All-Star New Idea To Boost Participation In All Star Cheer.

[acxjags]

Ok--so I have shared ideas with Many top gym owners in the country.....tell me what you think of this. I think there should be a USASF sanctioned State Championship in every state----Not put on by these individual companies but the governing body of our sport . If you are a USASF gym you should be REQUIRED to compete (like a High School state event but for All star) and then the "All Levels" championship should be replaced with the winners of each division in each state competing either regionally like all levels is now or the video online grand championships to pick a over all best in each division). You can choose to compete in all the big nationals you wish but the States are required. This would give more prestige to competing locally and give the teams, gyms, or kids who cant afford to travel to a big nationals, etc a pinnacle event and motivate them to get amped up for a local event.-------Personally my gym has between 1000-1500 kids in it taking CHEER or School team classes and only 130 do all stars. ( I can promise you I have never had a kid or parent say they weren't doing all stars because of crop tops but I have had several hundred each year say they just can't afford it.....due to Uniform $300, Comp fees $65-$165 each, Hotel costs $160 a night, Gas (I wont go there), Shoes $70, choreography fees $100-$200 per kid, music fees $50 per kid, etc.) So lets start to promote All Star Cheerleading locally and make it "COOL" to compete locally in every state and have a high pressure---title on the line in each division-- event in each state and give some recognition to local cheerleading. This would boost participation. Thoughts?????

 

[ufomom]

My first thought was GASP. Another expensive overnight stay competition. Sorry the bills are coming in and it's the holiday season. For example, Texas, Florida and California (where I have lived) are huge states. Local in Texas can be 12 hours away. I do appreciate your enthusiasm however. I realize you are taking a global view and I am being narrow minded, so carry on. Will be interested to see other comments.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

Ok--so I have shared ideas with Many top gym owners in the country.....tell me what you think of this. I think there should be a USASF sanctioned State Championship in every state----Not put on by these individual companies but the governing body of our sport . If you are a USASF gym you should be REQUIRED to compete (like a High School state event but for All star) and then the "All Levels" championship should be replaced with the winners of each division in each state competing either regionally like all levels is now or the video online grand championships to pick a over all best in each division). You can choose to compete in all the big nationals you wish but the States are required.

If this was even feasible I would prefer to see larger states divided up. Could you imagine suffering through a competition that included every gym and every team in your state?! There would be mini division 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f.... and so on. O. M. G. And then take the winner of each division (all inclusive, meaning the team with the highest score from the entire mini 1 division, not the sub-divisions) to the state competition. And go from there.

Personally my gym has between 1000-1500 kids in it taking CHEER or School team classes and only 130 do all stars. ( I can promise you I have never had a kid or parent say they weren't doing all stars because of crop tops but I have had several hundred each year say they just can't afford it.....due to Uniform $300, Comp fees $65-$165 each, Hotel costs $160 a night, Gas (I wont go there), Shoes $70, choreography fees $100-$200 per kid, music fees $50 per kid, etc.) So lets start to promote All Star Cheerleading locally and make it "COOL" to compete locally in every state and have a high pressure---title on the line in each division-- event in each state and give some recognition to local cheerleading. This would boost participation. Thoughts?????

Well, the problem with the price of uniforms and shoes can be EASILY remedied There is no reason gyms have to use uniforms that cost that much money. And as a parent, I can tell you that while they don't tell you that they are unhappy with the crop top, there are definately rumblings among parents that they would prefer full tops, especially in the younger age brackets. And the crop tops are definately a hard pill to swallow for first time parents of younger cheerleaders. I don't know if your gym requires athletes to stay in a certain hotel, but this much I know: our gym does not and I have never paid more than $90 a night for a room. Yes, sometimes it requires us to stay 15-20 minutes out from the comp, but who cares?! I prefer to save the money and get a hotel room for half the price. There are ways to save money in this sport, gyms just have to be willing to cut back and/or change some things.

