The Spiraling Costs of Youth Sports

In the past I have written about the outrageous costs associated with youth sports, well last week NJ.com published a great article entitled “The Cost of Youth Sports is Out of Control and Crushing a Generation of Young Athletes” by Matthew Stanmyer. I’m not going to rehash the whole article but I would like to discuss some of the more salient points. As I stated months ago, families are being priced out of youth sports and in my opinion this is due to the explosion of travel/select/elite teams that are being formed at younger and younger ages and the “youth sports” businesses that are also being formed to push the specialization craze.

In an earlier blog I stated that youth sports is a $15 billion industry (that number was a few years old) Mr. Stanmyer stated that youth sports is now a $19 billion industry making more money than the NBA, NFL, or NHL. Let that sink in for a minute… youth sports in America makes more money than three of the four major sports leagues in America.

Mr. Stanmyer breaks down the cost that one single parent in Newark, New Jersey is paying to have her son play youth football. Some of the costs are as follows:

· $40 for a defensive specialist;

· $50 for wide receiver training;

· $550 to attend the summer combine circuit;

· $500 for a helmet;

· $50 for gloves; and,

· $180 for cleats (three pairs per year due to her son’s rapid growth)

Now, while the $500 for a helmet, probably the most important piece of equipment, seems reasonable to me I would have to question the need to charge her $40 for the defensive specialist, $50 for the wide receiver training and the $550 for the summer combined circuit. Now, I will fully admit that I never coached football so it’s very possible that these are necessary expenses; however, in a city like Newark where 26.3% of the people live below the poverty line how can we expect a single parent, who admittedly says that she is “robbing Peter to pay Paul” to keep her son playing football, to spend over $1,300 and still have any money for day-to-day living expenses?

According to the Aspen Institute, only 22% of children living in poverty get the opportunity to play organized youth sports and income is the biggest driver of this lack of opportunity. Mr. Stanmyer states that the cost of youth sports have turned into the new “caste system”. He states, “the wealthy have access to the best training and programs while the poor and disenfranchised are playing fewer sports than ever”. Further, he states that the privileged get more chances to learn and receive better instruction than kids who live in communities where the economics don’t exist and the poor children are being left behind.

Mr. Stanmyer further goes on to state that nationally, parents are reported to spend $12,000 per month for their child to play one of the following sports: baseball, gymnastics, ice hockey, skiing, swimming and tennis and The Aspen Institute states that one family is paying $34,900 for their child to play tennis for the year. In New Jersey the average cost to play some youth sports is are follows:

· $4000 for travel soccer;

· $760 for AAU basketball (for the summer season only); and,

· $500 a month for travel baseball.

Now, while these costs might not seem exorbitant I’m not sure that I would have been able to pay that much money for my children to play youth sports when they were younger. Not only are underprivileged families having trouble paying for their children to play youth sports, middle-class families are also feeling the pain of the exploding costs of youth sports and this is causing many children to miss out on the many benefits youth sports provide. How many children are being squeezed out of youth sports due to the outrageous cost? I don’t know, and I don’t think that we will ever know; however, I do know that children who are being priced out will miss out on the following opportunities:

· Learning teamwork;

· Learning how to both win and lose gracefully;

· Developing leadership skills; and,

· Developing character traits.

What is driving the costs of you sports higher? Mr. Stanmyer stated that during the great recession of 2008 many town's budgets were slashed and local sports programs that were low-cost or free were the victim of these cuts, and this led to the rise in “pay to play” youth sports as the money that was slashed from the budgets was never replaced. Additionally, Stanmyer states that entrepreneurs and the private businesses that I discussed earlier are pushing the narrative that children must be a single sport athlete by five years old or they will fail. They are selling hope to parents while charging thousands of dollars to play a sport and then charging more money for summer camps and clinics along with specialized training that they claim is needed for a child to stay ahead. Now, while I admire anybody who finds a business niche and fills it, I have a problem when, in my opinion, that business is selling hope.

As I stated in earlier writings, about one percent of the children that play youth sports ever get a college scholarship; however, some of these businesses all but guarantee that if parents spend the money there will be a scholarship at the end of the rainbow so, in my opinion, they are preying on people who, while they want the best for their children, maybe gullible enough to pay all this money on that scant one percent chance of getting the elusive scholarship. These youth sports “businesses” have to know that the number of children getting that elusive scholarship is around one percent, yet they are still charging astronomical fees and telling parents that unless their child is “specializing” in a sport at a young age and doing all this additional training they will be left behind.

In earlier blogs, I have stated that I’ve seen many children who at young ages were not developed enough to play a sport; however, as time went on and they grew into their bodies, matured and became fine little athletes. I often think back, if we had abandoned these children and push them out of the sport what would’ve happened to them? Would they have tried another sport? Or would they have given up on themselves and never tried a sport again? Happily, that’s a question I don’t have to answer because they persevered and stayed in the sport and a few of them have gone on to play both high school and collegiately and whenever I see these young people on the streets of my hometown, they will often tell me about the sport they are playing/played, but they are more likely to tell me how well they are doing in school, their job, or life in general and to me that’s what youth sports should be all about.