In May, during the Atlantic City Showcase, I got the closest I could to understanding the big-ticket conversation in youth basketball.
My primary mission traveling to Atlantic City was to track New England's top grassroots prospects and teams during the May live period. I was also tracking costs — as I've done at most events I've attended this season — to see just how quickly they can stack up.
Everyone is talking about the overwhelming financial toll to play club sports. Even college coaching staffs shell out thousands of dollars just for the opportunity to scout a handful of live-period events. Project Play's national youth sports survey estimates families of high school athletes spend roughly $1,346 per child, per year. But that figure is probably on the low end for many families. Parents have claimed they spend upwards of $10,000 — and after seeing the costs add up over a season, I understand the latter figure.
Where does the heavy burden come from? Here's what I've noticed.
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Projected budget for a weekend in Atlantic City
Without spending a cent at a casino or on the boardwalk, expect to clear $1,000 to attend the Atlantic City Showcase as a family member.
Let's pretend I'm a parent who drives Massachusetts' best-selling car (a Honda CR-V) from Boston to New Jersey and spends the weekend watching my child play. I arrive Thursday night and drive back up Sunday afternoon. Below is what I could realistically pay:
This estimate uses my actual expense reports for meals (doubled from $159.94, to include paying for a hypothetical child's meals) and hotel prices ($480.39). I calculated $92.80 in expected gas given national average gas prices and 696 round-trip driving miles from Boston. Parking cost $25 per day ($75 total for three days at the Atlantic City Convention Center) and a weekend admission pass was $85. Total projected travel expenses: $1,053.07.
It's a very conservative estimate. Not only did I find a better hotel deal in the suburbs, but I also kept all of my breakfasts to the complimentary service at the hotel, and aside for a couple of meals on the road, I stuck to the Atlantic City Convention Center concessions while in the city.
Those concessions prices included: $6 for a bottle of water, $8 for a Dunkin' iced coffee, $18 for chicken tenders and fries and $15 for a fresh salad or a turkey sandwich. But the most outlandish item that I did not pay for: WiFi, which cost $79.99 per day.
Now let's add in a third family member (spouse, sibling, etc.), and between more food and another admission wristband, that's roughly $245 tacked onto the budget. And maybe this family wants to stay closer to the Convention Center and would pay $200 per night (or much more) for a hotel instead of $160. And maybe you do really need that Wi-Fi, or your child really wants a hoodie or some merch. Suddenly, a weekend for a family of three is approaching $1,500 without even exploring Atlantic City itself.
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How does this play out over a full club season?
Atlantic City, for our New England girls basketball families, is one of the closer live-period event destinations. Manheim, Pa., is the only other one that's within probably driving distance. In July, two of the most common stops are Hamilton, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky.
A round-trip flight for one person from Boston to Louisville, between July 24 and 27, would get you to Select Events' championship weekend for $550 as of an Expedia search on July 10. To get to Cincinnati (and then Hamilton) for Under Armour Finals, you're paying about $505. Two plane tickets replacing gas mileage would bump up our estimated trip cost to roughly $1,970.
Run 4 The Roses sold spectator weekend passes for $85 in Louisville last week, and you have to pay twice to attend both the Classic and Championship portions of the showcase (a spectator weekend pass cost $55 in 2019, per this story).
I will give rare credit to Spooky Nook in Ohio. For the Select Super Showcase, event prices were significantly cheaper than the Atlantic City Showcase from what I was shown. A chicken sandwich, for example, cost only $9.25, and parking was $5 per day.
Bottom line: Though Atlantic City is on the more expensive side of destinations, it's a fair estimate for costs families should prepare for when traveling during live periods. There are four live period weekends on the girls basketball recruiting calendar, most likely two driving commutes and two flights.
Based on my rough figures, a traveling family of two should estimate about $6,000 just for live period tournaments.
What about the local ones? When I covered the New England Spring Showcase at Mass Premier in Foxboro, Mass., a day pass cost $20 and a weekend pass cost $35. Parking was free and food prices seemed reasonable. Some grassroots programs will compete in four or five of these tournaments and others will skip them entirely.
The stakes are lower with no Division 1 coaches in attendance, but they're less of a burden on the bank account.
