Fixing Youth Sports, Again: A Four-Part Series and Path To Change
Finally, They’re Fixing Youth Sports!
In March ESPN announced a new initiative titled “Take Back Sports” that is “a new youth sports initiative dedicated to increasing access to play for young athletes.” They followed it up with announcement of a strategic partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America aimed at addressing youth sports access issues.
In partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Project Play – and announced at the Project Play Summit – the “Take Back Sports” initiative has three focal areas: 1) Philanthropy and investing, 2) A national campaign, and 3) Purposeful storytelling. Steph and Ayesha Curry’s Oakland-based Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation is in on the action, too.
A momentous charge was given by ESPN’s VP of Corporate Citizenship Kevin Martinez, who declared, “It’s time to take back youth sports from a system that has prioritized profit over well-being.” Continuing, “Travel leagues have overtaken recreational leagues, specialization has replaced multisport play, and winning has come at the expense of fun. We need to shift the focus back to what matters – making sports accessible, enjoyable and rewarding for all kids.”
Amen, brother. I can get on board with that.
Not So Fast.
In doc school I studied under one of the greatest intellectuals I have ever had the honor of knowing, Dr. Packianathan Chelladurai. Chella, as his countless protégé’s referred to him taught many principles, one of which is the importance of thought trials (which I’ve written about before). Another is to look at research, organizations, and industries and identify their gaps. One more is simply to approach things with a healthy level of skepticism.
There is no doubt that youth sports needs gut-level, systemic reformation – we’ve also written about that before. And from what I can tell, there are increasing numbers of organizations like Curry’s doing tremendous work in the communities they serve. However, the praised launch of this initiative likely sparked renewed hope in its broad-based successful achievement. “This time it will work!”
Lord knows, I pray that is right. But please forgive me for my jaded perspective of doubt stemming from my 20+ years in an industry that rarely espouses truth.
It’s time to shed some light on the truth of the matter in youth sport, running perfectly in opposition to the very objectives these nationwide initiatives set out to achieve with no avail, time and time again.
A Look at the Participation Data
Participation trends are not increasing. They are decreasing according to Project Play’s own 2024 State of Play report, which stated just under 40% (38.3%) of kids ages 6-12 played a team sport in 2023 on a regular basis. The level of regular team sport participation remains sub-40% (39.8%) when extending the age bracket to 17.
Participation rates are level – at best – to pre-pandemic figures. Don’t let the “Total Team Sport (at least 1 day)” header fool you in the chart above, those are not regular, or “core”, participants according to SFIA’s research definitions. Those are participants who have played a minimum of just 1 time in the year. I shot hoops with my kids in the driveway a couple dozen times last year…this does not make them regular “ballers”. They don’t even play organized basketball.
Also, speaking of truth…
In my humble experience, these often-referenced participation data points from SFIA’s Topline Participation Report are wildly misrepresented on the regular in our industry, which seeks such to use participation data as a means for validating funding for things such as organizations and infrastructure development.
I am thankful for the SFIA research, like most in the industry, but just a reminder that all research must be put in proper context. However, we in the industry have an obligation to do a better job at this (see my related YouTube video on easy ways to do just that). The amount of improperly contextualized research floating around is astonishing and frankly, disappointing.
Back to the data. The 6.3% gain in Core Team Sport participation for children ages 6-17 from 2022 to 2023 data (last blue line in the chart) is flat to pre-pandemic levels and is a 6.5% net decrease from 2013, the year of Project Play’s founding.
Nonetheless, these data are in line with our participation metrics reported in Key Insight 7 (beginning on p. 25) of our brand new 2025 National Benchmark Study on Resident Sentiment Towards Sporting Events. (Shout out to our friends at Longwoods International for co-authoring the study and Miles Partnership for being the presenting sponsor.)
Been There. Done That. Got the T-Shirt.
But wait a minute…
Didn’t ESPN and Project Play tell legions of adolescents “Don’t Retire, Kid” before the pandemic?
Grant it, #DontRetireKid was truly a public service announcement (PSA) campaign. Some reports indicate it resulted in nearly 5 billion media impressions – a great feel-good boon for ESPN, no doubt. The impact it had on kids’ continuing sport participation, however? Who knows.
I know there was a pandemic in there, but I haven’t seen enough data to substantiate that its lackluster actionable results were from the pandemic alone. Afterall, sport participation was one of the first avenues of normalcy in many places across the country, and scores of people took to outdoor activities during that time span, as evident by SFIA’s participation research.
You see, we’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. And the shining star results achieved…? No broad-based measurable change at all. Again, that’s not to say specific programs are not making an impact, we’ll get to that.
By most accounts, America’s youth are still plagued with skyrocketed obesity, inactivity, and mental health issues.
