so, notso, when you were talking $3000, which of the many clubs/programs discussed above were you talking about?

because we've done academy, i can tell you that while the up-front cost may jump out at you, if you look at the overall costs of what you would spend with another team/league (depending on who it is, of course) there is a good chance that number will be less.

i know for us, when we looked at the cost of our old club team going to 2-4 tournaments in a season, and all the extra costs involved with that, we came out ahead with academy. won't be the same for everybody, but you really need to take all that into consideration.