Field of Streams - Sizing the Youth Sports Market

We’re going to dive into some numbers to help better understand and appreciate the market size for youth sports. No better way to start than hijacking attention with some cat videos — an Internet staple since the dawn of modems.

So about the cats. If a market is a somewhat fuzzy triangulation of how much money is spent in a certain category, we can use cats as an example. One recent industry report puts US expenditures on pet services at $150 billion dollars for 2024 and growing this year. Let’s say we wanted to just know about cats. One way would be to look at pet ownership by type and apply a % — so, if cats represent 30% of pet ownership then we can put those expenditures at ~$45 billion.

Having some sense of different markets can be useful in our superlative obsessed culture (insane, amazing, wild, crazy, 🤯, millions, billions, trillions!) because the multiples do, in fact, matter. 👇

Now we have pets at $150B and cats at $45B, and since our attention grabbing cats are podcast bros, you might be curious about podcasting? In the US, podcasting is estimated at $8B. And rising (perhaps since cats are just getting into the pontification game?) — the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is forecast at 19% so an industry led by AI generated megastars may be $36B by 2030. 🐱🎙️

Here are a random smattering of others.

Ok, we have some anchors. So why/how is the US Youth Sports Market is estimated to be $30-40 billion dollars and in the same range as global podcasting, expenditures on cats, the gym/fitness market, and curiously, not too far from childcare? 🤔

How you arrive at a number can be straight math, some guessing, some finessing — some art, some science and sometimes pure BS-ing (be skeptical). In this case, the most quoted method begins with a survey establishing the percentage of kids who play some form of youth sports. Convert that to get an aggregate number and then multiply it times the average dollars spent by a household on youth sports. ✨

The New York Times recently published a piece on the market describing this same methodology: “About 60 million children play sports, and the average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on its child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46 percent increase since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute’s latest parent survey in partnership with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University.”

And a way to hedge on any model, is to hint at a possibly broader market. Thus, youth sports is often spoken about as having an “economic footprint” of possibly up to $100 billion and growing, and consequently drawing many recent investments from prominent private equity firms.

With parents spending all that money, it is natural to want to know where it is going. Any parent with kids playing on a club team will recognize that big Travel piece where a season spend can be multiple thousands. 12-year-olds flock to Ohio and Cooperstown All-Star Village every summer in a migration that is a great example of a single venue with a substantial financial impact to the tune of nearly $100 million/year. The other buckets: Fees, Gear, Coaching, and Clinics are all straightforward which makes this market breakdown method clear and concise.

Household spending is just one way to study this market. Another way is to look at the levels of play being offered and what types of organizations are involved.

Nearly all sports start with a foundation based on Rec and School Sports which can vary in structure but have a lot in common. They are typically low cost entry points, often run by non-profits and make use of public facilities. Think Little League and Cal Ripken Baseball, CYO, and all the public schools and private schools out there.

These are built on modest fees and often a lot of volunteers.

The last 10+ years have seen strong growth in Club/Travel Sports which sell a “premium” product marketed increasingly as experiential, expert, and critical for varsity or college outcomes. Dues typically range from $1000-$5000/year but can rise to more than $10,000.

At the very top is the Elite Academy / Specialized Coaching segment where you have intensive, single sport focused attention in the chase for “elite” prospects — define at your own peril. A place like IMG Academy in Florida has tuition that runs ~$85,000/year. Intense pressures and scrutiny on college opportunities be they scholarships, NIL money, or simply a roster spot are all big factors driving interest. And big firms are betting big on these pathways. One example was the sale of IMG for $1.25 billion in cash to a PE firm in 2023.

One final lens is to identify industry verticals that sometimes align with household spending and give a little more insight into what businesses and deals are part of the mix in building this market. Here we go.

No, you won’t be tested on any of this. The exciting takeaway is that there is a lot going on in youth sports and a lot of ways to look at it.

There are new business opportunities, new markets, new tech, new players, and lots of things in flux. Some aspects are easy to grouse about and some are just plain amazing.

Playtime is here to help you make sense of it all, perhaps learn a thing or two, and judge if that is your inclination.

Touch grass. See you next week.

PS. US Women’s Rugby tied Australia and are still alive in the Rugby World Cup. And, earlier this summer in the Little League tournament, a player flipped his bat after a home run, was suspended for sportsmanship, and then reinstated after an injunction. Well, his family just auctioned the bat for $10,000 and donated the money to their Haddonfield Little League in New Jersey 👏 👏 👏 which does $193k in revenue.