By 2025, the estimated annual revenue of the youth sports business had doubled from its pre-pandemic size to $40 billion, despite a modest decline from pre-pandemic participation levels. At the same time, any parent who could still afford to shell out a second mortgage payment for travel soccer/taekwondo/speed skating after COVID was more determined than ever to do so, because the specter of screen addiction was orders of magnitude more terrifying than the thought of not getting into a respectable college. Family spending on youth sports rose 46 percent from 2019 to 2024, and parents are running GoFundMe campaigns to get their kids to that Little League tournament in Cooperstown.
