00:00Family spending on youth sports is up 46% over the last five years.
00:04Our senior reporter, Randall Williams, he covers business of sports, has been following this story, and he joins us now.
00:10And Randall, by some estimates, this is a $40 billion-plus industry that is funded by private equity.
00:16And so no surprise, then, it's become hyper-competitive and hyper-specialized.
00:20Yeah, I mean, when private equity gets into something, of course, they want to maximize profit, and that's not always
00:25a good thing for youth sports.
00:26People think of youth sports as the level before college sports, and college sports, of course, is welcoming private equity
00:32as well.
00:33But with NIL, with a bunch of different mechanisms, it's sort of the amateur level.
00:37And I think youth sports isn't meant to be that, but it's becoming that because you can identify talent earlier
00:42on, which therefore could lead to brand collaborations and so many other things.
00:46So youth sports is a huge industry that we're seeing private equity get into and other investors as well.
00:52How has technology accelerated this? Because we talk about private equity getting in.
00:56And we talk about NIL. Those are two distinct things.
00:59But technology has made it even more hyper, hyper-intense.
01:03Well, it's interesting.
01:04When I was growing up, my dad and my mom would have a film camera that they would shoot it
01:09for.
01:09But that was just for fun.
01:10I had my aspirations of going to the NFL ended at 15.
01:13But now you have people using apps like Game Changer, which you can literally just film the entire thing,
01:19create a highlight reel for your child, and then email it to scouts themselves.
01:22And, of course, the supporters behind an app like Game Changer are going to pour money into it, say, use
01:28our app, and then you can go and market yourself.
01:30And a lot of times this NIL money that athletes are able to sign earlier and earlier can change a
01:35family's life.
01:36So the parents are pushing it and having to spend more as well.
01:38Exactly like you, I remember exactly where I was standing when I realized I would not play for the Montreal
01:45Canadiens.
01:46Are we telling the kids today, I'm sorry, name, what's it, name, image, likeness?
01:51Yeah.
01:51You're playing D3 if you're lucky.
01:53Are we, within all the different sports, informing the children of how special those people are playing major D1 and
02:01pro?
02:01I don't think so, not anymore, and the reason for that is because, you know, you have low-level athletes
02:06who can make anywhere from $50 to $60 to $20 to $30 to sometimes hundreds of $1,000 a semester.
02:12Yeah.
02:12And so their families are like, listen, you don't have to go to the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, the
02:17MLS, and so many other leagues anymore.
02:19You just have to go and play in college as long as you can so that you can provide for
02:23our family for our four- to five-year periods, and then they go into jobs like us.
02:26And so it is a very interesting time in college sports where you have people who want to play for
02:32five, six, sometimes seven years in college just so they can make money and name, image, and likeness.
02:37Seven years.
02:37I started off by talking about the World Cup.
02:40How has the professionalization of youth sports contributed perhaps to the U.S. not being as well prepared for something
02:46like the World Cup?
02:47Because that's the criticism.
02:48Right.
02:48I think that if you look at Europe, and Europe has these youth camps that you think of Lionel Messi,
02:55he was with Barcelona at a very young age and then raised in that system against a lot of top
03:00-tier competition.
03:00That doesn't really exist here.
03:02Of course, we have youth soccer clubs and camps, but it's not to the same level.
03:06You've never seen a 13-year-old sign to NYCFC.
03:10It just doesn't happen the same way.
03:12And so because of that and because of the rising cost, you think of the travel, you think of the
03:16cleats, you think of the lodging and tournaments and all of these different fees.
03:20You have parents who are like, you know, I think I'm good.
03:23You can play a different sport or you can just go and be an academic scholar.
03:27Can anybody beat France?
03:28I think they can.
03:29I think Spain can.
03:30I think England can.
03:31I think Argentina can.
03:32But it's going to take you on your best day, and you're going to have to shut down a bunch
03:36of different superstars.
03:37It's like playing against the Golden State Warriors with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
03:42They are at that level good.
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