Club youth sports teams: Why should anybody other than parents GAF?

[Starman]

And therefore, why should we cover them?

A pertinent question as more calls and emails start to come in all hot and bothered because summer AAU basketball and 7-on-7 football isn't getting covered.

Go to any of these events, the ONLY people in the stands are parents, siblings, bfs/gfs, and coaches of opposing teams scouting.

Nobody (0) else, ever.

 

[spikechiquet]

And therefore, why should we cover them?

A pertinent question as more calls and emails start to come in all hot and bothered because summer AAU basketball and 7-on-7 football isn't getting covered.

Go to any of these events, the ONLY people in the stands are parents, siblings, bfs/gfs, and coaches of opposing teams scouting.

Nobody (0) else, ever.

I agree....but...

Aren't all those people in the stands people that could buy your paper?

 

[LongTimeListener]

Starman, where do you think the kids learn their sense of entitlement?

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Around here, 7 on 7 is all high school teams playing together so its relevant to the high school reader. There are two big tourneys here every summer and we cover them as events....more why do you do this, what do you learn spotlight pieces. We don't cover the games themselves as game stories, and we've had good feedback.

As for AAU, unless its one of the huge national tourneys that draws tons of college coaches it seems kind of pointless.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Obviously SOME people care though.

 

[vonnegutnaked2]

I'm one of those former sports journalists now, but I'm a current subscriber to a 6-day, 15K paper.

I swear the last three weeks have been nothing but youth baseball/softball. All ages. Always pictures. Always ****ty youth league coach quotes from what I've skimmed.

I've barely even glanced at the sports front the past few days. My father, who has become one of those off my lawn letter to the editor type people, just throws his arms up as a subscriber to the same paper. Talked to him the other day and his exact quote was, "does anyone give a **** about 10-year-old girls playing softball?"

Yes. Probably about 50 people care about that team.

Feel somewhat bad for the guy covering all those things because he's busting his ass traveling all over the state watching those games, but also can't help shaking my head and wondering if there's anything better out there.

I swore when I left journalism and went into teaching/coaching I'd never be "that guy" and ***** to the paper about coverage. I've politely suggested stories, but even have felt odd about that as if I was overstepping my bounds (so I'll passively ***** about it on an industry message board).

But to answer the initial question of the thread succinctly: no.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Youth baseball has been the driving force here the last few weeks. The city hosted the district tournament and will wrap up the regional tournament tomorrow.

We haven't covered every game, but it's been front and center for two weeks now.

 

[YankeeFan]

Youth baseball has been the driving force here the last few weeks. The city hosted the district tournament and will wrap up the regional tournament tomorrow.

We haven't covered every game, but it's been front and center for two weeks now.

Yeah, but do you think people give a ****?

 

[RickStain]

Nobody does besides family. But in small towns, family adds up to a pretty big percentage of your readership pretty fast.

 

[canucklehead]

Did some time at a weekly recently designing pages and failed to convince the burnout who was doing sports there that his section should be for sports fans not sports parents. He mostly wrote about youth sports and it was a waste of space.

 

[Meatie Pie]

They shouldn't.

And therefore, why should we cover them?

A pertinent question as more calls and emails start to come in all hot and bothered because summer AAU basketball and 7-on-7 football isn't getting covered.

Go to any of these events, the ONLY people in the stands are parents, siblings, bfs/gfs, and coaches of opposing teams scouting.

Nobody (0) else, ever.

I agree....but...

Aren't all those people in the stands people that could buy your paper?

That's 100 copies.

Yay!

 

[RickStain]

100 copies is a lot more than your day-old wire story about the local MLB team sells.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There's a difference between youth baseball -- which is usually Little League -- and the club sports Starman is talking about.

People can get behind Little League even if there's no connection, if it's the local league. These pre-formed travel teams that go play in a "state championship" where there's no qualification other than signing up, those are the teams he's talking about. And that's where nobody cares.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I used to have fun explaining to people that very few people cared about their little events.

"But everyone is going to be there!"

Me:"who's everyone?"

"We have 100 people or so."

Me: "Our circulation is 5,000. That means 4,900 don't care."

 

[RickStain]

I used to have fun explaining to people that very few people cared about their little events.

"But everyone is going to be there!"

Me:"who's everyone?"

"We have 100 people or so."

Me: "Our circulation is 5,000. That means 4,900 don't care."

I bet if you applied that standard consistently, you'd have a pretty empty sports section.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

I used to have fun explaining to people that very few people cared about their little events.

"But everyone is going to be there!"

Me:"who's everyone?"

"We have 100 people or so."

Me: "Our circulation is 5,000. That means 4,900 don't care."

I hope you're joking for effect.

 

[Starman]

I used to have fun explaining to people that very few people cared about their little events.

"But everyone is going to be there!"

Me:"who's everyone?"

"We have 100 people or so."

Me: "Our circulation is 5,000. That means 4,900 don't care."

"Our circulation is 5,000, but the population of our coverage area is 20,000. That means 19,900 don't care."

 

[jr/shotglass]

So somebody has to attend an event to care about the result? That's interesting.

Does anybody in this profession step back anymore and consider the fact that they're jaded after years of having this stuff pushed on them?

 

[RickStain]

So somebody has to attend an event to care about the result? That's interesting.

Does anybody in this profession step back anymore and consider the fact that they're jaded after years of having this stuff pushed on them?

A large part of their vision of the profession is based on the idea that what small-town sportswriters do is somehow "important." Like 101 of those 5000 just can't wait to read about how some swimmer overcame a broken leg.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

So somebody has to attend an event to care about the result? That's interesting.

Does anybody in this profession step back anymore and consider the fact that they're jaded after years of having this stuff pushed on them?

For something that small, yes. If you want something covered, give me a hook besides that they work hard so I can write something to make the other 4,900 care.