What is the solution to talent dilution?

[Guest]

There is no athletic scholarship money for D3 to be clear. Financial aid yes but no scholarships.

It is definitely easier for girls to get $ with more scholarships available at more schools because of Title 9.

[Guest]

YOU DO IT FOR THE GIRLS SCHOLARSHIP MONEY. Make sure the youth club soccer program, diluted or not, that you have your daughter involved in can support her achieving a full ride college scholarship.

Make sure to pick the right level school group- NAIA, D3, D2 or D1 to get your daughters college paid for. Whether it be a mix of academic and athletic, all academic or all athletic money.

Assuming your daughter wants to play in college and you are not made of money, making sure they get a full ride makes the spend (time and money) when they are young much more palatable.

CASE IN POINT. Our daughter is higher D1 type player, our son is a mid level Premier type player. We pay for our son to play local Select level club with limited travel commitments $2500 a year. We pay ECNL for our daughter approx $12K a year this year (counts 3 showcases, playoffs, jersey kit, $40 food budget per travel day, gear). But this does not count the $$s we may spend to travel and go watch her which adds at least $3K more, plus all our money spent on gas driving to and from practices.

My guess is we spent $5K per year when she was U9 and U10 on travel tournies, club fees, gear and trainers. Then between U11-U18/U19 (she is U17 right now) we will have spent $15k per year. Grand total of spend on her soccer $130K. This is a highly conservative realistic spend calculation and is likely $10-$15K actually be more if I factor in a deep ODP journey and spending on additional training, futsal and indoor soccer.

What are the NON FINANCIAL POSITIVES of this spend? She is a strong person with greater understanding of responsibility, commitment and goal setting what with paying at a more intense level. Our family (grandparents too!) has benefited from the entertainment “fun” of supporting her. The spend has been spread over 10 years, not 4 like college. The financial piece that pencils out? Well she has verbally committed and has a 4 year all expenses covered ride to a D1 soccer program. Cost without scholarship is approx $250K plus no spend and time paying for SATs and College Application process. Whether she ever plays pro, is not a concern. The math is ending up penciling out here for us and her.

I will add, she has teammates that are going on full scholarship to D2, D3 and NAIA schools. Those families have spent just as much as we have and should be just as happy assuming their daughter is happy with their school choice. THE MATH SHOULD WORK OUR FOR THESE FAMILIES TOO.

When it doesn’t work out is when you have a player that is not good enough to get a full ride at any level or you have a player that wants to play/attend a school from which they cannot receive a full ride scholarship. We identified quickly with our son, especially considering the few full ride college scholarships out there for boys, that we need to be careful on how much we spend on him. He still plays club 8.5 months out of the year and has fun, just at a lower cost. Pencil out the long game financially and MAKE SURE the time and money you and your child are spending are going to net a win for your family.

Since full scholarships are rare even for girls (where scholarship money is much more plentiful per team and there are more teams than for boys) and other factors like injuries and luck can derail a player, from a purely ROI and risk perspective, you're probably still better off investing $15K per year in the stock market than the "scholarship market" especially in recent years when the stock market returns were approaching 15%/year (before the most recent downturn). This will probably be even more true going forward because of the uncertainty of athletic financing with football teams threatening to split-off and the revenue subsidy potentially going away, which could cause many more schools to offer less than full scholarships.

Of course, if like a house, you don't think of it from a purely ROI perspective and instead think of it as a consumption asset providing the non-financial positives you have identified, the $15K may be thought of as a great way to spend your money and totally worth it as something your kid and you enjoy (often together) and as a great way to help your kid develop good habits. The advantage of thinking of it this way is that you don't have to measure its payoff in terms of a college scholarship, especially if your child burns out and doesn't want to play anymore. I know plenty of kids who endure the sport they no longer enjoy as they get older because their parents are counting on them to get the scholarship and keep it.

[Guest]

Since full scholarships are rare even for girls (where scholarship money is much more plentiful per team and there are more teams than for boys) and other factors like injuries and luck can derail a player, from a purely ROI and risk perspective, you're probably still better off investing $15K per year in the stock market than the "scholarship market" especially in recent years when the stock market returns were approaching 15%/year (before the most recent downturn). This will probably be even more true going forward because of the uncertainty of athletic financing with football teams threatening to split-off and the revenue subsidy potentially going away, which could cause many more schools to offer less than full scholarships.

Of course, if like a house, you don't think of it from a purely ROI perspective and instead think of it as a consumption asset providing the non-financial positives you have identified, the $15K may be thought of as a great way to spend your money and totally worth it as something your kid and you enjoy (often together) and as a great way to help your kid develop good habits. The advantage of thinking of it this way is that you don't have to measure its payoff in terms of a college scholarship, especially if your child burns out and doesn't want to play anymore. I know plenty of kids who endure the sport they no longer enjoy as they get older because their parents are counting on them to get the scholarship and keep it.

Preach brother (or sister)! Besides, what if the only offer your kid gets are for schools they really don't want to attend. Who really wants to live in Ames, Iowa? :)

[Guest]

For almost every soccer family, if you took all the money you spend on traveling all over the country every year and put it in a 529 plan, your kid would have almost $200k by the time they finished HS. Play if they love, because other than that it’s a horrible investment.

[Guest]

I think the original point is that there are too many clubs & leagues to make competitive divisions, and that many meaningless games get played. Most of the problem is because of closed leagues with financial barriers built to support a specific business model. The business model is making all the decisions now, and there doesn't seem to be any clear way to undo that.

[Guest]

WPL seems to be starting a REC league now. https://wpl-soccer.com/wpl-departmen...ion/northsound

[Guest]

For almost every soccer family, if you took all the money you spend on traveling all over the country every year and put it in a 529 plan, your kid would have almost $200k by the time they finished HS. Play if they love, because other than that it’s a horrible investment.

Kids don’t payoff when you look at it in a ROI point of view. You will have a nicer car, house and retire earlier. Then you can give it all to your x wife.

[Guest]

What is the EA designation? Seems to be applied mainly to the WPL teams?

[Guest]

What is the EA designation? Seems to be applied mainly to the WPL teams?

EA is a boys league. Definitely lower than ECNL by a pretty wide margin but better than RCL or WPL.

[Guest]

EA is a boys league. Definitely lower than ECNL by a pretty wide margin but better than RCL or WPL.

why just boys?

[Guest]

Because the girls side it already completely over-saturated with ECNL, GA, DPL, etc. EA is pretty close to a GA equivalent, maybe a little bit lower, but in this area it occupies the GA/DPL space for boys.