I’m starting to think that the most “scam-susceptible” group of people on the face of the earth are youth sports parents. I’ve been pondering this for quite some time, increasingly as I look at the data and then hear/see the anecdotal stories of parents who believe they are paving the way for their kids to be the next “World’s Greatest Athlete.” The reality is that most of these parents are paving the way to a depleted bank account, unfulfilled dreams, buckling-under-the-pressure-kids, and the realization that living vicariously through the unrealilzed athletic accomplishment expectations heaped on your children leaves you feeling more empty than you did before.
This whole thing popped up on my radar again this morning as I read a Facebook post (see below) from my friend Kristen Sterk, a young mom who was simply asking us all to think out loud about the true price of youth sports. I wish more parents were calling out the Youth Sports Industrial Complex, or what might more accurately be called “Parents Gone Wild.”
A few years back I learned about a youth baseball experience that takes place at the Cooperstown Dreams Park in New York State. Kristen mentioned it in her post so I went to revisit the Cooperstown Dreams Park site to learn more about how it’s grown over the years. Now granted, this is just one of who-knows-how-many examples of this youth sports camp and tournament stuff that happens every year. Sometimes these things are branded with terms like “Nationals” which adds to the aura of possibilites for sports parents and their kids. Imagine being able to post something like this: “So excited that Trevor and his u12 travel all-star team have been invited to travel to __________ to play for in the Nationals!” Impressive, isn’t it. But don’t jump to too many conclusions.
The bottom line is this: it’s the tournament organizers who have fooled you into not only believing that your son Trevor received a coveted and well-deserved invitation based on his baseball (or whatever other sport) prowess, but they’ve fooled you too! The reality is that this is big, big business. Are you aware that youth sports pumps $40 billion a year into the economy? And, did you know that that’s a 46% increase in spending since 2019. So much of this is not driven by the good-old local rec league where kids are taught to learn a sport, try hard, work as a team, and have fun. No, it’s being driven by the rise in travel teams, the hiring of private coaches, the price to plug into the growing number of specialized sports facilities, and the amount of money spent on travel, food, and lodging by parents who are more than willing to sacrifice weekend after weekend in the pursuit of what our culture now calls “success.”
At this point, you might want to pause and Google, “What phrase was P.T. Barnum know for?”
So. . . let’s get a little boots-on-the-ground perspective here. A quick search took me to the site of a local Athletic Association in Florida. They’re currently putting a summer 2026 trip to Cooperstown together for their U12 All-Star team. There’s a spot on the site for interested parents where the question “What does it cost?” is answered. Get out your calculator. . . All Star costs are determined by the costs of the tournaments the team chooses to participate in as well as the cost of uniforms. Which averages $500 to $750. There is an additional cost for the Cooperstown tournament. The Cooperstown tournament will cost approximately $1300 per child and per coach plus additional travel costs. The cost only covers the player. It does not include the player’s family. If the family wishes to accompany their children to Cooperstown the expenses for travel, accommodations, and other expenses are their responsibility. The average cost for a family of 3 (not including the player) is $4,000. This covers travel, food and accommodations. Now, multiply this by the number of teams and players that will make the trek to Cooperstown this summer. Wondering how many? That’s 15 weeks of up to 104 teams per week! That’s thousands upon thousands of players, coaches, parents, and families per summer. I would imagine that the picture of whoever is at the helm of these kinds of tournament organizations features a guy doubled over in having-the-last-laugh-laughter.
So when we think about the loss to families of time and money. . . time and money willingly spent . . . we need to ask ourselves if there’s anything we can learn from this emerging cultural trend. Perhaps the words spoken by a friend several years back are helpful to consider: “You tell me how you spend your time and money, and I’ll tell you who or what your god is.” Idols come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they? And if you know anything at all about the transmission of faith and values from one generation to another, you know that the younger generation is always watching, learning, and replicating that which is taught by the prior generation. That includes worship of the One True God, and the worship of idols.
Over the last few days I’ve been reading through 2 Chronicles, a book that offers fascinating insight into who we are human beings. We have a default setting to sin. And whenever God’s people would forsake Him and turn to idols, they would be called out. From time to time a king would come along who would tear down the idols and restore the worship of the One True God. But as people are so apt to do, it would only be a matter of time before the idols would be erected once again. That pattern has been repeating itself for thousands of years.
Let it be known, I love sports. My kids have played sports. I have coached sports. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying God’s good gift of sport and play. But when this good thing becomes an ultimate thing. . . well, we are in need of some good-old idol-smashing.
I’m so appreciative for CPYU Research Fellow Jason Engle and the Parent Prompt he wrote on Youth Sports & Church Participation. You can access and download that free CPYU resource here. This Parent Prompt will help you consider a biblical approach to responsibly managing youth sports, rather than allowing youth sports to manage you.
Let’s continue to play. . . but do so in ways that responsibly steward our time, our money, our attention, and the well-being of our kids. And when we play, let’s do it to the glory of God.