Homerboy
Lifer
- Mar 1, 2000
- 30,859
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I'll make you a deal, I'll pay for all of your kids dances for the rest of his high school years if you cover a single year of my daughters travel ball.
My oldest plays travel softball and man is that shit expensive. Bats aren't quite $500 yet in softball (not sure about baseball) but they are $300-$350 for the latest which of course she must have every year. Two $100 pairs of cleats because some tournaments don't allow metal cleats, $150 glove, $125 bag, $75 sunglasses and who knows how much in other odds and ends. Then you have the team fees, hotel costs every other weakend during the main season and every 3rdish week the rest of the year with a 6ish week break around Xmas. Then you have all of the money you spend eating while you are out of town and food/drinks at the park, gas, plate fees if they aren't included in your yearly team fee, etc. Oh yeah, there is also the private pitching coach she goes to but considering all the other costs that is pennies.
Base fees for my son: $2,200 (that's a discount of $1,500 because he's a P.O.)
We play in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Georgia. in June and July. That's literally EVERY WEEKEND in those 2 months. We live in Wisconsin and have 1 tournament here. (sadly that's pretty much our "season" here)
Then we toss in year round gym membership of (on the cheap end) $300/month (personal training)
And, as you said, toss in all the other junk and it's a ridiculous amount of money.
But, that being said, we don't do "family vacations". This is how we spend our vacation money and wouldn't have it any other way. It's entirely enjoyable and we love (nearly) every minute of it.
The good news with bats is that once they hit highschool and need to be BBCOR, the ideal situation is you get 1 bat and stick with it as it gets hotter the more you use it. There are some SUPER expensive new/used BBCOR bats on ebay because they are "classics" and much hotter than new bats.
