Cost Of Youth Sports Essay

2175 Words9 Pages

Henry McGahey
Mrs. Musso
Advanced English 9, Period 4
13 February 2023
The Cost of Youth Sports Youth sports are one of the most common ways for kids to get much needed exercise and play with friends. But over the years, the price of youth sports have increased drastically. Hence, making sports hard to access and sometimes referred to as pay to play. Although many believe that lower prices are better, some think that expensive coaching and gear develops players to be the best. These sports have become less and less accessible due to the high price, but lower prices offer more equal coaching, more access to equipment, and allow more kids to play. With expensive coaching necessary for skill development, many kids do not get to play because …show more content…

More often than not kids cannot even afford to get to the part of buying equipment or choosing which coach they want. The cause for this is that they simply cannot afford sports at all. The problem is that youth sports have become completely privatized, mainly because of extremely high prices. Many problems are occurring due to “The privatization of American youth sports over the past 40 years is one of those revolutions of late-stage capitalism that should shock us more than it does. We have commodified the play of millions of children into a $19.2 billion business , weakening volunteer-based programs that promise affordable sports for all children. It is a trend mirrored by our schools, hospitals and military. Once-proud public institutions are being privatized, with many unintended consequences” (Miller). This privatization has caused numerous children to not be able to play because everything in youth sports has a price. With very little volunteer work, children often have to pay for anything sports related. This has caused problems because many parents need to use their money for more important things than youth sports. The unintended consequences of this privatization are that the masses of kids do not get to experience sports. Oftentimes, money is more important than the values that kids receive from playing sports. The majority of people believe that sports add value to a child’s life. Sports can help kids develop physical skills, get exercise, make friends, have fun, learn teamwork, learn to play fair, and improve self-esteem. The problem is that kids lose out on these values because they do not get to play sports at all. Research shows that, “According to Catholic social teaching, there is no question that all children should have access to affordable sports teams. ‘Playing sport itself has its own internal goods and intrinsic rewards, . . .”’ (Miller). Being able to