Connect with us

We Speak Financials

What Families Really Spend Chasing Youth Sports

Published

3 days ago

on

Ask a sports parent what the season costs and you will usually hear one number: the registration fee. Ask again in June, after the hotel weekends, the replaced cleats, the private lessons and the tournament gas, and the number has quietly grown a second digit. A major national survey now puts a hard figure on what families have long suspected.

The average U.S. family spent $1,016 on one child’s primary sport in 2024, according to the Aspen Institute’s Project Play survey, conducted with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University and released in 2025. That is a 46 percent increase since 2019, growing at about twice the rate of general inflation over the same period, the researchers found. Add the same child’s other sports, and the average family paid nearly $1,500 per child for the year.

The survey points to three main drivers: registration fees, travel and lodging for games away from home, and camps and private instruction. In other words, the sticker price is no longer the story. The travel calendar is. A regional tournament that requires two hotel nights can cost more than the league itself, and elite club and travel programs sit far above the average — Project Play’s researchers note that spending varies widely by sport and level, with some parents reporting estimates approaching $25,000 a year.

None of this makes the spending foolish, and this page will not pretend otherwise. Families are buying coaching, fitness, friendships, confidence and, for a few, a genuine path to a college roster. Those are real goods. But they are goods that deserve real budgeting, the same way a family would budget a car or a vacation: know the full number before the season starts, not after the credit card statement arrives.

There are honest ways to hold the line. Many clubs quietly offer sibling discounts, payment plans and scholarship help that only reach families who ask. Used-gear exchanges, shared rides and room splits with another family cut the travel bill without cutting the experience. And it is fair to ask a club, before signing, which tournaments are essential for your child’s age and which are optional.

The joy on the field is real. So is the invoice. The families who enjoy youth sports the longest tend to be the ones who planned for both.

More from We Speak Media
Related Topics:
Continue Reading

We Speak Financials

Formula 1’s Money Boom in America

Published

16 hours ago

on

October 27, 2026

By

A generation ago, Formula 1 treated the United States as a nice place to visit. Today it treats America as the engine room. Three U.S. races, a Las Vegas event the sport promotes itself, and team values that now rival the biggest franchises in American sports tell a story that is less about lap times than about money — and the money is moving fast.

Start with the valuations. In Forbes’ November 2025 ranking of Formula 1’s most valuable teams, Ferrari led the grid at an estimated $6.5 billion, with Mercedes second at $6 billion and McLaren third at $4.4 billion. Across all ten teams, the average valuation reached $3.6 billion — up 89 percent since 2023, according to Forbes — and every single team on the grid was valued at $1.5 billion or more. A cost cap introduced in 2021 turned teams from spending contests into controlled businesses, and investors have priced them accordingly.

Then there is Las Vegas. Formula 1 did something in Vegas it does almost nowhere else: it promoted the race itself, buying land, building a permanent pit facility and collecting the ticket and hospitality revenue directly. The inaugural 2023 race generated an estimated $1.5 billion in total economic impact for the city, according to analysis by Applied Analysis reported by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, including $884 million in visitor spending — with attendees spending about 3.6 times more than the average Las Vegas visitor. The race drew a global television audience reported at 59.3 million.

The audience story backs up the asset story. The inaugural Las Vegas race pulled 1.3 million U.S. viewers on ESPN despite a 1 a.m. Eastern start, and the sport’s American calendar — Austin, Miami and Las Vegas — now gives sponsors three premium weekends on U.S. soil instead of one novelty stop.

Austin’s long-running race and Miami’s event, added in 2022, round out the American trio, giving teams, sponsors and broadcasters a season-long presence in the sport’s largest commercial market rather than a single annual visit.

Put it together and the boom explains itself: capped costs, soaring team values, a self-promoted American flagship race, and sponsors paying record rates to stand next to all of it. Formula 1 did not just find America. It found America’s wallet — and America’s investors found it right back.

More from We Speak Media
Continue Reading

Trending