 

[ErinS]

I don't see how this will boost the participation in All Star cheer? Competing locally (which most already do with high school and middle school squads) won't magically make all of these families be able to afford to participate in All Star cheer. I think we need to lower the cost of all star cheer since that is essentially whats stopping people from participating.

Also like someone else pointed out...What about larger states? What about states that are less saturated with all star cheer (Montana, the Dakotas etc).

I also don't like the idea of "requiring" a gym to attend a competition.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

My issue is the actual production of it. The only event the USASF puts on is worlds, and they use resources from many competitions to make this happen.

So now there are 50 states plus Puerto Rico (not sure where they fit in). I can't imagine any company being able to put on more than 4events in the same weekend. So now just for this state competition to happen, it is going to span 16 weeks. A lot can happen for a team in 16 weeks. So i don't necessarily thinks its fair to judge an NJ team that competes in March with a Florida team that competes in May.

Next to do that virtual championship, someone is going to have to watch the winner of each division from 50 different states??
There are over 60 divisions. (Granted not every state would have every division, but that would be close to 3,000 teams)

 

[cheererinIL]

I think this would be painfully long and boring to watch.

Sorry, I said it.

 

[nateairnj]

I don't see how this will boost the participation in All Star cheer? Competing locally (which most already do with high school and middle school squads) won't magically make all of these families be able to afford to participate in All Star cheer. I think we need to lower the cost of all star cheer since that is essentially whats stopping people from participating.

Everyone is always quick to say lets reduce the cost of all-star cheer...but we have to remember - this is an ELECTIVE sport. No one is requiring anyone to participate. Most gyms set their fee schedule up front and you know what your getting into ahead of time. I've had many parents tell me that all-star cheerleading has been one of the cheapest sports that they have put their children in because ice hockey, basketball (with all of the traveling and summer camps) blew cheerleading out of the water!

Going back into a little history - I totally support your thought ACXJAGS. In the early 2000s - American Championships used to host the Florida State Competition, and EVERY gym in Florida would just about attend. It was awesome...borderline unreal. It really let you have the chance to feel like a state champion when you did have all those teams in your division and you were the winner. Not only that --- it was SOO fun and all of the kids and parents looked forward to it!

There is a huge emphasis on the NCA Nationals and the WORLDS titles - but at some point you must recognize that this sport consists of many teams that will never get to the NCA level or worlds Level - but have legitimate skills and will be HAPPY competing on a level playing field with some of the mega gyms and coming out on top.

Yeah It'd be an overnight stay - and it's going to be an extra expense (budget for it!) - but when it all comes down to it...when you know that your the best in your state and you've competed amongst all of your local rival teams and WIN - nothing beats that!

 

[ufomom]

Yeah It'd be an overnight stay - and it's going to be an extra expense (budget for it!) - but when it all comes down to it...when you know that your the best in your state and you've competed amongst all of your local rival teams and WIN - nothing beats that!

Are you in Congress perhaps?

 

[ErinS]

Everyone is always quick to say lets reduce the cost of all-star cheer...but we have to remember - this is an ELECTIVE sport. No one is requiring anyone to participate. Most gyms set their fee schedule up front and you know what your getting into ahead of time. I've had many parents tell me that all-star cheerleading has been one of the cheapest sports that they have put their children in because ice hockey, basketball (with all of the traveling and summer camps) blew cheerleading out of the water!

Exactly. Not every one can afford to participate. My family personally doesn't have a problem affording for my sister to participate. Our gym goes to both large nationals and small competitions. However...look at Cheersport weekend... $139 entry fee, $200 a night at the hotel, $40 entry fee per family member (possibly my mom, myself, my niece and older sister this year). That weekend alone could potentially make or break some one participating in All Star cheer if money is very tight with the family. Just because the fee schedule is up front doesn't mean a family can afford it...especially combined with smaller expenses incurred throughout the season which acxjags pointed out in the post.

However, a lot of children WANT to do all star cheer but MONEY is a huge contributing factor as to why they can't participate. If all star cheer was cheaper over all, you would have more people doing it.

