Average Cost of Travel Softball Teams?
- Thread starter Yappi
- Start date
Heavy Hitter 1
Active member
14U to 18U $1200 to $1500 Does not include travel cost to and from tournaments or hotel cost.
NewOldBlood
Well-known member
How long ago was that? That's really cheap for the upper level programs. We are paying about $1200 and we've added several families that have said that was cheaper than what the previously played.
Auggie
Well-known member
Anything decent 3-4 years ago was over $1.0K plus travel costs. Still a better deal than JO volleyball which for a national team is now pushing north of $3.0K plus travel expenses; also this level includes travel that is roughly 50% through air. When all is said and done you are looking at $5.0K-$6.0K for a teen to play a sport.
Yappi
Go Buckeyes
Went through travel baseball a few years ago and now starting to go through travel softball.
One thing that I did not like about travel baseball was the increased costs of tournaments for the older age groups. Thought it was a bit of gouging but I understood it because the size of the field was much larger and fewer facilities to handle these type of games.
For softball, that shouldn't be the case. 8U softball to 18U softball basically use the same size field. Also, there are no "super fields" to play on. There are no equivalents in softball to the Minor League parks that charge excessive fees to play baseball on their fields. Even the college baseball fields are significantly nicer than most of the college softball fields. Plenty of HS softball fields are just as nice as most college softball fields. Can't say that for baseball most of the time.
So the question becomes, what is the added expense for older softball attributed to?
One thing that I did not like about travel baseball was the increased costs of tournaments for the older age groups. Thought it was a bit of gouging but I understood it because the size of the field was much larger and fewer facilities to handle these type of games.
For softball, that shouldn't be the case. 8U softball to 18U softball basically use the same size field. Also, there are no "super fields" to play on. There are no equivalents in softball to the Minor League parks that charge excessive fees to play baseball on their fields. Even the college baseball fields are significantly nicer than most of the college softball fields. Plenty of HS softball fields are just as nice as most college softball fields. Can't say that for baseball most of the time.
So the question becomes, what is the added expense for older softball attributed to?
NewOldBlood
Well-known member
I would have thought the Lasers would be a lot higher than $600 but great for you and your daughter that it wasn't. Maybe upper level program wasn't the right terminology, but there's definitely a difference between playing for the Lasers, Hawks, Outlaws, Doom, Bandits, as opposed to a lot of other organizations. The names alone tend to draw the better players. But I agree, it's not necessarily the organization that makes it upper level but the players in that organization.
NewOldBlood
Well-known member
I think it's the "showcase" principal in softball. The tournaments that can claim to draw the most college coaches are definitely the most expensive. We've found that sometimes those claims are valid and other times not so much.
HSFB Fan
Well-known member
Travel team info on teams and coaches
https://www.fieldlevel.com/pgyweng6/softball/placements
It would be nice for a website like this for Ohio teams...
Now the west playing model would not work in Ohio and only a handful of organizations would be able to pull it off but it would help parents when looking.
https://www.fieldlevel.com/pgyweng6/softball/placements
It would be nice for a website like this for Ohio teams...
Now the west playing model would not work in Ohio and only a handful of organizations would be able to pull it off but it would help parents when looking.
Yappi
Go Buckeyes
Is there additional hidden cost to a showcase? Do they pay the coaches to be there to recruit? Or is it simply that they can charge more if the impression is that there will be coaches there?
I'm confused.
You seem to be saying that the lasers team my kid played on -- the team with 9 kids from their roster playing D1 right now -- wasn't "decent."
There isn't a team out there that's bigger than the kids on it.
Understand this.
Full stop.
It's the kids that draw the coaches.
Not the lard *** who cashes the checks.
Learn this.
Full stop.
NewOldBlood
Well-known member
Just the impression that there will be more coaches there. Been to some of these tournaments and there are coaches everywhere, been to others and you might only see a handful all weekend.
Yep [emoji35]. But, but there’s the promise of a big college scholarship if they play at my club.
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Heavy Hitter 1
Active member
Mike you have to admit your daughters team was very inexpensive compared to most high level teams. The op was asking about the cost and I would say generally team cost are $1200-$1500. There are exceptions like Mike daughters team, there are also teams out there that cost over $2000.
And I'm telling them and everyone that the "high level" teams are completely unnecessary.
100%.
My kid is playing ball with kids whose parents payed well over 20k a year for little Jr. to play in the summer.
A few of them watched her start in 30+ games this year.
Several quit and won't be playing anymore, some transferred out.
They're all going to get to where they are going and there are going to be 20 some kids on the roster instead of 11 and the people who write the lineup card don't care if your mom will bring orange slices and Capri Suns for everyone to share after the game, they don't care if grandpa will bring lemonade and popcorn for everyone, and they don't want your dad to do the book.
The wheat will fall away from the chaff.
The cream rises to the top.
One of my favorite conversations about this happened at a high school game.
My kid played with a kid whose sister played on one of those high rent teams.
