I’ve been pondering this question for the last year. Then in yesterdays New York Times- David French wrote in his opinion piece “How can America be so Miserable when it is so Rich?”
But it’s not just Disney. The examples are all around us. This month, The Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article about the explosive costs of youth sports. The average family’s annual spending on baseball, for example, increased to $1,113 from $660 between 2019 and 2024. That’s partly because the nature of youth sports has changed. When I was young, we all owned a bat, a glove and a few balls. We signed up for Little League at a community table set up outside the entrance of the closest Walmart, and we joined teams with names like Tom’s Oil Change Tigers and Wayne’s Video Wildcats. And now? Travel sports have taken over, and travel sports are expensive. As The Journal reported, “Teenagers on travel teams are rolling into weekend tournaments wearing a few thousand dollars of apparel, equipment and swag.” Forget the local teams sponsored by local businesses. Now you often find yourself traveling regionally or maybe even nationally for teams called Alliance A or Alliance B, representing different branches of your chosen travel sports company.
NY Times Opinion 3/26/26 by David French
When I was a kid my community had—
A local baseball league with 6 teams per age group that played on local sandlots.
A local soccer league that played small sides through U14 on the fields that the school district shared with the local club. We played in a small side league all within a 20 minute drive.
A local basketball league with 10 teams in two age groups that played in the elementary school gyms.
Indoor soccer was mainly in gyms either using walls and a fuzzy tennis ball or 5 a side with on a gym floor.
Hockey was played in the basketball court without skates because there were so few ice rinks.
If we wanted to play basketball at anytime we’d go to one of the playgrounds and play outside.
The current world of sports is now focused on–
playing one sport in top notch facilities year round.
getting into advanced leagues so you can have a patch on your jersey.
driving 3-5 hours every weekend to play better competition.
weekend tournaments in exotic locations that parents pay air fare and hotel.
becoming the best players instead of developing better humans.
What can we do to make the games local so they build our community?
