The most loyal fans in youth sports are usually outside the group chat. Grandparents. They just need someone to tell her that the game has moved to Court 3 at 9:20. There’s a grandpa on one of my teams who shows up to everything. Practice. Games. He sits in his chair, talks hoops with me, and cheers for every kid. I love that. I also know youth sports makes it way harder than it should be for people like him to show up. The schedule lives in one app. The change lands in a text. The court number is buried in a screenshot. And the parent is supposed to relay all of it while finding shoes, water bottles, dinner, and their last bit of patience. That’s the miss. Giving everyone the same app is not the same as keeping everyone informed. Grandparents don’t need the whole team operation. They need the few details that let them be there. A lot of empty bleacher seats aren’t empty because nobody cared. They’re empty because nobody remembered to tell them. 🫵 Your turn - how do grandparents in your family find out when and where to show up?
In my house, it's grandparents AND a great grandma on the sideline (although this year papa was a coach). Great Grandma had it penciled in on her calendar.
Exposure Event app has the schedule updates (due to weather etc.) but ultimately the player or parent inevitably has to relay the information to a grandparent on anything, not just sports.
Grandparents generally (those over age 65) do not want to download and review apps, and they definitely do not want push notifications. They get hit up for every fund raiser, golf event, etc. and shell out more $$ outside of sports (family vacations, floating a loan to son-in-law until pay day, etc.). Would be incredible if parents and their children, especially the grandchildren, could simply call/text their grandparents about games, fields, etc. instead of putting up a tech wall where simple communication once lived.