toad.social

MoniqueMorgen de <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/varsity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#varsity</a>. Ik ga nergens heen. Beetje geluid vangen op mijn dakterras. Dat. En verder weinig, denk ik. Drukke weken voor de boeg.Heeft een roeiboot ook een boeg <a href="https://mastodon.nl/@venite" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@venite</a> ? Vast wel.

Chuck DarwinNationwide, just over a million children, mostly girls, participate in <a href="https://c.im/tags/cheer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cheer</a> each year (some estimates are even higher), more than the number who play softball or lacrosse. And almost every part of that world is dominated by a single company: <a href="https://c.im/tags/Varsity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Varsity</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Spirit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Spirit</a>. It’s hard to cheer at the youth, high school or collegiate level without putting money in the company’s pocket. Varsity operates summer camps where children learn to do stunts and perform; it hosts events where they compete; it sells pom-poms they shake and uniforms they wear on the sidelines of high school and college football games. Each year, Varsity ships 4.6 million pieces of apparel, from $80 leopard-print “Cheer Mom” fleeces to custom uniforms covered in Swarovski crystals.Critics like Matt Stoller, an antitrust expert and the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, claim that the cheer giant is a <a href="https://c.im/tags/monopolist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#monopolist</a> whose dominance in its area rivals that of Google in tech and has had negative impacts for participants and their families. Varsity, based in Memphis, generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, with gross profit margins at times topping 40 percent, making the company a cash cow for a series of private-equity owners. Parents have reported spending upward of $10,000 a year per child in competitive cheer, with Varsity controlling, by some estimates, more than 80 percent of that market.<a href="https://c.im/tags/Jeff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Jeff</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Webb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Webb</a>, the man who founded Varsity, has been called “John D. Rockefeller with glitter” and the “Dark Sith Lord” of cheer by some of his detractors. Webb, now in his 70s, pioneered the gravity-defying acrobatics of modern cheer. He paired his innovations with a desire for control over every facet of the sport, which he pursued over the course of more than four decades<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/magazine/cheerleading-jeff-webb.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/magazine/cheerleading-jeff-webb.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare</a>

Monique<a href="https://mastonederland.nl/@ZuilenV" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ZuilenV</a> Goedemorgen. De roeiers zijn straks allemaal bij mij in de buurt. Misschien niet allemaal, maar wel veel 😁. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Varsity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Varsity</a>

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