This is a trend that’s been accelerating for decades. Throughout the 20th century, free broadcasts, cheap tickets, heated rivalries, and fan-friendly game times cultivated generations of fans. Today, the NFL schedules games around the globe and has put Thanksgiving games on paid-subscription streaming services. Flashy facilities and ads for online gambling sites are ubiquitous. New stadiums come with personal seat licenses that require even well-off families to take out long-term financing. At the youth level, travel sports took off in the 1990s even as local leagues were allowed to atrophy, creating a toxic arms race that squeezes affluent parents and pushes out everyone else.
We act as if youth doomscrolling, TikTok voyeurism, and phone addiction were preordained, but I can’t help wondering if bored, self-involved adults contributed to the shift by pilfering so many of the spaces that kids used to inhabit. Instead of making it easier for all kids to touch grass, youth sports has become a gated community of $5,000-a-head travel teams and college recruiting consultants signing up middle schoolers. Inexpensive baseball cards and cheap stadium hot dogs have given way to pricey hologram-embossed collectibles and haute cuisine, all designed to siphon money from affluent professionals with too much time on their hands.
I can’t think of a clearer illustration as to why distrust in markets has skyrocketed among younger Americans. After all, the shifts that have boxed young people out have been driven by deep-pocketed owners and private equity firms who see untapped revenue in million-dollar luxury boxes and billion-dollar media deals. As David Rubenstein, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, said last week of his decision to buy the team, “A lot of my friends were buying teams, and I realized they’re making money. They’re making more money than I’m making in private equity.”
Sure, today we have nicer stadium seats, but they’re increasingly off-limits to kids and working families. Sure, stadiums boast gourmet food options and top-shelf booze, but the retirees and childless professionals who consume them have plenty of other venues where they can eat and drink well. Sure, more games are available via streaming services, but the cost of the requisite subscriptions means a lot of working families are out of luck.
The game-day experience wasn’t always crafted to court celebrities, cultivate corporate clients, or maximize revenues per seat. There used to be reasonably priced down-market beer, not-so-comfortable seats (bleachers, even!), and hardly any heated boxes. The experience wasn’t as “World Class,” but it was satisfactory and kid-friendly.
Now, in the era of $3,000 World Cup seats and $30,000 NFL super suites, only affluent families can attend games without taking out a loan. These experiences have become the province of retirees, childless professionals, and college grads looking for a lively weekend. Where are the kids? Sorry, they just don’t have the same earning potential, which is only too evident every time the camera pans the stands on an NFL Sunday or during an MLB playoff game.
