“The best thing about sports is the sense of community and shared emotion it can create.”
- Bob Costas
I love the community that sports builds, especially youth sports. But, even here at The Daily Onward, if I sense that there’s improvements that can be made - I want to make sure that I’m saying my peace.
On the way out of our daughter’s basketball tournament this past weekend, I saw a sandwich board asking for feedback, so… here we go.
First, the good stuff: our daughter’s team went 4–0 in their first four games of the year. They played great, had a ton of fun, learned a lot, and got all the leadership and growth you hope youth sports can provide. We’re grateful for her club, her coaches, and her teammates.
But the admission price for this tournament was $30.90. Per person. Per day.
Read that again: $30.90 to watch seventh and eighth graders play basketball. The “two-day pass” was $60, so there wasn’t even a discount for committing to the whole weekend. No kid price. No senior price. No break for grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins - anyone who wanted to show up and support these kids had to pay this full freight.
I shared this directly with the organizers, and they were great. They heard me, and told me submit feedback.
Sure, it’s about the money - I get it - and I don’t think this is all about whether a family “can” afford it. It’s about what we should normalize as the cost of showing up for our kids. Tournament fees, club fees, travel - all of that is already a meaningful investment - for any family. And, again - I understand that we decided to go this route. But, piling a $30.90 ticket charge on top of it for every single person who walks in makes youth sports less accessible and sidelines the very people who make these community experiences matter: family.
My simple suggestion: build in some humanity to these youth sports tournaments.
Youth ticket: $5
Grandparent/senior ticket: $7
Reasonable multi-day pass with an actual discount.
Organizers can still make money and run a great event while making it easier for whole families to be there, cheer, and create memories together. That’s the point, isn’t it?
No matter what, never give up on youth sports in your community … there’s too much value there and too much community building that’s so important for us all. Onward.