Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with unicorns from sports business and their unique stories, dreams, ideas, insights, innovations, flops and career paths. Get a unique perspective of the inner workings of jobs working in sports beyond just pro sports leagues. Hosted by 30-year sports business veteran Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and CEO of Bat Around.
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20. Youth Sports is Becoming Crazy Town, with Ally Tucker, Host of Youth $ports Podcast
Episode 20 of the Farrell Sports Business podcast - Host Matt Farrell talks with Ally Tucker, host of the Youth Sports podcast (known as the Youth $ports Podcast), discusses the financial and emotional challenges of youth sports. She shares her background in sports and coaching, as well as her motivation for starting the podcast. The main themes of the conversation include the high costs of youth sports, the pressure to keep up with other families, the impact on family dynamics, and the obsession with winning and championships. Tucker also discusses the negative effects of social media on youth sports and the parent-child relationship. She emphasizes the need for more accessible and affordable options for kids to participate in sports.
Farrell Sports Business (00:00)
On this week's Farrell Sports Business Podcast, we're going to dive into the world of youth sports. In one of my past episodes, we talked about youth sports travel and sports travel generally being a $52 billion industry. But we're going to go to the other side of this, down to the local grassroots level, how kids get involved, what parent involvement in youth sports is like, some of the issues that may be even coming out of youth sports.
we're going to talk to a fascinating guest who hosts the youth sports podcast. It's available at all podcast places and really get into the mindset of parents and kids and families on the state of youth sports. If you like this podcast, please give it a five star review. If you're watching on YouTube, subscribe and follow also post clips on Tik TOK and Instagram reels for Farrell sports.
In this week's episode, the guest is Ally Tucker, the host of the youth sports podcast.
Farrell Sports Business (01:19)
Ally I'm so glad you're here.
Ally Tucker (01:21)
Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be on this side of the podcast interview.
Farrell Sports Business (01:26)
yeah. We'll see if it lives up to your lofty expectations, but you know, your podcast youth sports, podcasts really caught my eye. I found it through Tik TOK first. And, but we'll talk about some of that, but you're just diving into such a really fascinating topic. That's really resonating with people, but let's take a quick step back.
What's your background, sports you played, what are you doing now professionally in addition to the podcast?
Ally Tucker (01:58)
Yeah, so just to kind of take it back, I grew up playing sports. My dad was actually a seven -time state champion girls soccer coach in the state of Kentucky. just grew up kind of in his, you know, just his little shadow following him around the field. Was always around soccer. I was a classic multi -sport athlete. So I did soccer, basketball and swim team, and then stuck with soccer all the way through college.
And then almost as soon as my playing career was over, I just couldn't stay away from it. So I jumped right into coaching, kind of started at the bottom, just a goalie coach, like fourth assistant on the totem pole and kind of worked my way up. so I've been coaching soccer for, I guess, probably 14, 15 years now at both the club and high school level. And then professionally, I'm a special education teacher.
and I teach high school. So that's kind of my background with sports and professionally.
Farrell Sports Business (03:01)
So based in Louisville, Kentucky, have you been there, you know, childhood or more adult life?
Ally Tucker (03:03)
Mm
Yeah, so I grew up around here and then went to college at Transylvania University, which is a Division III school in Lexington, Kentucky. And that's where I played soccer for four years. Loved my experience there, a very expensive experience. Might have some regrets about that. That could be a whole nother episode. But yeah, so then I coached there for about a decade and then recently moved back here to be closer to family.
Farrell Sports Business (03:35)
So we're going to dive into all kinds of things about your podcast and about youth sports in, general, but I just maybe as a starting point, what was the tipping point on I want to start this podcast and why now?
Ally Tucker (03:52)
Yeah, well, my friends are all at the age, I don't have children, but my friends are all at that age where they either have children that are starting to play sports or they're already in the midst of it. So of course on social media, I see all the posts all the time, know, traveling every weekend, winning these, you know, big old rings at the age of seven years old at T -ball, you know, the cryptic posts about
playing time and all of that, I see it all. But the bigger thing that I wonder is I'm looking at all these posts is I don't understand how my friends afford their kids sports. That was really kind of the initial thought that I had. And every now and then I like to get on Facebook and just kind of like, you know, share my thoughts on something like that because it's interesting to see what people think. And so I just kind of basically put like, I don't know how people.
can afford this and I think that sports are such a great wonderful thing. It's been such a huge part of my life and I was kind of thinking about, know, if I am going to have kids someday, life is already expensive enough. So that was kind of the basis for that post and then I've never posted anything on Facebook that has gotten as much traction and comments and most of it was people saying, it's crazy. Like we're struggling to do this. It's out of control.
