Definitely sounds like a pain in the butt if people are leaving teams to play for a tournament that is one weekend. Some parents really are obsessed. No kid cares that much about this. It's the parents. As usual.
Definitely sounds like a pain in the butt if people are leaving teams to play for a tournament that is one weekend. Some parents really are obsessed. No kid cares that much about this. It's the parents. As usual.
It’s not just one weekend. I was up there for 10 days with my kid. I was at a hotel and he was with a host family. It was cold, Expensive and I came home with what now I know was Covid. The kid loved it, was probably his best youth hockey experience outside of winning the Can/Am at Lake Placid.
Is it expensive, absolutely. Is it worth it, absolutely.
Definitely sounds like a pain in the butt if people are leaving teams to play for a tournament that is one weekend. Some parents really are obsessed. No kid cares that much about this. It's the parents. As usual.
It’s not just one weekend. I was up there for 10 days with my kid. I was at a hotel and he was with a host family. It was cold, Expensive and I came home with what now I know was Covid. The kid loved it, was probably his best youth hockey experience outside of winning the Can/Am at Lake Placid.
Is it expensive, absolutely. Is it worth it, absolutely.
It doesn't sound fun to me but I'm not an obsessive hockey parents. You're just giving other parents FOMO and they're the nut jobs switching teams to be a part of this 'incredible' experience. Take your kids to Europe.
I wouldn’t switch teams just to go if you’re happy with the team you’re on. They’re not handing out any scholarships there. It’s nice to do well and play against teams from all over the world and the kids really enjoy it, but at the end of the day, it’s just another tournament that’s maybe a little more fun and special for the kids than the other hundred tournaments they go to. My kid went, but one of his teammates skipped it because it was too much money and too long, and a week or so later, everyone had forgotten and it was back to the grind. Supposedly if you make the finals, there are thousands of people there, but we were long gone by then.
As someone else pointed out, you can always buy your way on to a team.
Only people saying “it wasn’t worth it” are ones doing this with a poorly run program.
Redwings and RK have been doing this for years. They put together the best team they can, run high level practices, and have many “exhibition” games pre-arranged with top AAA teams such as Czech Kinghts or Honeybaked because they have such a great re****tion. They play a game every day they are there and are very organized.
Go with a program trying to extort as much from FOMO parents as they can and you are likely to come back saying it wasn’t worth it.
Go with a professionally run program that is only looking to provide the kids with an unforgettable life experience and you will not find that being said by anyone.
The point is people leaving teams to find a team going a tournament like this. It's one tournament. That is FOMO. Nothing else. If you're already on a good team going then great. Scrambling to be on a team just because a tournament is weird. But I'm not obsessed the way some others are. My kid is also 7 so we're not near this but I can't imagine finding a new team to be on just because of one tournament. Anyone who thinks that is ok is weird.
Waste of time and money. Most parents admit after it wasn\\\\\\\'t worth it.
Only a small percentage of parents whose son was on a Q team will say it was a waste of money. A high percentage of parents whose kids don't have the opportunity to go will say it is a waste of money.
Great experience for the kids....will be one of his greatest youth hockey memories.