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Though most football fans donāt need me to tell them this, the World Cup dodged a serious bullet when enough of its members insisted that FIFA abandon its scheme to sell stakes in its major tournaments to private American investors. For sports in America, once a joyous opportunity for young people to get out in the fresh air, get exercise, make friends, learn the values of good sportsmanship and experience the risks and rewards of being on a team, has in recent years become an over-commercialised, over-competitive racket which is increasingly unaffordable for many hopeful participants and fans, crushing the spirits of many young players, and bringing out the worst in pushy or insecure parents.
Americaās most popular sports, particularly baseball, American football, ice hockey and basketball, largely take place on a national level. The so-called World Series marking the end of the annual baseball season is famously a competition in which 29 US-based teams, and just one foreign team, the Toronto Blue Jays from Canada, are eligible to play. No foreign teams compete in the games leading up to the annual football championship, the Super Bowl, either, though the National Football League which oversees the sport is trying to expand international viewership by holding some of its games overseas. Only basketball and ice hockey are Olympic Sports, which truly pit American players against the rest of the world, but these only take place every four years.
As a result, for most of the time, American attitudes towards sport are very insular, and mainly focussed on the competitions which take place at the local and state level, rather than national, let alone international. This explains their wonder during the recent World Cup, when they got a chance to see how other countries pursue their sports. Many Americans were bowled over by the fierce national support combined with good-humoured rivalry displayed by most international fans, as exemplified by the bagpipe-playing Scottish Tartan Army; the Norse Viking rowers, and the Wonderwall-singing English fans.
The Norwegian team received a particularly high level of attention, partly because of the rowing of their fans, partly because of the charisma and talent of its star player, Erling Haaland, but also because the team went so far in the tournament despite coming from a relatively small nation. Many sports writers and analysts were struck by the unusual sports culture in Norway, which focuses on enjoyment, inclusion and social development rather than competition between players at younger ages, and only allows kids to take part in more serious play after they have turned 13.
This is in complete contrast to how youth sports is developed in America, where talent scouts are trying to identify the next superstar at ever younger ages. And, like almost everything in this country, private entrepreneurs and businesses have also spotted an ever growing opportunity to make money from Americansā love of sport. These days, even at the early childhood level, many youth sports have become joyless, ruthless, and exploitative.
āField of Dreamsā ā At an Unaffordable Cost
Take baseball. There are wonderful nostalgic films about what is often described as Americaās National Pastime ā harking back to the good olā times, when kids gathered in a dusty lot on the edge of town, flipped coins to form sides, and played pick-up games of baseball, sharing whatever equipment they had to hand. The mystical 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, drapes the sport in sepia-coloured nostalgia, telling the story of an Iowa farmer who hears voices in his head telling him to build a baseball field in his cornfield, which then attracts the ghosts of baseball legends to come together to play one last game. The feelgood 1993 movie, The Sandlot, relays the adventures and mishaps in 1960s America of a shy young boy who makes friends with a group of neighbourhood kids through their shared love of baseball.
This is not the baseball of today. Though most towns and communities still have local Little League branches, for kids aged from 5 to 12, where Dads coach teams in generally friendly games, and where the emphasis still remains on participation and fun, growing commercialism has crept in. Increasingly, the kids whose parents can afford to buy them the best equipment or give them private coaching lessons, get played more frequently in the field, while less talented, well-equipped or well-coached kids, sit on the bench. Increasingly, there is competition to get on the ābetterā teams, and win the end-of-season tournaments.
Healthy competition is to be welcomed. But baseball is progressively straying from this. As early as age 10, the best players get selected to be on what is called an āAll-Starā team, to take part in competitions against rival Little Leagues. At age 11, these competitions go up to the state level. At age 12, the best teams from across the nation make it to the LIttle League World Series, where national talent scouts are already on the lookout for the next great baseball star. Itās still mostly fun, but becoming ever more intense.
Also from about age 10, keen players start joining so-called āTravel Teamsā. These are teams with professional coaches, who sign up to play in regional competitions and tournaments, often traveling to locations many hours away from home.
As the competition becomes more fierce, so the costs involved go up. There are fees to join the travel teams, and fees to take part in regional tournaments. There are travel costs to faraway tournaments, costs to stay in hotels, and costs to eat out on the road. Some team managers insist that all players and accompanying adults should stay in the same hotel, or take meals together, meaning you are not allowed to seek out a more affordable option if you want to.