It feels like there's no other option. so someone jokingly, think on there said, you should do a podcast about this. And I've always, I used to, I used to write for a sports blog, kind of in my younger, like post college days, was called Kentucky sports radio. It's one of the biggest, college sports affiliates and really in the country. so this was a way for me to number one, use kind of my experience and knowledge of.
sports and youth sports, but also kind of scratch that creative itch, I guess.
Farrell Sports Business (05:56)
I'm only laughing at Ally because we we've just recently met but we're wired very similarly where I've got to be creating something at all times. So we're our podcast careers are fairly a bit of a mirror image. But, you know, a previous guest on one of my podcasts came from Sports Travel magazine, and they estimated that really sports travel
people getting on planes, staying in hotels is a $52 billion industry, which is a mind blowing number, but you're seeing it firsthand of how much they're spending. And it sounds like that was a real inspiration point.
Ally Tucker (06:42)
It was, and I kind of see it from a couple different angles. You know, as a coach of, you I coached pretty high level club soccer. You know, at the age, it was kids that were 16, 17 years old. So they were hoping to get recruited at that age. So they're going to all of the tournaments all over the place, you know, with the hopes that someone's going to see them and given that, you know, elusive scholarship, right? So.
I kind of know how much these clubs and organizations are asking and requiring of the parents. So I've seen that side. And then now I get to see the side of, now I hear the parents because they're my friends and they're going through this and kind of talking about just how crazy that gets. So I guess it's a little bit of a unique perspective on the financial side that I've seen what's being asked and now I'm...
I almost feel guilty for being a part of that system for so many years of asking parents to do these things and not thinking twice about it because that's just what everybody was doing.
Farrell Sports Business (07:45)
So as you're, you know, 12 episodes into your own podcast, know, a decade or more coaching, you know, it's a general question. and it may be hard to summarize, but what are the general themes of issues that you're seeing? I know you've covered travel teams and costs and behavior toward referees. What are the major buckets that you're saying?
Ally Tucker (08:14)
Wow, that's a great question. And also I think part of the thing with this podcast is I kind of went into it with initial idea of some directions I wanted to go. And as soon as I opened Pandora's box, was like, there are so many themes and angles and stories. But I think the big one is I kind of call it like the youth sports machine. And it's this constant, once you get in it,
in order to kind of keep up with the Joneses, to kind of keep up, not fall behind. There's this fear of missing out that I see a lot of as well. And so it's like, once you get in it, it's really hard not to get caught up in it because everyone else is doing it. And so if you're gonna pay this money and be part of it and give your time, your energy, your effort, you don't wanna be doing less than other people and therefore, you know, kind of wasting that time, that money.
So I think the machine, the fear of missing out and the pressure that people feel, and I'm not even always sure where the pressure is coming from. It seems like it's coming from so many different angles that at some point we have to kind of look at ourselves and be like, is this self -created or is this actually coming from other places? I think one of the other themes that has come up a lot is kind of the impact on
families, family dynamics, just how the family is revolving around kids and their sports. And is that really healthy and kind of who's losing out in that situation, who's sacrificing and maybe not even realizing how much they're sacrificing until they're on the other side of it. You know, I've interviewed a lot of parents who they're kind of looking back now.
in hindsight it's 2020, but they're looking back and they're just saying, man, was it really worth it? Should we have done all of this? At the time it felt like we had to, it felt right. But now that we've got some perspective, doesn't feel the same way.
Farrell Sports Business (10:26)
Yeah, sometimes it's once you, you have to almost get out of the hamster wheel to be able to see what you were on. You and one, you and one of your guests in one of your podcasts made a really interesting observation in my mind. And, it kind of hit home because you're like youth sports is almost like a multi -level marketing or pyramid scheme. What did you mean by that?
