How to Get Your Club to Take a Soccer Tour to Spain

Almost every Spain tour we have run since 2005 started the same way, and it was not with a coach calling us. It was one player who came back from a trip and would not stop talking about it, or one parent who asked a question at the end of a team meeting. The club came later.

So if you are a player or a parent reading this because you want your team to go to Spain, you are not out of place in this conversation. You are where most of these trips actually begin. What follows is the practical version: who really decides, why clubs say no, and what to put in front of them so the answer changes.

Why clubs say no (it is almost never the destination)

In twenty years we have watched a lot of good tour ideas die, and the reason is nearly always one of three things, none of which is Spain.

The first is workload. A coach hears "international tour" and pictures themselves collecting passports, chasing 18 families for payments, and being personally responsible for a squad of teenagers in a foreign country. That is a lot to volunteer for.

The second is money, but not in the way people assume. The blocker is rarely the size of the number. It is that nobody has said what each family pays, so every parent imagines their own worst case.

The third is liability. Somebody has to be able to answer what happens if a player gets hurt in Girona at 11pm, and if no one can answer it, the safe decision is always no.

Notice that none of those are arguments about whether the trip would be good for the players. Everyone already agrees it would. Your job is not to sell Spain. Your job is to remove the three reasons to say no.

Step one: find out who actually decides

This is the step people skip, and it costs them months. Your team coach usually is not the decision maker. They are your advocate.

At a US travel club, the decision normally sits with the Director of Coaching, and anything involving international travel and money collected from families often needs the club board too. At a high school, it is the athletic director, and generally the school administration or district behind them. In a smaller club it might genuinely be one person who does everything.

Ask your coach one question: who would have to approve this, and what do they need to see. Coaches almost always know, and being asked that question makes you look serious rather than starry-eyed.

Step two: bring a window, not an idea

"We should go to Spain sometime" is easy to say no to because it costs nothing to defer. A specific window forces a real answer.

There are two that work for US teams. Spring break in March or April lines up with the MIC on the Costa Brava and misses the summer heat. Late June into July is the bigger window and lines up with the Donosti Cup in San Sebastian and the Costa Daurada Cup in Salou. Pick the one that fits your season and name it.

Name the year too, and give it room. A group deciding in July for the following summer has time to fundraise properly. A group deciding in March for that same July does not.

Step three: bring a per-player number, not a trip total

This is the single biggest thing you can do, and most people get it backwards.

If you tell a room of parents the tour costs $32,000, the conversation is over. If you tell them it is from $1,400 per player for the ground portion and flights on top, and that it can be spread over 10 to 12 monthly payments with club fundraising against it, you are talking about roughly the cost of a season of club soccer in a lot of US markets. Same trip. Completely different conversation.

Be straight about what the number does and does not include. Ours is ground services: accommodation, meals, training sessions, matches, all transfers in Spain, and a full-time Odisea director with the group. International flights are separate, because they swing hundreds of dollars by departure city and month and anyone quoting you a single all-in figure a year out is guessing.

Step four: answer the three questions every other parent will ask

Your coach is not just deciding for themselves. They are anticipating the meeting where 18 families ask questions. Hand them the answers in advance.

**What does it actually cost me?** The per-player number, what is included, the payment schedule, and what the club plans to fundraise. Vague answers here kill trips.

**Who is watching my kid?** Supervision ratios, who the adults are, where the group stays, what the evenings look like. Parents of 14-year-olds are not asking about training facilities. They are asking this.

**Will my kid actually play?** Not watch. Play. Parents have heard about trips that turned out to be a stadium tour and a scrimmage. Be clear about how many competitive games against Spanish opposition are in the itinerary, and that the opposition gets matched to your squad's age and level rather than whoever happens to be free.

Step five: show that it does not land on the coach

This is the objection nobody says out loud, so you have to address it unprompted.

On our tours, the club picks the dates, the squad and the level of competition they want. We do everything else: hotels, all ground transport, training sessions, matching and scheduling the opposition, stadium and cultural days, dietary requirements, and a director who travels with the group from arrivals to departure. The coach coaches. They do not become a travel agent.

Say that part explicitly when you pitch. It is the difference between asking your coach to take on a second job and asking them to say yes to something someone else runs.

Step six: do not walk in alone

One player asking is a nice idea. Five families asking together is a mandate.

Before you go to the Director of Coaching, talk to the other parents on your team. Find out who is interested and who is not, because knowing that eight of 16 families are in is far more persuasive than enthusiasm on its own. It also tells the club something they need anyway, which is whether the group is big enough to work.

What to send your coach

When you are ready, keep it short. Something close to this works, and you can copy it:

> Hi Coach, a few of us have been talking about a team trip to Spain, either spring break or next summer. Before I take it any further I wanted to check with you. From what I have found, a club tour runs from around $1,400 per player for the ground portion (accommodation, meals, training, games, transfers, staff on site), with flights on top, and families usually pay it monthly over the year with club fundraising against it. The tour company handles the planning, the hotels, the transport and the fixtures, so it would not fall on you. I have spoken to a few other families and there is real interest. Would it be worth me getting proper numbers for our age group and dates so you can look at something concrete?

That message works because it does three things at once. It names a window, it names a per-player number, and it makes clear the coach is not being handed a project.

What happens after that

If your coach or Director of Coaching wants real numbers, we can give them numbers rather than a brochure. Tell us the age groups, roughly how many players and how many family members would travel, and your window, and we come back with a per-person price that names the hotels and the itinerary.

Nothing is committed at that stage and there is no cost to finding out. Most clubs we work with spend a few weeks with a real quote in front of them before they decide, which is exactly how it should be.

You can read what a Spain trip actually looks like day by day on our soccer tours in Spain page, see the tournament options on the soccer tournaments in Spain page, and look at how we handle US groups specifically on our tours for US teams page. When you want the numbers, start the conversation here. If you are the coach reading this rather than the player, the companion piece is how to choose a soccer tour company for your club.