WHY US Youth Soccer is $$$$ — Transcript

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1. 0:00hey guys recently I was on the inside
2. 0:01scoop with Neil Crawford that is a youth
3. 0:04soccer podcast and I came on to talk
4. 0:07about the cost of youth soccer in this
5. 0:09country and while we've done episodes
6. 0:11like this before people are still
7. 0:13missing the boat on why soccer costs are
8. 0:16so high in the United States so let's
9. 0:21go so every so often you'll see this
10. 0:24where somebody will cause a big
11. 0:27commotion and we'll be talking about the
12. 0:29cost of youth soccer in the United
13. 0:31States and and you were quoted to saying
14. 0:33you were spending $ 10 to
15. 0:3512,000 per year per girl this payto
16. 0:38playay system is the first thing I would
17. 0:40look at it has to be said that the sport
18. 0:42is expensive we're talking soccer in
19. 0:44particular here he says very expensive
20. 0:46but here in the United States it's a
21. 0:48Suburban sport it's wide picket fence
22. 0:50it's a sports of sometimes a sports of
23. 0:52privilege now the biggest issue I have
24. 0:55is associated with the cost of some of
25. 0:58that soccer in America right now has
26. 1:00become a rich white kid sport so lots of
27. 1:03times these clips go viral and the
28. 1:06discussions are around the cost of you
29. 1:09soccer and how it's so expensive and it
30. 1:12doesn't really get into why it's
31. 1:14expensive the focus of most of these
32. 1:17discussions are on what I call Micro
33. 1:21issues Club costs field costs tournament
34. 1:25costs travel costs all of these things
35. 1:28that are important and good to have
36. 1:30discussions on but they don't get to the
37. 1:33heart of the matter is the system is set
38. 1:37up to increase costs to families let me
39. 1:40just repeat that one more time the
40. 1:43system the ecosystem that we have is set
41. 1:46up to increase the cost for parents and
42. 1:50families youth clubs operate as a
43. 1:52business we all know this this is true
44. 1:55whether you're in the United States or
45. 1:57whether you're outside internationally
46. 1:59so let's look at this from a business
47. 2:01starting in the United States youth
48. 2:03clubs really only have two income
49. 2:07streams to generate the money they need
50. 2:10to deal with the Coster on a club the
51. 2:13first is parent tuition and payments
52. 2:17that is the biggest source of Revenue
53. 2:21and the largest portion of how they get
54. 2:24the money they need to operate a much
55. 2:27smaller portion of that is in
56. 2:31sponsorships and advertisements so under
57. 2:34the United States ecosystem there are
58. 2:38only those two ways to generate income
59. 2:41streams for clubs so how does it work if
60. 2:44you had a club in another country around
61. 2:47the world so if you have a youth club in
62. 2:50another part of the world we're just
63. 2:51going to for this example say you have a
64. 2:53youth club in Europe now there are other
65. 2:58income streams available able to you
66. 3:00because of the ecosystem that exists so
67. 3:03there are you know parent payments there
68. 3:05are sponsorships and ads and and that is
69. 3:08similar to the United States what I'll
70. 3:10say about that is that typically the
71. 3:13parent payments are significantly less
72. 3:16and the advertisements are typically
73. 3:18more moreover there are other forms of
74. 3:21income so firstly would be player
75. 3:25compensation and solidarity payments and
76. 3:27while I'm not going to get too deep into
77. 3:29the woods here on that essentially what
78. 3:32it means is you receive payment you
79. 3:36receive income if that player is first
80. 3:39sold to another club but secondly if
81. 3:41that player goes on to play
82. 3:43professionally in whatever level that
83. 3:46might be so if you train that player for
84. 3:492 years 3 years somewhere in their youth
85. 3:52development you actually get
86. 3:53compensation for that throughout the
87. 3:56entirety of that player's career there's
88. 3:59also typically in most youth clubs a
89. 4:02first team so there's income generated
90. 4:05from that first team whether that be
91. 4:07ticket sales whether that be concessions
92. 4:10whether that be kits income tends to
93. 4:13come in from the first team you're also
94. 4:15developing players for the first team
95. 4:17which goes on a whole other tangent
96. 4:19about Player Development incentives when
97. 4:20it comes to the United States versus
98. 4:22other parts of the country and then
99. 4:24lastly you have membership fees so many
100. 4:28youth clubs uh they'll have they'll be
