The costs keep rising – league fees, equipment, travel – when it comes to youth sports in North America.
It’s an old problem worsened by inflation and hardly confined to the United States. The cost of playing youth hockey is one of the main reasons cited by parents and others when discussing its decline in Canada.
“It becomes increasingly expensive to play for parents and families,” said Jon Solomon, director of community impact at the Aspen Institute. sports & Society Program. “There’s kind of a haves and have-nots situation in youth sports, in terms of who can play and who can’t, or get quality access.”
The latest from the institute “Status of the situation” report, an annual study of national trends in youth sports, cited a survey that revealed that 49% of respondents said they had difficulty covering the costs of participation. This included 57% of respondents with annual incomes of less than $40,000. Country searched a year before said they spent more than $880 the previous year on their children’s primary sport in the United States; it cost $1,645 (Canadian) north of the border.
Just this week, Canada’s Royal RBC Bank released an analysis that said the average cost of playing hockey in canada costs $4,478 (Canadian) per child and can vary greatly depending on age and skill level; for 13- to 16-year-olds, the number was $7,371.
The rise of travel leagues — guaranteed tournaments and paid coaches for young athletes — has been fueled by parents eager to find a healthy outlet for their children and many hoping, against all odds, to land a college scholarship. The growing number of programs leads to increasing expenses, even in elementary and secondary education programs.
The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital mapped concerns going back at least a dozen years in its national survey of children’s health. According to to the May 2012 report12% of parents surveyed said the cost of school sports led to a decrease in at least one of their children’s participation in primary or secondary education, while fewer lower-income families had a teenager playing school sports compared to their counterparts Richer.
The report found that the average school fee was $93, while 21% of children faced fees of at least $150. The average cost of sports participation in that study was $381 when taking travel and other expenses into account. . At the time to a broader March 2019 study of school activitiesthe average sports participation fee was $161 and the average cost of sports participation was $408.
Hockey differs from many sports in the amount of equipment required. Football, basketball, swimming and volleyball tend to require fewer purchases to get the child to play. And while many manufacturers offer a wide range of prices to ease the shock of new equipment, it can be daunting.
A basic youth hockey stick – players need at least a few because they can and do break during practices and games – can cost around $70, with fancier models – super-lightweight carbon fiber that somehow remains strong yet flexible – going for three times that. New skates for the recreational player can be purchased for $100, with competitive players more likely to have a pair costing around $500 or high-end models costing almost $1,000.
Outfitting a goalie, which has more guards and security needs, can cost more than $1,500 and is generally much more expensive. Baseball catchers can relate; one organization estimated a typical youth catcher could have about $2,000 worth of equipment.
These are not one-time costs. Legs and feet grow, protectors and gloves wear out, helmets become compromised.
Tom Cove is president and CEO of Sports & Fitness Industry Association, a trade group with members that includes the four major professional men’s sports leagues in North America, as well as companies such as Adidas, Nike, Wilson and Dick’s Sporting Goods. It also conducts industry research reports, including on sports participation.
Cove pointed to the popularity of college intramural sports as an example of needed options for youth sports beyond expensive programs that offer the promise of high-level training and travel.
“They like playing because they like playing, and that’s the goal,” Cove said of intramurals. “We should do this a lot more from the age of 12 to 18, to create this opportunity. And that’s where cost can really be a problem: it drives out people who aren’t the stars and aren’t the only ones able to afford it.
“The point is, you can’t earn recreation (leagues) or $10,000 for a family with complete devotion to a sport and have nothing else to do in life,” Cove added. “There is so much more in between and we need to change the way we deliver and talk about it.”
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