It's kind of haunting commentary about the world that Wendover videos have slowly shifted from "cool information" to "here's this thing that's messed up behind the scenes" over the years
America's favorite past time isn't any sport. It's earning money. So how sports are being treated in the US is totally consistent with the world view that earning money is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING ONE CAN DO. Flat out, not hyperbole, I'm not exaggerating. America destroying youth sports is 100% in line with increasing shareholder value at any cost, no matter the consequences.
Clicked on the video 3 minutes after it was posted and there's already a dozen comment identical to the one I was going to leave, that "private equity ruined [blank]" is a whole series unto itself.
I feel a revolution a'comin.
Nah, College isn't the whole reason why American pro leagues don't invest in youth sports (although it doesn't help). Its because there's no incentive by for the individual teams that control the leagues' pocketbooks thanks to all four of the USA/Canada leagues having an Amateur Draft.
You can tell this because MLB teams do invest pretty heavily in youth development in Latin America, since those players don't go into the amateur draft and can be signed directly by teams at comparatively young ages, and that they used to do that in Puerto Rico, riiiiight up until the point where Puerto Rico got added to the MLB draft.
nothing worse than youth sports being monetized this hard. i remember playing football as a kid and it was like a 20$ entry fee and you had to get your shoes. lol
As a Swede this is completely insane to me. Over here, sports are run by non-profit sports clubs, which are owned by their members and organized in federations, which are themselves non-profit. Clubs should be working to make their sport as accessible as possible. I cannot imagine competing for a club that's owned by someone else. It's just wrong and exploitative.
Holy cow, this is crazy, finally a Wendover on a topic I know about! I’m a USAV referee and I’ve worked a few of these qualifiers. They’re everything Sam says they are.
‘How private equity ruined’ is going to be the new ‘logistics of’ for this channel. Limitless stories to tell
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I feel a revolution a'comin.
You can tell this because MLB teams do invest pretty heavily in youth development in Latin America, since those players don't go into the amateur draft and can be signed directly by teams at comparatively young ages, and that they used to do that in Puerto Rico, riiiiight up until the point where Puerto Rico got added to the MLB draft.