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Tennis,swimming, gymnastics, golf....those used to be the sports that required bigbucks if you wanted to be a top level player. After the private clubs and lessons and coaches, the families where still stuck with high sanctioning and entry fees, the travel and everything that goes with it.
Softball can now be lumped in that group. Back in theday when you could pay your fees and have a team sponsorship help with uniforms and tournaments, the pure competition of playing as a team is a dinosaur.
Another thread addresses the issue of ASA Gold losing its charm? ? because the PGF has decided to use free enterprise and a huge marketing blitz ? flashing college scholarships in front of all the future Cat Osterman?s and Jessica Mendoza?s.
Lets begin with your travel team. Team fees may start at $1500.00 or more. This team may play a fall showcase? schedule (the definition of showcase is a bunch of individuals participating under the same name in order to be discovered) where winning takes a back seat to who will be seen by whom. Is this what Abner Doubleday envisioned when he put together a reason to play 9 on 9, and proclaim whoever has the most scores at the end of the nine innings will be proclaimed a winner?. But the team fees will not cover the cost of travel or hotels if you want to play in the top showcases? (that definition isthe most expensive and the events that bring in the most college coaches). Tack on another $1000.00 conservatively?
Fallpractice? Can this actually happen, or do the players just show up and the manager makes out a lineup card. Maybe a Sunday marathon workout featuring a boastful six hour workout that could have five hours of standing in line waiting for your turn? Or is that Sunday workout a friendly that will feature more games with nothing on the line and could fall under the registration clause that additional fees will be required for additional events.
Well there has to be drill time, and it will probably be as an individual with a private instructor whether it be hitting, pitching, defense, or Gilad the conditioning guru. Ok, sounds like tennis if we add the sports psychologist, and now we are at around $200.00 a week. To practice, to prepare for a team sport that isn't really a team, its a SHOWCASE TEAM.
The winterworkout schedule may or may not constitute up charge in fees to cover facilities to practice in since it is a little cold in most areas of the country to go outside. The clause kicks in, and the players are now kicking in additional money to cover the Sunday marathon again, getting the six hour workout with five hours standing in line waiting.
Now Sally and Jenny will need to attend college camps so they can be seen individually by the college coaches, especially since they received a personalized letter telling them how much the coaches want them at camp, even though they can not contact the player until their junior year which everyone who knows anything about softball knows that is way too late to get discovered in today's world of college softball. 7th grade is where you get discovered. This along with the five or six showcase events that are now being franchised around the country to bring in 100 or so individuals at on average $250.00 a pop, again a teamsport as individuals, so college coaches can discover these future Monica Abbot's. Did I mention the hotels, meals, and travel to these events?
To prepare for the showcases or college camps, back to the private workouts if you want to stay on top of your game, and now the family must decide between the electric bill, gas bill, or sending Sally to prepare - who needs light or heat.
As summer rolls in, lets repeat the fall, but add four more events and one of the 25 national championships you can qualify for if you know the tournament director or have the entry fee or have a pulse. For a nominal fee of $950.00. PGF started a Platinum division and regional tournaments that will waive all qualifications as long as you can pay your bill and stay in one of their softball tournament only accommodations for as little as $35.00 over market rate per room.
This BostonTea Party Softball Showcase room tax is now standard, as each event has a travel coordinator -they are part communist because if you are caught not staying in the rooms of choice at this nominal fee, you will be banned from all events, blacklisted, because at 100 teams, 15 rooms per teams, at two nights at $20-30 bucks per room, the TD will make - you do the math. Any wonder why these tournaments are beginning on Thursday now? And if you believe it is because we want to give the players the best opportunity to see competition and get better......
I think I have enough to get this thread rolling. My tally is anywhere between a conservative $5000.00 to half a million dollars per year.
Before you pat all of these higher ups on the back with the showcases, the PGF, the out of state organizations that are coming into Ohio to offer their services to guarantee your kid gets that scholarship because THEY REALLY CARE - and in the words of Rodney Dangerfield 'about what I don't know', they all get paid, and paid well at that.