Colleges coaches also pay — a lot
University of the Ozarks women's basketball coach Seth McDowell echoed the sentiments of many with his Twitter/X thread on Thursday. Included in his thread are frustrations with the financial demand placed on colleges.
When will we change this? Run 4 Roses is the biggest scam along with many AAU basketball events!
Travel sports are absolutely not about the kids like it used to be and should be. It’s purely about money
My rant ⬇️ with actual numbers
— Seth McDowell (@CoachMcDowell1) July 9, 2026
It's typically required that colleges pay for a roster packet as de facto admittance. At the Atlantic City Showcase, Division 1 coaches could pay $695 for a single roster packet or purchase as a bundle (up to $1,745 for four coaches). These rates decrease at lower levels; a single packet for a Div. 3 coach still cost $200.
At Run 4 the Roses in Louisville — which, again, consists of two separate two-day events — Div. 1 coaches paid $695 (Div. 3 coaches pay $150) for a single packet at a single event. The Select Midwest Summer Classic charged $795 for a packet to a Div. 1 coach. New Balance's Lady P32 circuit, obviously advertising its own event, posted this graphic as a comparison. And those group discounts don't help much in July. Most coaching staffs are scattered in as many as four different locations to evaluate, so that single-packet price is what gets purchased.
How much could a single Division 1 staff have to pony up? If they sent one coach to each of the four most prominent girls circuits this past weekend, they would have spent about $4,900 for the ability to get into a showcase and look at rosters. That's before travel, food and any other expenses we previously discussed.
Streaming takes a swipe
Don't want to travel? Want access to film of you or your child's games? Live streams have made youth basketball more available than ever — but don't expect to dodge the financial punch.
BeTheBeast is the streaming provider for most grassroots girls basketball events in the eastern U.S., and almost all of their streams cost $50 for event access.
This means that with three events typically spanning the July live periods, you'd pay roughly $150 for access to all of them. Add in the May and April live periods, and that's potentially $250 for film access to five tournaments. Keep stacking $50 for every time you want to follow a Zero Gravity, Hoop Group or Select Events stream for a local event. And spectators have shown frustration at the streaming quality.
(One small side tangent: BeTheBeast is a brand owned by LiveBarn, which is well-known as a power player in the hockey streaming world. Ascent Sports Group, owned by private equity firm GTCR, recently acquired LiveBarn for $400 million. This is probably not the first time you've heard "private equity" in a conversation about the state of youth sports, and it certainly won't be the last.)
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Most of New England's grassroots teams will make at least one stop at a GymRat tournament during the spring and summer. Based in Albany, N.Y., this event is one of the more notable non-live-period tournaments, and it emphasizes the quality of its film that college coaches can receive. For families following the GymRat Live tournament this past May, that came at a cost of $99 to purchase the live broadcast and $149 to access film after the weekend concluded. College coaches paid $325 for film access.
Lastly, let's not forget about the major shoe circuits. Adidas and Under Armour are charging $25 per day to watch live streams of their circuit play. So a full viewing of the past weekend of circuit action would be a $100 hit. Even Nike, which had long streamed its games for free, is now charging through the GameChanger platform.
A snowball effect
I threw a lot of numbers at you, so let's recap.
I project a traveling New England parent and athlete to spend at least $6,000 attending live period events around the country. Add on a couple hundred dollars for live streams or film access. Add $100-200, at minimum, to attend local tournaments and pay for gas.
We haven't even touched on the actual cost of joining an AAU program (which can range from $800 or so on the low end to well more more than $1,000), paying to attend college elite camps, travel costs for official and unofficial visits, working with a trainer, and more. Families can approach a $10,000 yearly expense fast.
While teams and families go out of their way, literally and financially, to reach major showcases and perform in front of college coaches, those college coaches are... doing the exact same thing, and taking major chunks out of their program budgets just for the opportunity to recruit.
For convenience, the system makes sense. Large-scale live period showcases gather most of the elite talent at host sites where college coaches can maximize their time recruiting. But the grassroots teams and families pay the price, quite literally, when traveling to these tournaments feels like a requirement.
Is there a better way to serve the needs of both?