People are also quick to criticize gyms that ONLY do the smaller competitions and say that they're only "looking for a win"....but more often than not, those gyms are just going to competitions that all of the members can afford to attend.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Honestly, a lot of people still don't know what all star cheer "really" is. When my girls (ages 8 and 10) meet new friends and tell them about cheer a lot of times they say things like oh you do gymnastics or you do dance? I think if more people knew what all star cheer "really" was when they were younger it would increase participation. With that said I think all star cheer is growing by leaps and bounds!

 

[CGAcheer]

So something that is kind of based on this concept that annoys me is that there is a relatively big 2 day comp that is only about 2.5 hours from us and on a great weekend to fit in the schedule but it is the state championship and we are 30 mins north of the border.

The way it is currently set up allows you to choose the expense level that best fits your customers. Maybe your customers can afford to compete nationally, travel all over the place and have blinged out uniforms. Maybe you should do 5 cheaper locals and then do a nice destination travel comp to end the season in cheaper uniforms. Or perhaps offer different levels ie half year, non travel, full out etc

 

[tumbleyoda]

Exactly. Not every one can afford to participate. My family personally doesn't have a problem affording for my sister to participate. Our gym goes to both large nationals and small competitions. However...look at Cheersport weekend... $139 entry fee, $200 a night at the hotel, $40 entry fee per family member (possibly my mom, myself, my niece and older sister this year). That weekend alone could potentially make or break some one participating in All Star cheer if money is very tight with the family. Just because the fee schedule is up front doesn't mean a family can afford it...especially combined with smaller expenses incurred throughout the season which acxjags pointed out in the post.

However, a lot of children WANT to do all star cheer but MONEY is a huge contributing factor as to why they can't participate. If all star cheer was cheaper over all, you would have more people doing it.

People are also quick to criticize gyms that ONLY do the smaller competitions and say that they're only "looking for a win"....but more often than not, those gyms are just going to competitions that all of the members can afford to attend.

You are exactly right! I think sometimes we get into the "because I think/feel about cheerleading like this everyone else should too." Costs while nothing to one family is everything to another family, sometimes on the same team. Many parents don't want to even consider an overnight trip to a competition, even if they make their own housing arrangements. This is another interesting dynamic in the small gyms that gets constantly overlooked. Every program may have a couple like this but in a small gym it can sometimes be up to 1/2 a team. So you go to the comps you can afford to go to, where there is no overnight stay, and hopefully the entrance fee for spectators and parking is reasonable enough to sell it to the parents. And while you can offer all the fundraising you want, they still got to make that money - one way or another to pay for it.

I don't begrudge any EP or vendor for trying to make money. That is what they are in business for. I am unwilling to put a limit to how much profit they can make. If a team/program can afford it, fine. If not they will find another competition to go to. If the EP wants them at the event they may make an adjustment to allow they to attend.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

Everyone is always quick to say lets reduce the cost of all-star cheer...but we have to remember - this is an ELECTIVE sport. No one is requiring anyone to participate. Most gyms set their fee schedule up front and you know what your getting into ahead of time. I've had many parents tell me that all-star cheerleading has been one of the cheapest sports that they have put their children in because ice hockey, basketball (with all of the traveling and summer camps) blew cheerleading out of the water!

I don't think everyone is saying reduce the cost FOR THEM. We aren't saying that we can't afford it. We are saying that if the industry as a whole would like to grow, the price of things that the gym itself can control needs to come down.

 

[SparkleSpankies]

The thing w/ All-Star cheer is it is like travel soccer or any competitive, outside of school program. People chose the team that best fits their needs, whatever those needs would be. Travel soccer doesn't have a "state" required tourney, they may choose to go if the state offers, but all-star cheer is kinda the same. You pick a program to fit your needs.

I also do not feel like all-star cheer is struggling. I almost feel like it is the opposite... some GYMS may be b/c of various reasons.. costs, popularity, distance etc.. but as a whole I wouldn't say it is struggling any more or less then any otehr competitive youth program.

 

[SparkleSpankies]

And to add to that... a lot of families are doing more local rec leagues for any sport b/c of cost