This message was brought to you by someone who is saddened by the fact that whether people know it or not, softball is becoming an individual and an elitist sport.
Softball can now be lumped in that group. Back in theday when you could pay your fees and have a team sponsorship help with uniforms and tournaments, the pure competition of playing as a team is a dinosaur.
Another thread addresses the issue of ASA Gold losing its charm? ? because the PGF has decided to use free enterprise and a huge marketing blitz ? flashing college scholarships in front of all the future Cat Osterman?s and Jessica Mendoza?s.
Lets begin with your travel team. Team fees may start at $1500.00 or more. This team may play a fall showcase? schedule (the definition of showcase is a bunch of individuals participating under the same name in order to be discovered) where winning takes a back seat to who will be seen by whom. Is this what Abner Doubleday envisioned when he put together a reason to play 9 on 9, and proclaim whoever has the most scores at the end of the nine innings will be proclaimed a winner?. But the team fees will not cover the cost of travel or hotels if you want to play in the top showcases? (that definition isthe most expensive and the events that bring in the most college coaches). Tack on another $1000.00 conservatively?
Fallpractice? Can this actually happen, or do the players just show up and the manager makes out a lineup card. Maybe a Sunday marathon workout featuring a boastful six hour workout that could have five hours of standing in line waiting for your turn? Or is that Sunday workout a friendly that will feature more games with nothing on the line and could fall under the registration clause that additional fees will be required for additional events.
Well there has to be drill time, and it will probably be as an individual with a private instructor whether it be hitting, pitching, defense, or Gilad the conditioning guru. Ok, sounds like tennis if we add the sports psychologist, and now we are at around $200.00 a week. To practice, to prepare for a team sport that isn't really a team, its a SHOWCASE TEAM.
The winterworkout schedule may or may not constitute up charge in fees to cover facilities to practice in since it is a little cold in most areas of the country to go outside. The clause kicks in, and the players are now kicking in additional money to cover the Sunday marathon again, getting the six hour workout with five hours standing in line waiting.
Now Sally and Jenny will need to attend college camps so they can be seen individually by the college coaches, especially since they received a personalized letter telling them how much the coaches want them at camp, even though they can not contact the player until their junior year which everyone who knows anything about softball knows that is way too late to get discovered in today's world of college softball. 7th grade is where you get discovered. This along with the five or six showcase events that are now being franchised around the country to bring in 100 or so individuals at on average $250.00 a pop, again a teamsport as individuals, so college coaches can discover these future Monica Abbot's. Did I mention the hotels, meals, and travel to these events?
To prepare for the showcases or college camps, back to the private workouts if you want to stay on top of your game, and now the family must decide between the electric bill, gas bill, or sending Sally to prepare - who needs light or heat.
As summer rolls in, lets repeat the fall, but add four more events and one of the 25 national championships you can qualify for if you know the tournament director or have the entry fee or have a pulse. For a nominal fee of $950.00. PGF started a Platinum division and regional tournaments that will waive all qualifications as long as you can pay your bill and stay in one of their softball tournament only accommodations for as little as $35.00 over market rate per room.
This BostonTea Party Softball Showcase room tax is now standard, as each event has a travel coordinator -they are part communist because if you are caught not staying in the rooms of choice at this nominal fee, you will be banned from all events, blacklisted, because at 100 teams, 15 rooms per teams, at two nights at $20-30 bucks per room, the TD will make - you do the math. Any wonder why these tournaments are beginning on Thursday now? And if you believe it is because we want to give the players the best opportunity to see competition and get better......
I think I have enough to get this thread rolling. My tally is anywhere between a conservative $5000.00 to half a million dollars per year.
Before you pat all of these higher ups on the back with the showcases, the PGF, the out of state organizations that are coming into Ohio to offer their services to guarantee your kid gets that scholarship because THEY REALLY CARE - and in the words of Rodney Dangerfield 'about what I don't know', they all get paid, and paid well at that.
This message was brought to you by someone who is saddened by the fact that whether people know it or not, softball is becoming an individual and an elitist sport.