Part of the soaring costs today is connected to the specialization in each youth sport. Parents see each 8u practice as essential to getting a commitment, and they start hitting lessons then instead of just having batting practice. They want the practices to resemble Olympic practices at 12u instead of practicing like the Olympians did when they were 12- which probably involved multiple sports and a much shorter softball season (I stole that from a book, "Range").

One of the few options for the middle class parents being financially squeezed is to find a good local coach at a young age, develop skills and work ethic, and then hope to make a team that will be seen by colleges at 15u or 16u- reducing the huge costs from 6-8 years to 2-3 years. I know of three players who were on B-C level teams through 14u and then joined a more visible team at 15u and are committed to mid majors, and one who waited until after 15u for 16u committed to a mid major.

But trusting that a 13u player can develop skills on a B/C team, while admitting they are not facing top competition, is scary. And frowned upon by many on this board.

Wasn't The Alliance concept supposed to help with this?

I'm not trying to get into a fight over PGF and Alliance, but when they launched I thought part of the justification was that you could play in regions for championships, in high quality tournaments with coaches in attendance, and not have to travel nationally - at least as much. And Indiana is way cheaper than California for a trip, no matter where you're coming from.

It's really too bad.

I also wish more teams would play less tournaments. Yes, you can't capture every element of the game by just practicing, but it is an option for reducing costs. But too many coaches think you need to play 40 games in the summer and fall!

The sport's attendance has ebbs and flows. It is wildly popular, and the attendance will return.

If parents don't want to play for a national travel team with aggressive travel plans, there are options for that. If you are one of these parents, use those options.