Ally Tucker (10:52)
Yeah, actually, I really came on here to try to sell you my eye care routine. That's really what this whole thing is. For just $5 a month, no. Well, it's funny because someone said it and they kind of mentioned it offhand and then it just developed in my mind. I kind of consider it like, so in your multi -level marketing scheme or your pyramid scheme, whatever you want to call it,
Farrell Sports Business (10:57)
the
Ally Tucker (11:19)
you know, the whole thing is you can convince people that, if you do this, you will be in the top 5%. Easy, right? You'll be in the top 5%. And if you hit all these goals, then you'll get the free vacation. You'll get the, you know, extra income to do all these things, right? It sounds great. But the reality is in anything, if there's a 5%, there's a 95%. And you're much more likely to fall into that category. So I kind of think of...
youth sports, travel sports the same way. It's like these organizations, these clubs, it's self -serving for them. I mean, they want to look good. They want to get customers as I, you know, they're, they're players, their families, or they're paying customers. And so it's like, Hey, if you buy into our club, all this travel, this system, you'll be in the 5%. And in this case, the 5 % is like that college scholarship. And again, the reality is, yeah, there are some
athletes who go through and there's this happy ending of, you know, college scholarship, you get to keep playing, all those things, but the vast majority of kids don't still play after high school and maybe don't even play into high school.
Farrell Sports Business (12:32)
Yeah. Does that another great phrase that I thought you used was the concept of, of parent goggles. And does that tie in to almost exactly what you just said?
Ally Tucker (12:46)
Yeah, mean, unfortunately, I think it's a really easy target. Parents are a really easy target, and I don't think it's even their fault half the time. think they're being sold something that sounds really good, but I also think sometimes even when you're honest with parents, they don't want to hear it, or they'll still create some version of what you're telling them that gives them hope. So I've had kids on teams that I've coached who
They will go and they will spend all this money to go to an ID camp for, coach girl soccer. So they'll go to this ID camp at University of North Carolina, top 20 program, won tons of national championships. And it might be a player who's like player 15 or 16 on, you know, our kind of mid -level club team. And it's just, I can tell them that you're wasting your money. You know, this, this is not reality, but in their mind, they're like, well, well, maybe you're wrong.
maybe there's a chance. And so I think that parents want to believe that, hey, you my kid, my kid's special. And to you, they are. Like, of course your kid's special. I'm not telling parents they shouldn't love, adore their children, but you also have to consider that there are 18 other kids on the team and all of their parents feel the same way about their kid. And at some point, they're not all the same. They're not all great, you know?
Farrell Sports Business (14:11)
So I hate to ask you to single out sports, I'm going to, Ally. I mean, if you watch social media, if you watch the news, I think if you're a baseball or a softball parent, you think that culture is crazy town. If you're in soccer, you think the same, or football, or wrestling, or whatever it might be. Are you seeing sports that you just look at and go,
Ally Tucker (14:15)
Okay.
Farrell Sports Business (14:40)
Wow, that's really getting out of whack.
Ally Tucker (14:44)
Man, I think if anything, maybe this podcast has actually shown me that they all have their own street or avenue of crazy, you know? So maybe not exactly the same level, but it's similar themes across the board in sports where, you know, early specialization, you know, kind of getting too serious, too fast.
Farrell Sports Business (14:57)
Yeah.
Ally Tucker (15:14)
getting into the travel scene really heavy into that, the, the, the cost of all of that. But if, if you really like, we're like, Hey, you have to say one. I haven't talked to anyone from this industry yet, but it's on my like wishlist and that's gotta be like the, dance, the dance industry. think that if you get really serious into that, I think it can be, can be pretty crazy. You know, there's, there's just, I think.
Farrell Sports Business (15:33)
Yeah.
Ally Tucker (15:40)
It's probably a smaller percentage that get into it that heavily. The other one would, still have to go baseball. And maybe it's just because I hate those big fat stupid rings so much that I just can't look past it. And kind of the whole little league world series thing. just, think those two sports in particular, it seems like they have the most divisions where you can have a champion.
Farrell Sports Business (15:56)
Yes.
Ally Tucker (16:10)
They've kind of figured out that, hey, you know what's really smart is we're going to hold national championships all across the country. And really no one's actually the national champion. All these teams go to these tournaments and they don't really care that there's 30 other tournaments doing the same thing. All they care about is that they get to say, my kid's a national championship. Take the picture, put it on Facebook.
here we go. So I think those two sports tend to kind of have that. I see that trend a lot.
Farrell Sports Business (16:47)
Any sports or organizations that you see that maybe the light bulb is going off a little bit more and say, you know what, maybe they haven't completely solved it, but they're taking steps in the right direction.
I didn't mean for that to be a stumper, Ally.
Ally Tucker (17:06)
I know that's sad, I guess, that it's stumping me.
