Parents with kids ages 6-18 identified basketball (22%), baseball (15%), soccer (14%), tackle football (8%), and gymnastics (6%) as the most popular.Įven before the pandemic, the youth sports ecosystem lost almost 3 million kids during the transition from elementary to middle school ages. Similar results were found in an Aspen Institute/Utah State University survey in 2020 during the pandemic, when youth sports parents were asked what they would consider their child’s primary sport. Worth noting: Although football is America’s most popular spectator sport, the number of football participants at ages 13-17 (1.46 million) still trails basketball (3.44 million), baseball (2.18 million) and soccer (1.48 million) and is only slightly ahead of tennis (1.41 million). Might an individual sport like tennis gain future popularity because it’s a socially distant sport? Tennis (5%) and cheerleading (4%) had the steepest declines. Softball (12%), lacrosse (8%), field hockey (8%), volleyball (8%) enjoyed the highest rate of participation growth. In 2019, many sports were experiencing gains among youth ages 13-17. The COVID-19 shutdown will become an inflection point for participation and it’s difficult yet to sort out what that will look like.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |