The Price of Youth Sports (Full Segment) | Real Sports w/ Bryant Gumbel | HBO

JON FRANKEL: These days, the places kids go

to play sports have gotten so big,

that you can only appreciate their size from high above.

Sprawling complexes with professional-grade fields,

where teams can play all day and all night.

And since there is no off-season anymore

in big time youth sports,

there are massive indoor facilities, too.

If you're a kid,

heck, if you're an adult, and you walk in here,

you think you've died and gone to sports heaven.

This is fantasy land for athletes.

FRANKEL: Dev Pathik is an owner

of Bo Jackson's Elite Sports in Ohio,

and is a consultant to facilities like this

throughout the US.

You got soccer over here,

you got a weight lifting facility here.

Regulation infield over here for baseball being used,

batting cages over there,

and we're standing on this tall gauntlet

which has climbing walls and climbing ropes

and everything else, what don't you have in here?

The facility's amazing, isn't it?

These kids come in here,

they get mental toughness training on this tower,

they get skills training out in the infield.

They're in the cages.

There're qualified, well-trained coaches.

These kids are headed somewhere.

FRANKEL: The Bo Dome, as it's known here

in Hilliard, Ohio, is part of a booming business.

-(METAL BAT CLINKS) -According to one estimate,

spending on youth sports, this year,

will top 17 billion dollars,

with some families spending 10,000 dollars a year per kid,

or more.

Some of these kids might spend a 150, even 175 dollars an hour,

to be with a collegiate-level coach.

They're spending 175 dollars an hour?

If they want to be prepared for college,

many of these consumers believe they need it.

And that's the sales pitch to parents?

The interesting thing about a facility like this

is there's no sales pitch necessary.

Parents with means are clamoring to put their kids

in the very best sports programs.

There is no sales pitch.

-This, with GB. Here we go. -(WHISTLE BLOWS)

FRANKEL: But there is a problem.

The price of playing sports has gotten so high,

that millions of kids can't keep up.

Researchers say that over the last decade,

there's been an 8 percent drop

in the number of American children

who play competitive sports.

Eight percent in just a decade.

For the first time in American history,

youth sports has become for the haves

and out of reach for the have-nots.

Now, even those who've profited from the trend,

like The Bo Dome's Dev Pathik,

think it's time to sound an alarm.

This gap between who gets to play and who doesn't

is widening. We're watching it before our eyes.

Those with means get to play, get to travel,

get to be on travel sports, leagues and private clubs,

and those who don't have means, don't get to play.

But we've long held the belief that sports is for everyone.

It's no longer the case.

Household income of less than 75,000 dollars a year

is dramatically less likely to play sport

than a household income of 100,000 dollars or more.

I need money in order to play something

that I once had for free?

It's a massive change in our society.

FRANKEL: Years ago, if a kid wanted to come out and play basketball,

-what would it cost them? -It was free.

If a kid wanted to play volleyball or softball?

Free.

And if a kid wanted to join the swimming team,

-be part of a swim meet? -Absolutely free.

And today, the idea of playing on a team

that's sponsored by parks and recreation,

participating in a tournament,

does that opportunity exist anymore?

Those days have pretty much gone away.

FRANKEL: Gary Bess has seen it happen

in his home city of St. Louis, Missouri,

where he's run public parks and recreation departments

for 40 years.

Bess says that public funds have gotten so tight,

that half of the rec centers in the city

have had to be shut down.

While ones that are still open are badly in need of repair.

It's part of a nationwide trend,

as cash-strapped communities, accepting that youth sports

has become a big-ticket private industry,

have cut back on providing free or inexpensive sports programs

and facilities to the public.

We have a two-tier system now.

The system of people who have money

that can pay for the travel sports,

and we have a diminishing role

of community recreation that can't compete.

FRANKEL: This public park in St. Louis County used to host

a thriving baseball league. Today, it is abandoned.

It's basically unusable.

The dugouts don't exist, the fields overgrown,

-Right. -there's no pitcher's mound.

-There's no base-- -Jon, would you play here?

Would you want your kids to play here in this condition?

-I'd probably let my dog run around in here. -Yeah.

I guess what it boils down to is sufficient revenue

to maintain the system.

We lost 12 million dollars out of our budget.

We lost 100 employees. Something's gotta give.

FRANKEL: Back in Hilliard, Ohio,

sports are thriving like never before.

At least, inside the walls of the Bo Dome,

with hundreds of kids spending thousands of dollars each.

But outside these walls, it's a different story.

Corinna Tucker and her husband moved to Hilliard

for the great school system and the opportunities

the town offered for their two daughters.

But after her husband lost his job,

and the girls asked to join a local soccer club,

the family found out just how inaccessible youth sports

in Hilliard can be.

There is a subliminal message that this ain't for everybody.

It's not. It's just not.

We might go to the same church, we might go to the same school,

but we don't have-- everything is not the same,

and that includes the play field.

-Your girls wanted soccer. -Mm-hmm.

-That was the thing that they... -Yeah.

-...really pointed out to you? -Yes.

-Could you afford it. -Um, no.

You're looking at about 1,200 dollars

before you start doing the actual travel.

FRANKEL: The stigma of hardship is why Corinna asked us

not to show her daughters' faces on television.

