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As costs for youth sports are rising, the burdens being placed on parents and families are growing.
That’s the takeaway from the 2026 Good Sports Cost of Play Index, conducted by the Harris Poll. And with pay to play and travel programs becoming more of a norm, there’s increasing concern about affordability
“It’s not that just youth sports is expensive, but it’s actually becoming a reason that parents and families are thinking about pulling out their kids from playing,” said Christy Keswick, president and co-founder of the Braintree-based Good Sports. “Fundamentally, that is concerning because we know there’s such great benefits, long-term benefits of kids being active in youth sports and the lifelong benefits that are associated with it. So when we hear things like that it definitely gets us concerned.”
Good Sports commissioned The Harris Poll to survey more than 500 U.S. parents of children under 18 to get a sense of where things stand. And the numbers are sobering.
More than two-thirds (68%) of parents of kids who’ve played sports say they’ve seriously considered getting them out. Unsustainability was the biggest reason. According to The Aspen Institute’s Project Play, the average family in the U.S. spent over $1,000 for one child’s sports experience in 2024.
More than half (53%) of parents are worried they won’t be able to put their children in a sport next year due to rising costs of participating in sports.
Additionally, 77% of surveyed parents believe the growth of private clubs and travel teams is pricing many children out of participation. And 67% say affordable and school-based youth sports opportunities have declined over the past five years.
All of that tracks with what Steph Lewis, president and CEO of Roxbury-based youth sports nonprofit The BASE, has seen.
“Youth sports, as a whole, has just become such a private money-builder. And it’s just something that has been a bit unfortunate,” Lewis said. “It almost feels as if youth sports is intellectual property in a sense. You have to buy in, in order for your child to learn this particular sport.”
Lewis has seen the pay-to-play model and expensive tournaments increase over the past decade or so. Now, that’s become the norm.
“And the unfortunate part, again, is families feel as if in order to get a great experience, they have to pay,” he said. “There has to be more offerings out there to be able to prove that, be able to showcase that as well — that people can get a great experience with little to no cost.”
Keswick said there’s been a fundamental change in youth sports over the past decade or so, as the demand for pay to play, travel and club programs has risen. And as community programs that offer cheaper alternatives struggle to keep up with costs they’re losing kids to the more expensive options.
As she puts it, parents feel the pull to put their kids in better programs with better coaches and more opportunity. But she said the reality is that most kids don’t need that kind of competition or intensity.
She hopes to see an increase in investment in more community-focused options, similar to what’s happened on the other side of the spectrum.
“So I think when it comes to brands that are involved in sports, when it comes to professional teams and leagues, I think this is an area, I mean they already do, but I think really have an opportunity to step up their investment to make sure that that whole spectrum of youth sports is viable and sustainable and there for the future,” she said.