Her dad was telling me how he watched Akron play Kent State on the tee vee machine and there were 4 kids who his older daughter played with on the field.
He said something like "then this one went to Findlay, that one went to Ohio U, the other one went to Toledo.... We went everywhere though. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas..."
I said so who failed geography?
"???? What do you mean????"
I said well man, you're sitting no more than 3 hours away from any of those schools. Why did you need to travel the globe to get in front of the people who work for them?
My kid played with a kid whose sister played on one of those high rent teams.
Her dad was telling me how he watched Akron play Kent State on the tee vee machine and there were 4 kids who his older daughter played with on the field.
He said something like "then this one went to Findlay, that one went to Ohio U, the other one went to Toledo.... We went everywhere though. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas..."
I said so who failed geography?
"???? What do you mean????"
I said well man, you're sitting no more than 3 hours away from any of those schools. Why did you need to travel the globe to get in front of the people who work for them?
HSFB Fan
Well-known member
It varies on what the family wants to do....Do You want to play a local schedule within 2 hours of where you live, regional schedule less than 6 hours travel or a national schedule?
Other factors to consider are: Is the team going for a A/B national or trying to compete for a ASA Gold or PGF national? Or, is the team just doing college showcase ball. 14u and above...
Is the team parent or non parent coached? NP teams are usually about $300 higher per player.
Cost can be as little as $500 a player with travel or $2000 with travel. I would say the Ohio average is around $1200
Remember; the more you pay or travel does not mean the more you get or, that your DD has more options if college scholarships are what you are playing for.
Someone mentioned the Lasers who seems to have a lot of teams only paying $600.
We had decent success playing the lasers over the years going 4-1 but it seemed to be a different team/coach each time we played them. So I would say they have like an A/B team in most age ranges for parents to choose from that have different cost. The more travel/better teams most likely cost more.
Most of the bigger organizations also have sponsors that help offset cost. We were sponsored by MIKEN and that helped reduce our cost to about $600 per player playing an 8 hour radius of Cincinnati from 12u to 18u.
Other factors to consider are: Is the team going for a A/B national or trying to compete for a ASA Gold or PGF national? Or, is the team just doing college showcase ball. 14u and above...
Is the team parent or non parent coached? NP teams are usually about $300 higher per player.
Cost can be as little as $500 a player with travel or $2000 with travel. I would say the Ohio average is around $1200
Remember; the more you pay or travel does not mean the more you get or, that your DD has more options if college scholarships are what you are playing for.
Someone mentioned the Lasers who seems to have a lot of teams only paying $600.
We had decent success playing the lasers over the years going 4-1 but it seemed to be a different team/coach each time we played them. So I would say they have like an A/B team in most age ranges for parents to choose from that have different cost. The more travel/better teams most likely cost more.
Most of the bigger organizations also have sponsors that help offset cost. We were sponsored by MIKEN and that helped reduce our cost to about $600 per player playing an 8 hour radius of Cincinnati from 12u to 18u.
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"Someone mentioned the Lasers who seems to have a lot of teams only paying $600.
We had decent success playing the lasers over the years going 4-1 but it seemed to be a different team/coach each time we played them. So I would say they have like an A/B team in most age ranges for parents to choose from that have different cost."
Lasers tend to have one team per birth year.
The coaches tend to stay on board from 9-18.
My number is 419 420 5017. Let me know how many D1 kids start as freshmen from the team your kid is playing on today.
We had decent success playing the lasers over the years going 4-1 but it seemed to be a different team/coach each time we played them. So I would say they have like an A/B team in most age ranges for parents to choose from that have different cost."
Lasers tend to have one team per birth year.
The coaches tend to stay on board from 9-18.
My number is 419 420 5017. Let me know how many D1 kids start as freshmen from the team your kid is playing on today.
HSFB Fan
Well-known member
LOL, My kids are 33 and 27 so they and the ones they played with have been away from HS, College and Travel Softball for a while... The ladies that went DI did not go to any big time school/conference. MAC and Horizon league schools. Actually some ladies that went DII and NAIA were on better teams but they all got a good education.
Just a quick check of the Lady Lasers website that is not updated ...
It looks like the Lasers do have 2 in most and in some ages 3 teams per age range.
Looking at the team sites the schedules vary from in state play to some out of state travel and at the older ages 14 and up some of their rosters have multiple birth date and grad years and that is about the norm for today's A level travel softball.
I have to believe you when you say they do not change coaches but, I know from our organization that was in existence from 2005-2015 with just 8 teams it was hard to keep coaches let alone 15 or more teams like the Lasers website shows.
Nothing is listed about cost so, I would think its based per team and what each teams schedule is level of play etc.
The Lasers organization as a whole has had a lot of success and has been around a long time same as the Ohio Hawks so, they would most likely be the best teams to look at with cost and expenses for an average A level team.
http://www.ohiohawks.com/
https://www.ohioladylasers.com/teams
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