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AAU basketball parents who are used to paying exorbitant fees to watch their kids play in tournaments got a surprise over the weekend in Ohio. The game has officially changed.
Basketball dad Kevin Brandt of Leipsic, OH, is used to paying admission prices that are more than attending NBA games. He's not naive to the big business of AAU basketball, or what he and his wife signed up for. Their daughter is playing on one of the top travel teams in the Midwest.
But, what he experienced at the Spooky Nook complex in Hamilton left him scratching his head.
"Just got home from watching my daughter play in AAU Tournament, Select Showcase. $260 for my wife and I to watch her play this weekend. $260 to get in. Someone HAS to feel a little guilty about this, don’t they?!" Brandt wrote of his family's weekend experience at Spooky Nook.
Wasn't there a weekend pass? Typically, these tournaments will offer a $70-$90 all-you-can-attend pass. Brandt says that was not the case in Hamilton.
The family was told that it would have to pay admission prices for two different tournaments being held at the same complex. One tournament was called the Select Events Super Showcase. That was followed by another Select Events tournament called the Midwest Summer Classic.
Same location. Same tournament organizer.
"They told us it was (two) 'separate' events. Paid $120 for each event. Then $5 a day for parking," Brandt explained.
"We stayed one night but drove two and half hours back and forth every other day because every hotel was $300+ around the area. One of our sons and his girlfriend came for one day… so add $60!"
OutKick reached out to Spooky Nook senior management in an attempt to clarify who is setting admission prices and parking fees, or if the company suggests pricing levels for events at its facilities. We have not heard back.
Where is this all going? That is the prevailing concern among AAU parents.
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AAU travel mom Mookie Edmond knows exactly what Brandt and others are feeling. She documented her family's weekend trip to a tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Unlike the Ohio tournament, this one offered a weekend pass for the low, low cost of $90. Edmond isn't looking for your sympathy. "At the end of the day, we are going to invest in our child," she said on a Facebook video where she addressed the costs to play at the highest level of AAU.
"We're going to do whatever we have to do to get him to that next level," she added.
However, after dropping just shy of $1,500 on hotels, admission, gas, food and extracurriculars, Edmond is left with scar tissue. "I’m over here scratching my head like do I really wanna run it back this weekend," she told her friends on Facebook.
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