Youth Sports Shouldn't Be a Privilege for the Rich

It’s often said a parent’s love can’t be measured, but a recent survey on youth sports may come close. For each day a child plays a sport, researchers found, parents expend three hours and 23 minutes in effort: organizing and driving, watching games and practices, making snacks and doing laundry.

Then there’s the money. At $40 billion per year, spending on youth sports has surged in recent years. This burden falls disproportionately on middle-class parents, whose average annual expenses of more than $1,000 (for a single sport) comprise a larger portion of their income than the wealthy. The poorest kids, meanwhile, are getting edged out. Participation rates among families making less than $25,000 have fallen more than 10 percentage points in about a decade.