AAA is for status until 15u. Many parents love to throw out there my kid plays AAA. Then a kid cuts from AAA and parents get upset. Oh well find an org u like and stick with it.
Never once have my wife or I ever said out kids play AAA or Tier 1 to people. We play it because we priced out everything you get in your tuition with Tier 1 and compared it to AA and extras on an ala carte basis. We actually save money with Spring Ice 2x's/week, Spring gym, 6 hr/day 4 days summer camp, 3hrs/week practice, gym, video, 1hr/week skills & 2 tournaments/2 showcases all included in AAA tuition. The travel is a little more than AA but has narrowed significantly since AHF came in. We could care less about how many games we play. The development is in the practice/skills ice time, gym and video. Games mean very little before 15U. Now kid is 2nd yr Bantam and things start to matter. Also our rink allows kids to jump on ice with other teams at no charge to get even more ice time. My kid was on the ice 5 hrs for practice and 2 hrs skills! Ice time is everything and AAA has more of it! You can say it is status symbol for parents, but not this set of parents.
