I just graduated two kids from high school and we told our younger son in about 9th grade we weren’t doing the elite soccer team thing. Neither me or my wife had the time and sure as hell didn’t want to spend the money. I’ve seen parent after parent pour thousands of dollars and lost weekends traveling all over the damn place supporting their progeny. But to what end? None of them are going to play professional sports. Some will get scholarships to college but I can count on two hands the kids that got into some college sports program but dropped out because it was too hard or they got injured. Let’s talk about injuries too. In this hyper competitive rich kids elite sports circles the amount of concussions and torn ACLs and broken bones is staggering. I’ve seen it first hand with my friends kids. Are these parents living vicariously through their kids? Is this just another way of showing your wealth? I’m sure all of that.

The problem with this is that professional sports teams especially football are starting to see a steep decline in talent and would be in their best interest to fund sports programs in lower income areas.