I highly recommend this video from More Perfect Union about how, as budgets for community parks and recreation programs have been stretched thin, private investors stepped in to profit from children's sports in expensive private leagues and facilities.
While countries like Norway ensure that all children have the right to safe and supportive participation in sports, U.S. families who can afford it are filling private sports programs requiring high entry fees, preferred hotels for out-of-town games, exclusive streaming rights for kids' games, and branded merch. Scheduling children in these intense programs requires equally intense involvement of caregivers – usually mothers.
It's yet another example of how privileged parents hoard opportunity via private, for-profit enclaves that dilute political support for public resources for all children. All the things that we've been told about sports: The character building, the healthy exercise, the potential for generous college scholarships – all are now monetized by investors and hoarded by parents focused only on what's best for their own kids.
Watch and wonder at what youth sports have become in the U.S.:
