capitalism sucks the blood from everything it touches, and sports is no exception.
the area where i saw it the most was in youth baseball. once the company Perfect Game got involved, it pretty much ruined youth baseball. they built a monopoly over the showcase circuit, and were a big gatekeeper for measurables and other basic info about youth baseball kids (think like age 12-16). because of that, if you didnt pay (literally) to attend their showcases, your info wouldnt go into their database, and their database and info was used by lots of major league teams and colleges, which obviously plays a huge part in kids getting scholarship opportunities.
so not only do you need to spend money to buy a glove, bats, batting gloves and other equipment just to play the actual game, now you need to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars a year for your 12 year old to attend these PG events and get their name in the database and get scouts to watch them, or they fell behind. i know there were always a handful of kids who werent part of those events who still got elite scholarships/drafted high by MLB teams, but the number definitely decreased. PG didnt actually add any value, no real coaching/mentoring/skill development, they just jumped in, did some gatekeeping, and got paid a shitload of money from parents who didnt want their kids to fall behind. awful shit.