101. 4:31in a particular town or a city and
102. 4:33they'll have residents of that town or
103. 4:35city who make a very small membership
104. 4:38payment every single year so regardless
105. 4:41of whether they have a child in the club
106. 4:44they actually support the club for the
107. 4:46entirety of their life this is very
108. 4:48different from most youth clubs in
109. 4:51America where once your child is out of
110. 4:54the club you don't continue to support
111. 4:56that club financially and then lastly
112. 4:58there are many countries that actually
113. 5:01have government assistant programs that
114. 5:04fund or help support youth soccer clubs
115. 5:07and this really for the most part
116. 5:09doesn't exist in the United States in
117. 5:13summary if you understand the ecosystem
118. 5:15and how clubs are dealing with their own
119. 5:19costs how they have certain streams of
120. 5:21income and the differences between the
121. 5:23United States and other countries in the
122. 5:26world this is why the cost of soccer the
123. 5:29cost of youth soccer in the United
124. 5:31States is so high now if you're
125. 5:33wondering how a change in ecosystem
126. 5:36could affect the budget of a youth
127. 5:38sports team UEFA released a report in
128. 5:412020 that showed on average how youth
129. 5:45clubs in Europe funded itself if you
130. 5:48look at the percentages of how youth
131. 5:50clubs in Europe fund themselves you can
132. 5:53see 40% is from it says parent Club
133. 5:57funding that means it comes from the
134. 5:58club so whether that first team whether
135. 6:00that be other sources of income 40% the
136. 6:03club pays for itself 20% or so are from
137. 6:06what I talked about with the solidarity
138. 6:09uh payments and training compensation
139. 6:11only 14% of the total budget of these
140. 6:14clubs are paid by either membership fees
141. 6:17or family contributions and parent
142. 6:19payments and again one thing you have to
143. 6:20remember about that is that the
144. 6:22membership payments is often by
145. 6:25community members not even people with
146. 6:27players in the club you can see this 28
147. 6:29% here of other now that consists of
148. 6:32Municipal state grants or governmental
149. 6:34subsidies that I talked about there's
150. 6:36also uh leagues and National Association
151. 6:39grants so for example a a National
152. 6:42Association might give money to the
153. 6:44clubs and then there's also a decent
154. 6:47amount of private funding and
155. 6:48sponsorships the exact numbers for
156. 6:51parent payments in terms of percentages
157. 6:54of Youth Soccer Clubs in the United
158. 6:56States is a little bit harder to pin
159. 6:57down there's no you know National report
160. 7:00or anything but I can certainly tell you
161. 7:02I imagine it's much greater than 14% of
162. 7:05the total budget some estimates have it
163. 7:08over 90% but again an exact number is
164. 7:11harder to find so if you visually
165. 7:13extrapolate what these percentages would
166. 7:15look like in terms of a budget for a
167. 7:17club let's just assume that each player
168. 7:21for both clubs one in the United States
169. 7:23one in Europe let's say it costs them
170. 7:25from a budget standpoint $1,000 per
171. 7:27player based on the different income
172. 7:30streams and how they're able to fund
173. 7:33their Club you can see the European Club
174. 7:35only needs $140 per $1,000 for the
175. 7:39parent payment or membership whereas in
176. 7:42the United States they don't have any
177. 7:44other income streams so the vast
178. 7:46majority of the costs get put on the
179. 7:48parents the overall point here guys is
180. 7:52that when you talk about the cost of
181. 7:54Youth Soccer it's not a micro issue it's
182. 7:58the ecosystem it's the fact that these
183. 8:00clubs it's not necessarily their fault
184. 8:02they're charging these high amounts of
185. 8:04fees there's a lot of cost associated
186. 8:07with running a soccer club and if you're
187. 8:10only limited to certain income streams
188. 8:13what options do you have it is on US
189. 8:16soccer and the governing bodies to
190. 8:18create an ecosystem that decreases the
191. 8:21cost to families but there's no
192. 8:23incentive to do that and unfortunately I
193. 8:25don't think that's that's going to
194. 8:26happen but anyway I hope you like this
195. 8:28video I just wanted to clarify that
196. 8:31particular Point um if you have any
197. 8:33comments please put them in the comment
198. 8:35section uh always enjoy that uh or reach
199. 8:37out to me personally see you guys next
200. 8:39video