The youth sports landscape has been altered by the proliferation of clubs that charge parents thousands of dollars each year, turning it into playgrounds for the privileged. "Without a doubt, soccer
has become a rich kid's sport," said longtime coach
Shane Kennedy of Mill Valley, Calif. And soccer isn't the sport that has changed. Parents will spend up to
$3,500 a year to play travel baseball and that doesn't include the showcases. Fees and travel costs at elite volleyball clubs can total $6,500. And if your club doesn't get your money?
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Rant alert!! - All that money spent over 5-10 years to chase a $20K-$50K college scholarship ... so instead of using the basketball/football model of player development - in which the best players rise to the top in their high schools and are chosen for college scholarship based on their performance and their grades - we in soccer have removed the top 10% of players from their high schools in order to pay to play club ball in order to get that scholarship. BUT, club players are chosen on their parents ability to pay and the players willingness to fit the clubs "system" ... usually at an age prior to the development of their adult physical characteristics (jumping, running, sprinting, vision). Thus we end up artificially excluding the potentially best candidates for professional teams and ultimately USMNT play ie. outside players who can sprint with the ball at speed, inside players with balance and vision, strikers and defenders with the requisite physicality, and an honest professional mentality. It's why the Clint Dempseys stand out when they accidently work their way thru the current system - we should be producing 100's of CD's rather than the rare one ... thank god for Coach Klinsmann!