cheerKT
Best Overall Poster
- Dec 13, 2009
- 6,467
- 17,847
I understand that as a fan you want to see the competitions, but as a parent, my first priority is to protect my child and her teammates. I think sometime we all forget that this is a sport for kids. For me, it's on the same level as any other sport. Unless I have a personal connection to a child playing in YMCA basketball ,I don't just stop at random games. If I want to see a basketball game, I go to a college or professional game. I think cheer should be the same way. I don't think that random people should be able to just stop at cheer competitions. My advice would be to make a friend in the cheer world, watch the clips on YouTube or go to a college competition. I think ALL youth sports should be for family/friends of the player. Maybe one day it could be a win-win for all, but if it comes down to protecting the kids or letting a fan in, the kids come first. This is just my opinion and no one on the cheer world is knocking my door for advice, so I wouldn't worry about it. ;)
I understand the sentiment, I really do. It is about the kids and protecting them. But I'm one of those "fans" who attends competitions sometimes. Less now than before, because I'm a college senior and so terribly broke. I think you might underestimate how many people attend competitions that aren't "with" gyms. I haven't cheered since 2008 but I've been to Worlds every year since then. And I couldn't just buy tickets from my former gym because there are years my former gym did not have a bid to Worlds. There is no higher level to attend in cheer, much like you would attend a college or pro event for another sport. Allstar is the pinnacle of cheer. Sure there are college competitions once or twice a year, but with them both being in the same state and only in January and April it's not exactly convenient for the average fan to attend. Not like competitions in there home state nearly every weekend. I think you would see a HUGE drop off in cheer and it would be crippling for the sport to not allow people affiliated with gyms. A lot of times it's competition attendance that gets people wanting to join a team, we would lose all those potential athletes.
All in all, I get what you're saying. There are creepy people out there. But when you compare it to the number of fans that help drive the sport, pump tons of money into the industry, and cheer on your child as the compete, I don't really see how eliminating the casual cheer fan would do anything but hurt the sport.