I think it's hard to maybe pinpoint one sport that's doing it right, but this may not be the answer you're looking for, but I think it's more so there are people all across the country in various towns, cities, wherever, who are seeing the issue and are on their kind of small scale trying to do something about it, trying to maybe combat it, trying to offer options that are...
more affordable, more feasible, more accessible. Unfortunately, I don't think it's on a large enough scale yet, but I do think that there are people all over the place who are trying to come up with creative alternatives to some of these expensive options for kids.
Farrell Sports Business (18:04)
And how about, you you always go to the car ride home of what that's like. With everything that you've just mentioned somewhat, you know, maybe piling on for lack of a better term of pressures on the kid and the family, how has what's going on in youth sports impacted the parent -child relationship? How are you seeing those relationships change, if at all?
Ally Tucker (18:33)
Well, I think, you know, one of the things that I'm seeing, and I don't know if this is so much relationship, but it seems like the identity of the parent is really tied to their child's sports success or lack of success, their sports career. And I think that's super dangerous because those two things should not necessarily coincide, you know? And I think that...
sometimes because parents feel like their kids' sports performance somehow reflects on them, both positively or negatively. It just, it makes it feel so much more amped up, so much more pressure, so much more riding on each individual game performance. And I have to think that that causes some friction. And we talk about kids burning out.
young when it comes to sports, you know, there I can't remember the exact statistic, but a very large percentage of kids stop playing around the age of 13. And I have to just think that some of that guys like I'm not doing this for me anymore. It feels like I'm doing it for me and I'm doing it for you. and I'm talking about the parents in that situation. And I also think, you know, I had a, I had a great guest named Linda, Linda Flanagan on, and she's an author and she talked a lot about how
Parents are kind of losing a little bit of their sense of self as well. you know, they're just, they're spending their whole lives kind of traveling around, following their kids, doing the sports. mean, you know, I can't tell you how many times I will drive by a practice or it might be our practice. like the parents are out there, it's not just they're there close so that, you know, for safety reasons, like they're watching every play, every move.
at that practice and I just, I don't think that's healthy. So I kind of worry about that.
Farrell Sports Business (20:34)
You've, you've also mentioned, and I've probably seen this a thousand times and just never thought of it consciously, but there's the social media post, that talks about the tournament this weekend. And then the parent, maybe the team doesn't do as well as they thought. And there's just this natural parent excuse making of, you know, well, the other team had.
a kid who was older than the age group or there's always something in there that even justifies how the team didn't do as well.
Ally Tucker (21:11)
I like to call that the qualifier post. That's probably one of my proudest. I don't know if I coined it. I'm probably not the first to say it, but I'm going to claim it for right now anyway. Call it the qualifier post. And God, if I had a dollar for every time I saw that, would certainly, I'd make more than I make teaching to be quite honest. But you know, it's just like, can't ever be that you just lost or that your kids, and I say you, your kids team just lost. Again, there's the identity thing, I guess, but it can't ever just be,
Farrell Sports Business (21:19)
Good.
Ally Tucker (21:40)
we lost the game one to nothing or why do I even have to post about it at all? You know, it's like, can we all just carry on without knowing the result of this, you know, inconsequential summer league basketball game? But I think it's like, there always has to be a reason. And sometimes the excuses and the qualifiers are hilarious. I mean, I saw one the other day that was talking about playing in the heat and how our, you know, our, our girls just
could not handle the heat in the second half and they were exhausted. And I'm thinking there were two teams out there. The other team had the same exact temperature as you did. And again, I think it's just like, why does that post or result matter so much that you need to qualify it or share it? You know, I don't know why it matters so much. I can't figure that piece out completely.
except maybe it's the amount of investment that people are putting in and the identity tied to it. That's the only thing I can think.
Farrell Sports Business (22:42)
Yeah. So I can only imagine that and you have your social posts for this podcast are very active and very engaged. And I would bet you get a ton of go Ally Yes, Ally carry the torch for us Ally. Anything out of the podcast or your social posts that came out that you just, you didn't expect, maybe it went the other way and you're like, Whoa.
Ally Tucker (23:11)
Yeah, I think we were talking about this before, but it's like sometimes I'm surprised at the way that a certain comment or conversation or even just a clip, know, because on TikTok you're posting a clip of a much longer conversation, but obviously, you you kind of think, well, this might generate some emotion and...
