Over the weekend, the Little League World Series will wrap for 2021, showcasing what is GREAT about and what is reprehensively BROKEN with youth sports in America.
The GREAT
I do love watching the LLWS each August – the smiles on the faces of the players as they round the bases, steal a base, make a diving catch, or soaking in the limelight of a national television audience on ESPN.
It’s cool to see the comradery amongst coaches, players, parents, and, even, the grace shown between competitors.
The BEST part of the LLWS may very well be what happens after the game is over – the culture of sportsmanship exhibited by all throughout the fierce competition.
Oh, how I wish I could concentrate on only the GREAT.
The BROKEN
As these young athletes hustle out to their positions on Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania to the adoration of 45,000 fans at full capacity, it is difficult to think that anything is markedly askew. But, then again, maybe the lavish stadium is actually the first sign of the serious economics at play. This part of the festivities, alas, has nothing to do with players or parents, and everything to do with business people getting rich because of them.
The worst part, to me, is best explained by numbers – BIG numbers.
$33,000,000: Little League International’s annual revenue (as a non-profit).
$8,000,000: the estimated annual contract proceeds from an exclusive broadcasting rights deal with ESPN (renewed through 2030).
$510,000: the approximate amount of total compensation of Little League’s President & CEO (as reported in 2017 tax filings).
$800,000: the approximate amount of total combined compensation of the Little League’s other (non-CEO) top 6 executives (from 2017 tax form 990). These individual’s salaries range from about $250,000 to around $100,000 annually.
$10,000: the estimated amount spent per family to compete in the 2021 Little League World Series – including expenses through regional qualifying and in competing for a world title in the mecca of Little League baseball this Sunday.
$3,700: the average annual cost per child of participation in travel baseball.
This is BROKEN.
And, parents are BROKE.
What family can afford paying $10,000, or, hell, even the meager average of $4,000 for a summer of America’s pastime?
The answer: only the children of the uber wealthy, those drowning in debt, or, perhaps, those of Little League execs.
Not Only a Little League Problem
To be fair, the rising costs and demands of travel in youth sport has reached epidemic levels in more than baseball. According to The Aspen Institute, “…on average, across all sports, parents spent more annually on travel than equipment, private lessons, registration fees, and camps.”
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What?
If this trend hasn’t reached your kids’ team yet, I can assure you, IT WILL. And, even worse, statistics show that parents will stand in line and pay endlessly – even if we must take on massive debt to do so.
Why is this so bad? This is a choice.
I mean, if you don’t want to face the mounting bills that finance the Mercedes-Benz of the soccer/baseball/cheer club’s CEO, you don’t have to participate?
Just quit!
Those teams (and parents) in Williamsport knew they’d have to stay for two weeks in hotels, buy airline tickets, eat out every night, right?
That’s a fair criticism – once you’re on a team.
Before you make the team, though, the rising costs to a family of average means are not a matter of prioritizing expenses, they are prohibitive to anyone not making combined households like those of the individuals that lead the very organization they’re trying to play for.
Lower and middle class parents and kids are out.
Inner city kids are OUT.
Minorities are OUT.
Upper middle class families with more than a few kids – OUT.
Kids attempting to “try” a new sport – NO WAY.
Where does this money train finally stop? Certainly not in Williamsport, Pennsylvania during Sunday’s championship game.
But, I’ll still watch. (sigh)
I’ll be tuned into ESPN to see these young baseballers give it their all. I’ll love watching the prideful smiles of the parents that have made the trip to watch their son or daughter take the field to represent their state and family name. I cannot imagine the life-long memories they are creating through the last month of play.
I will also, though, feel sick.
Sick thinking about the credit card bills that await these parents when they return home from this glorious adventure. I’ll be sick that these parents would have been put in the position of either (a) devastating their child or (b) going broke to provide this opportunity to them.
Most of all, I’ll be sick taking notice of the Little League and ESPN executives sitting in the cushy boxes just above these parents with no such problems awaiting them – all while preaching sportsmanship, fun, and fair play. These suite inhabitants will be praising the Little League experience all the way to the bank. Because, for them, the Little League World Series is not a priceless, memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience – it is an easy buck.
Wait, no – MILLIONS of bucks.
