The ‘travel team trap’ that’s sapping parents’ time and bank accounts
The ultimate example of how big the youth sports club and travel team culture has grown in the U.S. can be found every July in Blaine, Minnesota. The Target USA Cup is a youth soccer tournament that bills itself as the largest in the Western Hemisphere. It hosts over 1,200 teams and 16,000 players from all over the world.
Club and travel teams on the rise
A recent study published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues found that participation in club and travel sports has steadily increased over generations. 4% of surveyed adults born in the ’50s participated, compared with 13% of those born in the ’90s. The Aspen Institute estimates that 17% of kids in 2024 played on club or travel teams. The trend is not slowing, and the rising costs are leaving many kids and families behind.
There are thousands of club and travel tournaments of varying sizes held each year across the country, and parents who can afford it will spend, on average, between $2,000 and $20,000 per year to take their children to those events. Chris Knoester, a sociology professor and researcher at Ohio State, is the lead author of the study. He told Straight Arrow News that marketing to parents is a big factor.
“Part of the rise in private club and youth sports right is this confluence between parenting expectations and a boom in the youth sports industry full of people who are selling services and are essentially youth sport entrepreneurs making the case that they can aid skill development and offer improved experiences,” Knoester said.
Youth sports travel comprises more than 60% of the estimated $52 billion sports tourism industry annually, according to the Sports Events and Tourism Association. Parents often spend more on travel than on equipment or registration fees for their children.
What can influence families to join?
Chris Bjork, professor of education at Vassar College and co-author of the study, told SAN that parents can easily get sucked into the “travel team trap” because they want what’s best for their kids. They follow the lead of other parents in the community.
“Sometimes that works out, but sometimes it doesn’t,” Bjork said. “The effects tend to get exacerbated because once you sign up for one of these elite programs, you discover that you’re spending a tremendous amount of time with these other parents who are all looking at things from the same perspective. So it’s kind of an echo chamber.”
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Youth sports travel accounts for more than 60% of the estimated $52 billion sports tourism industry annually, according to the Sports Events and Tourism Association.
The echo chamber can take parents and their budding star players to youth-sports meccas like Ripken Baseball. The original Ripken facility is in Aberdeen, Maryland, where MLB Hall of Famer Cal Ripken grew up. Visiting teams can be charged over $3,000 to enter a four-day tournament that showcases as many as 48 teams from around the country.
In addition to the cost of actually getting to the facility — which can cost thousands if air travel is involved — families will likely pay for multiple hotel rooms — which can cost more than $200 per night — meals, gas, tolls and activities in the area before and after each day’s games. That kind of investment for a four or five-day trip leaves many kids on the sidelines.
“Seventy percent of 10th-grade students from families with high socioeconomic status played a sport, and only 43% from low socioeconomic status families played,” Bjork said. “On top of that, all these private options, specialized coaching, training, elite teams, it gets really, really expensive, and we found that parents don’t realize how much they’re spending. The parents we spoke with who do pay between $3,000 and $30,000 a year.”
Kids feel the pressure.
If travel teams are an option, kids then find themselves under the “bright lights” and are pushed to play well against top competition.
“There’s certainly an atmosphere of pressure and even focus on every practice and every game to the extent that didn’t really exist for much of the history of youth sports, certainly,” Knoester said. “It’s become amplified as parents and children and communities invest more time and energy and awareness of what goes on in youth sports and particularly private club and travel sports.”
For some families, the cost and the scrutiny are worth it. Those trips and experiences can become cherished family memories and lead to lifelong friendships. Success on the field can also lead to more exposure and interest from college recruiters and professional scouts. But those opportunities are rare; only 2% of high school athletes will land a scholarship, according to the NCAA.
“Now, because of this huge increase in kids who are playing for a travel team, the pool (of talented kids) has increased substantially, but the kind of endpoint has remained the same,” Bjork said. “That means that a lot of families are going to get disappointed.”
Are club and travel teams necessary?
Bjork, co-author of the book “More Than Just a Game: How the Youth Sports Industry Is Changing the Way We Parent and What to Do About It,” says your kid doesn’t need to join a club or travel team unless you’re committed to helping them get a shot at that scholarship.
“Your kid can be very happy, can be very successful without playing basketball 11 months a year, four days a week,” Bjork said. “But now parents are forced to make these decisions when their kids are eight, nine, or 10 years old. And what eight-year-old knows what they’re really going to want to do when they’re 15?”
When deciding whether to join a club or travel team, Bjork and Knoester encourage parents to be mindful of outside influences that pressure them to keep up with other families. Creating balance in your kids’ lives is essential, regardless of how much money you spend.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