Just in general, like kind of I said with that initial Facebook post, people just have a lot of feelings about youth sports and I think because they're living it. I mean, it's pretty relevant. Everyone knows someone that's involved at one level or another. But I think, I hate to use the word triggered, but sometimes you can tell something like strikes a nerve with somebody or hits a chord. And I almost think it's one of those things where, you know, what do they say like dot.
protest too much. It's like, if this bothers you that much, maybe it's because it's hitting a little too close to home. But I always say that there is a lot of support for the podcast and people appreciate it. And I think that the subject matter is important, but I think the people that I feel like need to hear it the most are probably afraid to listen to it because they know that it's probably talking about them.
Farrell Sports Business (24:26)
they're caught up in the machine. So anything about your podcast and then I want to just talk about where to find it and all that next, but anything I didn't ask you that you thought I should have asked or that you would want to add on this topic of youth sports?
Ally Tucker (24:28)
Mm -hmm, yes.
Well, and sometimes I have to, kind of stop and make sure that I'm not painting too negative of a picture because on the one hand, mean, the name of my podcast is youth sports and, and, and the S is a dollar sign, which obviously I think that right there tells you a little bit of kind of my feeling on the system. But at the same time, my best childhood memories are absolutely so tied to.
Farrell Sports Business (25:06)
Mm -hmm.
Ally Tucker (25:16)
the teams I played on, the coaches that I had, my teammates, my best friends from college are all people that I played soccer with. So I think that what I take away from this is I love youth sports. And what I hope is that we can find ways to make it more accessible for more people because there are so many positives. And I'm not even talking necessarily about the high level stuff, but just
Kids getting exercise, kids being involved in something, having something to hold you accountable, the social aspect of it, connectivity. mean, someone said on one of my episodes, it's like one of the few times in life these days where kids aren't attached to their phones is when they're playing whatever the sport is. So there are so many positives. My hope is that we can find ways to make it.
more available to people instead of what we're doing right now, which is cutting a lot of people out from the jump.
Farrell Sports Business (26:18)
Well, mean, shame on me. That's a great way to, to, to frame it. you know, yes, there's some flaws in the, in the system, but the, you know, the core of it, I've spent most, if not all of my career working in sports, some of it, youth sports with USA swimming. have a current client in another Olympic youth sport. It is inherently good. not perfect, some flaws in the system, but that that's a great lesson. So.
Ally Tucker (26:41)
Mm
Well, it's like I said, I mean, it does feel like a lot of the conversations that I have can be kind of critical of certain aspects of it, or at least, you know, critical might not be the right word. I just want people to at least sometimes question some of the things. It's okay to ask, like, should we really be doing this? Is this the right decision for me, my family, my kid? You know, so maybe just not kind of blindly getting on the hamster wheel would be the goal of this.
Farrell Sports Business (27:15)
Well, I've just been very impressed that you have great content, great perspective, and I've just enjoyed it, enjoyed getting to know you. So I appreciate you joining. So.
Ally Tucker (27:26)
Well, thank you so much. I've had a great time being on the other side of things.
Farrell Sports Business (27:30)
Good, where can people find it?
Ally Tucker (27:32)
Well, so like I said, it's youth sports and the S is a dollar sign. So that's important to know. And you can find me on pretty much all the podcast platforms. So Apple, Spotify, pod bean, you name it. And then also I'm on TikTok and the TikTok handle is at youth sports pod. no dollar sign on that for whatever reason, you can't have a dollar sign on the, on the TikTok and same Instagram handle as well. So again, at youth sports pod.
Farrell Sports Business (28:02)
Ally, you're a champ, you're doing great work and I absolutely love it and can relate to a lot of your creativity and need an outlet for a voice on some of this thing. So thanks for joining. I appreciate it.
Ally Tucker (28:15)
Thank you so much.
Farrell Sports Business (28:17)
That was such a great conversation with Ally She's just got it together and really has a great point of view and a great perspective. And whether you just watch tick tock clips of her podcast or listen to the full thing, very insightful and helpful. so I'm glad she joined. If you go back into the vault of Farrell sports business podcast, there are a few others that are sports and youth sports related. Mel Stewart, runs swim, swam .com.
even talks about some of the state of youth swimming in that episode. Jill gear is the chief marketing and communications officer for USA gymnastics talks about the state of that sport, and involvement, and then go back a few episodes to the editor of sports travel magazine, Jason Gewirtz who really talks and goes in depth about the booming business that is sports travel.
And a lot of that is youth driven. So I think you'll enjoy some of those similar themed episodes from the past. In the meantime, leave us a review, follow along, subscribe on YouTube and thanks for listening to the Farrell Sports Business Podcast.
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