She says that when it comes to most youth sports

in Hilliard, her family is on the outside, looking in.

It's Saturday morning. We're out in the car,

and I've driving up,

and I'm seeing a large group of people.

I mean, it's packed. And this is what happens.

"Hey, that's my friend, Ava. Hey, that's my friend, Lindsay.

I know that's her. Why can't I play?

She's playing. She's my friend, Mom."

That's the difficult part.

FRANKEL: The disappointment was bitter,

but it got worse as Corinna advanced in her job

as a sales manager at a local hotel

and started working with a new set of clients.

Yes, travel sports teams coming to Hilliard

to play in youth tournaments.

They call and they book with me

and I negotiate the prices and the rights.

So you see all the money that's being spent on travel sports?

-Mm-hmm. -Do you see some irony here?

There's quite a bit of irony

because you're coming to my town to come play

and my kids can't do it.

My kids-- I can't afford to do that.

FRANKEL: The Tuckers are far from the only ones

left on the outside here.

So many children can't afford sports in Hilliard,

but just a few miles from the Bo Dome,

we found a very different kind of recreational program.

(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)

A faith-based organization for families in need.

It's a sign of the times.

For many kids today,

their only chance to play sports is charity.

Outside of your program,

how much access do these kids have to sports?

Very, very little to none.

FRANKEL: Kim Emch started this program

when she realized there were thousands of kids

in Hilliard who are underserved.

At this local church on a week night,

they get help with their homework

and a much-needed chance to run around.

Emch took us to the parts of Hilliard

that children she works with call home,

to show us their open play space.

These are the conditions that they're having to contend with?

-Right. Yeah. -And if they can't play here,

-what are they left with? -Yeah.

They're left with their video game

and their TV in their apartment on their couch.

And these same kids who are living here are going

to the elementary schools or the middle schools in town

with kids who have everything and more.

Right. Sorry, you guys, this is making me sad.

Yeah, it's terrible because...

they hear their friends talking about that,

and then they can't be involved at all.

Even where they live,

there isn't a place to play that's safe.

They don't have the same opportunities,

and it changes the trajectory of their life.

FRANKEL: The problem stretches far beyond Hilliard.

At least 25 million school-age children in America

now live in homes classified by the federal government

as low-income.

That's at least 25 million kids

who are being priced out of sports.

Worse still, the one place kids used to know

they'd get a chance to play is often no longer providing it.

Thanks to budget cuts in recent years

and an emphasis on test results mandated by federal law,

schools around the US have largely slashed

physical education from their programs.

There are very few kids in America who go to gym class

during the day anymore.

-Really? -Really.

It was the highlight of my day to go to gym class.

And you're telling me that most kids today

in America are not doing that?

Not only that, can you imagine

sitting in that chair for eight hours,

class after class, without physically moving,

without getting some physical exercise?

It's not good for kids.

FRANKEL: According to the Centers for Disease Control,

less than four percent of schools in the U.S.

require daily physical education.

Even when schools do have the money to offer

a wide variety of sports teams for their students,

like here in Hilliard,

many kids often decline to participate,

discouraged by their inability

to compete with the privately taught kids.

Every year, our numbers dwindle from eighth grade

to ninth grade to tenth grade.

A lower percentage of students are participating in sports.

Kids just simply are dropping out?

And I think it's probably that way

in any high school you would talk to.

FRANKEL: Dr. John Marschhausen is the superintendent

of the public school system in Hilliard.

There comes a point where the kids who played

the elite club are just head and shoulders

in terms of skill and talent.

They've been working on it for 12 months a year,

in some cases since they were in fourth grade.

Where does that leave the kid that can't afford to do that?

Well, we see them coming out to a point,

and then when they see that this isn't going to be an option,

they quit.

This is an uncomfortable issue.

For us as a public school district to say

we have kids who can't compete because of their socioeconomics.

And yeah, the opportunity is there,

because they can try out,

but because they don't have the skills,

it's not really there,

it's a false sense of opportunity.

Do you worry about the kid who's not in sports?

Yeah, I worry about the kid who might leave high school at 2:45

and has no structure from 2:45 until 10 at night.

What choices is that young man or that woman making?

Come on in, guys.

FRANKEL: Education officials aren't the only ones

worried about how many inactive kids there are today.

So is the medical community.

At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,

doctors are so concerned about the rise in childhood obesity

that they don't just focus on eating habits.

They are prescribing another remedy

for their young patients: exercise.

INSTRUCTOR: Two, three, four...

FRANKEL: The therapists here have a simple goal.

Get the kids moving

and more comfortable in their bodies.

Because their future depends on it.

Today, we're at close to 40 percent of our children

are obese, overweight.

They will have diabetes and other health consequences

that will cost all of us a tremendous amount of money.

This is a health crisis.

FRANKEL: For Dev Pathik,

who helped fuel the boom in youth sports

and now sees the downside, the stakes couldn't be higher.

He sees a generation of kids in the balance.

This crisis that we see in terms of who's getting access

in this disparity, it will go on for many, many years to come.

We have to come up with solutions now.

Thanks for watching.

Remember, you can catch the rest

of the latest edition of Real Sports

all month long on HBO.

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