Tag Archives: youth sports

Suburban reasons for the prevalence and expenses of youth sports

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Here are some thoughts about how the suburbanization of the United States might be related to two concerns I have read/seen/heard multiple times in recent years: (1) most kids sports activity takes place in structured leagues and programs with a big rise in travel sports and (2) participation in these structured sports is expensive. There are lots of explanations for this but few take into account the setting where a majority of Americans live and how this has shaped these patterns. Are the sports opportunities kids get connected to suburban lifestyles?

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  1. Sprawling suburban landscapes can make it hard for kids to get together and just play. On one hand, suburban yards would seem to provide ample opportunities. And there are parks and school grounds scattered across suburbs. But much of suburban life requires driving and until kids have licenses, they need other people to drive them. Put this together with fears for safety in suburbia (see Neighborhood of Fear by historian Kyle Riismandel for how this happened) and kids don’t get together to play sports with each other outside. In how many suburbs today could the baseball team depicted in The Sandlot play regularly and where would those games take place?
  2. Suburbs suggest a certain social class standing and suburban households desire that their kids are successful or get ahead. Instead of playing sports for fun and to develop as a person, sports are a possible pathway to success and fame. Partaking of these sports options provides room to share about kids’ successes. And plenty of suburban households have disposable income to make this happen. Why play around when you can pay for travel sports and lessons and camps and equipment? This reminded me of Richard Reeves’ book Dream Hoarders where the top 20% of American earners look to secure advantages for themselves and their kids.
  3. Local governments and private companies are willing to provide these sports opportunities. They can claim this is what residents and customers want. And there is money to generate or be made from people willing to pay. As the trust Americans have in more traditional institutions have decreased, suburbanites are willing to invest time and money in sports leagues and programs where they might feel they have more control over outcomes. And why not rep a local team or club rather than wade into national polarization?

Another way to put this: could the United States have such a system of youth sports if it was not a suburban country?

Former suburban college campus to large youth sports facility

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Add another redevelopment option for suburban communities: large parcels of land, like former college campuses – Trinity International in Bannockburn, Illinois in this example, can become youth sports sites:

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Now he has pivoted from that proposal to a larger one on the Trinity campus, which already includes about 60 acres of sports fields and facilities. Donato said he will run indoor youth sports leagues immediately at an existing Trinity athletic center, but will ultimately raze the building and replace it with an indoor sports complex as large as 400,000 square feet. That building would combine with adjacent outdoor athletic fields to create what he envisions as a destination for area youth sports leagues and camps.

The project — which is subject to approval from the Village of Bannockburn — stands to breathe new life into a large suburban property that has been underutilized since Trinity closed in-person undergraduate programs there in 2023. The religious school announced in April that it would vacate the property entirely after the 2025-26 school year, adding it to the list of sprawling suburban properties in need of revitalization following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donato said his planned indoor complex would include a professional-size soccer field, a gym with eight basketball courts and a portion of the building with “kids-oriented” activities such as bowling, miniature golf, an arcade, a restaurant and other attractions that could host as many as 5,000 kids on a given weekend. A portion of the existing grass field area would be converted into artificial turf fields.

As the college was shutting down there was one other redevelopment option that fell through:

Trinity had been working on a deal in 2024 to sell its campus to Dallas-based developer Hillwood, which publicly shared plans at the time to turn the site into a biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and technology park. A unit of Takeda Pharmaceuticals operates out of a building next to the campus along Lakeside Drive.

The option in the last paragraph is one that many suburbs would like: research and technology jobs in suburban offices. These are good jobs with high status companies.

Youth sports facilities are something else. They are part of a growing industry. (College and universities may be going the other way.) Suburban families and kids can have a lot of interest in sports. Such a facility can provide options for year-round activity.

And perhaps key to this: the youth sports facilities can generate revenue. Tax monies. Companies will be interested. Training kids in sports and providing sports entertainment can involve a lot of money.

A change in property status could bring out objections from neighbors. People get used to being near a college, now that property could become something else. But suburbanites like the idea that their kids are going to get ahead, suburban communities do not like vacant properties, and Americans like sports. And there is money to be made…