Why Do We Still Tolerate Youth Sports Tournaments?

Youth baseball, softball and other sports - why have we adopted and stuck with the tournament format? Who decided it's the best way to compete at the youth level? Why do we continue to tolerate it, and what should we do instead?
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[altonweaver]

AMEN!!! I’m a 3 sport sports official. The damage being done to players, families and communities is OUTRAGEOUS. Tournament organizers have. “CONAN syndrome”, of raping and pillaging” the village. Paid parking ( per person!), no coolers, astronomical fees, bad fees and in a lot of cases, terrible officials. They are only about the $$$$. He is absolutely correct. Take back the game from greedy corporations !!!

[whaditizzz]

Well said I agree 100 percent local tournaments strengthen the community and all the families involved.

[tmahar]

Gate fees and no outside food or drinks too! The shiny Perfect Game merch table, Marucci and Easton selling bats, gloves, and other accessories, hotel fees, eating at restaurants, travel time, gas, and tolls. Missing work!

[ThatLoudDad-iogu]

Always love your content Dan. Succinct, useful, and not over-produced.

[Cambo]

Thank you for telling the truth about this. Sincerely. Thank you Dan

[TexasUrbanSawmillLLC]

I cannot AGREE more. Amazing post and why we created a new 12U select team in our central TX town. We have $500 player fees...2nd closest select team is $1800. We hope to embrace a lot of what you preach. Problem is, we have majoe obstacles with field access which currently disallows for the format you want and I want. All about the $$$$. I will use this as motivation but we are already pissing off a lot of these select orgs. Lets organize and bring change.

[MANTHRILLRIDE]

You nailed it. Coaching 15U & its a battle to schedule league and non-league games close to home.

[carterknowles]

problem for us was competition. Living in the northwest, we have crappy weather for softball. There are only a few teams that were worth playing. We were a high level team that would slaughter the normal local teams and would not improve our players. We had to travel to tournaments with other high level teams to get that competiton

[raydecatur]

We are fortunate in that almost all of our tournaments are less than an hour away, and we play every other weekend. We play mostly local teams. Sometimes, a team from out of town with no record will come in as AA and whip everyone. We look them up and they are AAA or Majors in the league they come from and are looking to come beat up on some AA teams.

[braviafeed]

GREAT video, Dan! You make a number of great points!

[klyles]

I live in Southern California and there are teams that still feel a need to travel out of state for a tournament. I'm like bro, we're a baseball hotbed, why you going out of state to play other Southern California teams.

[seanricker]

Totally agree. That said, we're blessed to live just north of Houston which is a tournament mecca every weekend. So for us 'travel ball' happens to be local ball. I don't understand how some of the teams we see from far away, even other texas towns, can handle that much travel.

[michaelbeatie]

We are really lucky that here in Metro Phoenix, our boy's club team plays 2 tournaments a month in town. Even those can be rough, as they're 30+ miles from home, but we are home mid afternoon and dont have to do the hotel thing. playing in games is cool, but the relationships, mental fortitude and skill are all built at practice.

[yrtepgold]

Yeah I'm with you on this. I'm okay with kids being able to play in a tournament or two but the league they play in shouldn't be "the Midwest regional League".

[dijondanish]

Our rep baseball system in Toronto, Canada, is made up of many associations or clubs that play in each other, all within 20 or fewer miles of each other. There are tiers of A, AA, and AAA, and over-15s have an elite level. We usually play 2-3 tournaments a year in Ontario. Our fees are around 2K per year, which includes 1-2 days a week indoors in the winter. Doesn't the US have anything like this?

[wereexpertstoo]

Great video. We play local tournaments (within hour drive of DC) and travel once or twice a year.

The VC money coming into this is insane, and a total scam. Check out what is happening in Lacrosse. Absolutely gross.

[mae]

I feel like everybody hates this is the model, but everyone feels they NEED to have their kid on a travel team or they'll be "left behind" due to the "better competition" at travel ball tournaments.
Just make local teams play other local teams like in high school season. No need to travel hours away or fly to Florida. Your local teams don't have to all play in-house.
Adding to the expense... teams get a new uniform (2 sets) every year. I guess the screen printed T-shirts and same gray pants we used way back when aren't good enough now. lol

[erikpaullive]

We switched teams because the new one stayed local and played in scout events on the college campuses of the local JUCOs

[BallinANDDrawin]

Luckily we play in the upstate of SC and there are tons of travel teams in our area. Usually we play 30-45 minutes away from our house.

[michaelfitting]

Great vid. Need to watch over your shoulder for the tournament mafia now though :)