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[QUOTE="Scooch, post: 2637981, member: 628"]
FWIW, participation in youth sports is cratering across the board.  A few random sports may be up, but overall we are seeing the lowest levels of participation in a generation.

And a huuuuuuuge factor of that decline is socio-economic.

The participation rates for kids in affluent homes have generally held up, but in middle-to-lower income homes the rates are tanking.

Like others have said, the insane approach to youth sports is causing millions of kids to abandon playing when they hit 10-12 years old.  One needs to play year-round on expensive club teams to continue their "careers" at that point.

Only in America could we turn [I][U]SOCCER[/U][/I] into a sport that requires it's young players to come from rich households.

*edit* As an aside, this dynamic is one of the reasons why I get so angry when adults complain about "kids these days".  Really?  Adults design smartphones and apps [U][I]specifically[/I][/U] for the purpose of making them addictive, then we put them in the hands of our pre-teens and blast them for exhibiting the behavior we wanted.  Adults make youth sports toxic, behaving like lunatics by screaming at coaches, refs and players.  Then we make them absurdly pay-to-play.  And we have the gall to bemoan that kids don't participate like they used to?!  It's infuriating.  We literally cause all these things and then blame the very kids we screwed up.
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