all together 10-12-14-16-18. Occasionally; you will see B level event for the odd year teams or weaker even year teams but these too are rare. That is why there really is not many true birth year specific teams around.
Now a days you find around SW Ohio, Indiana and KY most organizations have dropped or "greatly reduced" the number of odd year teams and stay to trying to field competitive 10-12-14-16-18 teams.
Stingrays, Lasers, and a hand full of other larger organizations around the state still try to field age specific teams but honestly I think the Lasers are at like 20 teams and the Stingrays 10 or more so I doubt they have all true age year specif teams.
Having that many teams makes it tough to field competitive teams at each age group while keeping the same birth years and keep coaching but, like in another thread it does bring in the $ for the organization.
Ohio Outlaws is an organization that labels the teams all even and they too have quite a bit of teams at each age range some with a birth year designation.
In the holy grail of Ohio Softball tournaments Stingrays it looks like they had a very good showing winning 4 of 7 divisions. When looking at the Outlaw website most teams had 2/3 grad years some teams had 4 grad years 2020-2023.
That is a wide range of ages and the area they come from is unbelievable: MI,OH,PA, IN,KY,WV that is amazing talent draw. When we played out west back in 2009/2010 that is how a lot of the 16/18U teams were assembled.
As far as collage recruiting, that starts with players talent and being on teams with coaches that can guide players/parents more so, than a lady just being on a team with her own age group/birth year.
If you look at the tryout section just about every team (birth year or non birth year) is looking for talent. If you limit your looks to a specific birth year you make the search much harder so, I would guess the 9U 11U 13U 15U teams looking will take the best player available regardless of birth year.
I honestly don't see anything wrong with say, the Batbusters or Firecrackers for example, coming to Ohio. It gives the kids here more options, and I feel options are a good thing. There is a point about watering down the name though. I was talking to a college coach about that very subject, and their reply was something like "If I have to keep asking kids where their Firecracker's team is from, then I start to lose interest". Take that for what it's worth, but at least people have heard of the that team vs. "Ohio Xtreme Commotion '04 Purple Platinum Premier-Smith".When organizations from Cali and Texas show up in Ohio makes me wonder. Coaches not good enough for one of our top organizations here? Burn some bridges? Ego trip? That name does nothing here in my opinion. Just another product that help water-down the talent.
If each sanctioning body would put a limit on how many teams can register from the state that would help clean up an organization popping up over night or an organization having 6 team in one age division but that will never happen because it comes down to Money. And we all know Money makes the world go round.
I honestly don't see anything wrong with say, the Batbusters or Firecrackers for example, coming to Ohio. It gives the kids here more options, and I feel options are a good thing. There is a point about watering down the name though. I was talking to a college coach about that very subject, and their reply was something like "If I have to keep asking kids where their Firecracker's team is from, then I start to lose interest". Take that for what it's worth, but at least people have heard of the that team vs. "Ohio Xtreme Commotion '04 Purple Platinum Premier-Smith".
The topic of Ohio softball being watered down comes up quite often on here, and it is interesting to read people's thoughts on the matter. When you see a whole page of posts in the tryout section posting "Looking for 3-4 more to fill out our talented roster", then yes I agree that is a problem. There is also the opinion that there are too many teams, and because of this the talented players are spread thin over teams that aren't as good as they should be. I don't subscribe to that for quite a few reasons, which I wrote about in a thread on here awhile back so I won't rehash it at this point.I agree with most of this. My only issue with travel ball today is its way to watered down. New teams pop up everyday. Organizations from out West coming here doesn’t help the situation. Heck we all got to see first hand what happened last fall when an organization from Cali tried to start up an 05 team here. It folded within 2 months. Some people worry more about status and keeping up with the Jones’ rather than building what we already have here in this wonderful state. It’s just a name. Why give our money to someone out west that isn’t here to oversee and make sure the organization is ran like it is out there. If an ohio organization tried to charge a team fee then a monthly fee to their players every month for our kids to wear the logo the organization would get bashed and probably have to close up shop.
Sorry I got way off topic on this rant. But this is a great conversation and I hope it continues.
Well i do want to put something to rest my dd plays for a firecrackers team and none of this is true our fees are 1500 includes everything !
2 fall jerseys 2 summer jerseys pants socks bags helmets tournaments fall and winter and summer no hidden fees nothing no individual kid monthly payment
my dd was on multiple top organizations in ohio and the fees are in par with everyone else but here is what they get also
we get offers from other firecrackers teams all around the country if they need players they email us and we can send players all over the country for no extra fees
so our players even if we dont go to Surf city or Colorado as a team can still have that opportunity as a player ...
and i see your from bo jackson how many times is BO JACKSON actually at practice or a game just saying maybe he is there i dont know so i would just make assumptions
and didnt bo jackson elite start in 2016 ????? and isnt there multiple bo jackson facilitys in other states... sorry to poor it on passion i dont know anything about
bo jackson elite softball just assuming
I can think of some reasons. The name brings the talent. Having the talent brings the record. Those, along with most importantly, the organizational support, will open doors for the players that Ohio orgs can't provide.Example if I am coaching a team Texas Midwest Glory or whatever it’s called why would I want to represent that name when we are actually an Ohio team
I can think of some reasons. The name brings the talent. Having the talent brings the record. Those, along with most importantly, the organizational support, will open doors for the players that Ohio orgs can't provide.
From the parent/player view, lets just assume that for the sake of argument my DD is talented enough to play in the Pac 12. She wants to play for the Cal Bears because dad graduated from there. If she is on a successful Firecracker's team, and has the recruiting support from the head of the org, that would be her best path to get there. That school won't look at a kid wearing a no name Ohio uniform. That's why the Ohio kids with big college aspirations wear uniforms from out of state Org's.