It’s time we start acting like it.
“The most valuable asset to the youth athletics industry isn’t the coach, organization, or software
It’s the Kids.
Is the current landscape and ‘the way things are these days’ prioritizing the overall development, health, & well being of the industry’s most valuable asset?
No.”
-Ray Zingler on X
In 2022, the youth sports industry was valued at $19.2B in the United States alone (per yahoo finance). Yes, that’s Billion with a B.
Politics, greed, wealth, power, strong-arming, manipulation. They are apparent in nearly all industries; however we mustn’t forget who, yes who, is the most important asset to the youth sports industry.
When we track it all the way back to the roots of the industry, by leaps and bounds, the most valuable asset to the industry is that little 6-year-old girl putting on her shin guards before going to soccer practice for the first time.
Not the coach, organization, equipment, tournament directors, software, or fields, either. None of it carries the value that the kids do, because without the kids required to “make it all go” none of what I’ve outlined has any value or function.
I am not implying that the resources that I’ve listed (any many more) are without value, nor do I have a problem with youth sports being an industry, paid coaches, or any of it.
I’m simply outlining the fact that regardless of how you look at it, there is no more important resource than the kids. This will forever be the truth.
What this means is that the kids and their families have the most leverage in the industry, despite it not feeling like it.
The reason it doesn’t feel this way in 2023 is because we have allowed for a shift. A shift from a kid-centric youth sports model to an adult profit model.
Just look at the lack of true development, pushing of club/travel ball at early ages, and the encouragement of early on-set specialization that are becoming more and more rampant with each passing day.
This isn’t about kids.
It’s about adults.
By funneling them into travel ball at 8 years old, they can “lock them in” (if you don’t get in early enough all the spots will be filled) and can “sell the dream” of being a star, but that requires 12 months a year of <insert sport>. Nonsense.
But is that what’s best for the kids?
Or is that what’s best to provide 12 months a year of steady income for adults?
Who is all this about, again?
It’s time we shift the pendulum back to a kid-centric model
.