Even the most basic equipment ā a glove, bat, shoes, helmet and cap ā can run to many hundreds of dollars. Naturally, most kids want the branded bats, (think the highly sought after āNimbus 500ā Quidditch flying broom in the Harry Potter books) which can run to over $400 apiece. Each team has to have its own uniforms. Some teams insist you only buy gear from a supplier with whom they have a special commercial arrangement. On top of that, each tournament will have its own rules on which kind of bat, glove or shoe is allowable, meaning parents often have to buy multiple versions of the same thing. Sometimes, the local or national governing baseball body will also decide to change its own guidelines on acceptable gear, necessitating even more purchases.
If you want your kid to get good playing time, you have to be willing to drive out to practices and coaching sessions several times a week, burning up petrol, adding to the wear and tear on your car, and regularly clogging suburban roads, as hassled parents struggle through the traffic. The coaching is usually private, and usually involves additional fees.
Pressured by Apps, Ads and Parental Anxiety
Perhaps it wouldnāt matter, if your kid didnāt mind getting only occasional play time, and was happy to be part of the team for fun. But, the system is designed to make anxious parents feel guilty if their kid is not getting the same opportunities as everyone else, and to make the kids themselves feel awful, if they donāt play well, and are accused of letting the whole team down. Many parents also nurture the dream that their child will be āThe Oneā, who wins a scholarship to college, and makes it to the big leagues. The exorbitant cost of college in America adds to the pressure on parents and kids to chase this kind of success, even though privately most know the odds are against them.
Iām under no illusion about the chances of my own child becoming a baseball superstar. But, hardly a week goes by without me receiving some importuning message from a baseball company or individual, claiming to be a scout who can put my son on the path towards a college scholarship. I donāt know if he is unlucky, or fortunate, that as someone who did not grow up playing baseball, I simply donāt know which offers are serious, and which ones are scams, so just ignore them all.
The most pernicious way in which both these ambitions and insecurities are fostered is through an app designed by the sports retailing behemoth, Dicks Sporting Goods, called GameChanger. This truly remarkable app allows you to follow all your teamās games live, with video footage, and updates of the score in real time. You get to see your own kid go up to bat; you get to see who made the hit, and who struck out; you get to see who made the brilliant catch, and who dropped the ball. So you know exactly how well or how badly your kid is doing. Even worse, the app accumulates his or her statistics over the season, and allows you to compare it with others on the team. My own son has such statistics on his own performance in every single game going back to when he was aged just 10.
Unfortunately, the app is extremely addictive. After every game, most parents pore over their own kidās record and inevitably are tempted to compare it with others. The most pushy ones can use the statistics to complain to the coaches, if they think their child should get more playing time because theyāre playing well, or to whinge privately, if they believe the coach is giving too much playing time to weaker players. In most cases, the players themselves can also access the statistics and compare themselves with others, fuelling their insecurity, or making them over-confident.
Baseball used to be played only in the spring, with kids taking a break over the summer, and playing other sports in the fall and winter. Now, if your kid wants to preserve their place on a good team, they are expected to keep playing from March to November, and continue training over the winter with private coaches. There is almost no time for other sports, or for tired arms to rest and recover. This has led to a shocking 400% increase in the past two decades in teen baseball pitchers requiring surgery on their elbows as a result of being required to throw the ball too hard, too often, before they are fully developed. The surgery is usually successful, but can run to tens of thousands of dollars.
Unhealthy Competition vs Nostalgia for Innocence
It wasnāt always thus. My American friends all wistfully recall a more innocent time, when they played a variety of sports for fun, and everyone, even the weaker players, got their āturnā on the team.
The curse of increasingly unhealthy competition at youth levels is now occurring in almost every sport. I regularly hear from unhappy friends whose child was left in tears, because they were deemed not good enough to take part in an event, or to be on the team, or who were simply neglected by coaches, even those being paid by the parents, because the coaches simply preferred to focus on the more talented players.
The pressure to perform at high level becomes almost unbearable by high school, where pushy parents or ambitious kids become obsessed with making the team. American High School football games have taken on an almost professional veneer, with commercial sponsorship of facilities and equipment, camera recordings on the sidelines, marching bands, cheerleaders and half-time shows.
At college level, athletes, who are supposed to be playing as amateurs, are now eligible to be paid for their services, leading to an absurd situation where some gifted players are now choosing to stay on an extra year or two at university, because they can get paid more at that level, than they would if they accepted a place as a second or third string player on a professional team.
Across the board, the desire to wring as much money as possible out of every sporting event in America is making most games both more expensive and less enjoyable to watch. More games are squeezed into already tight schedules, putting more demands on the players and increasing the risk of injury. For fans, every seat is more expensive. Food and drinks at venues are more expensive. Games go on too long, play is sometimes delayed, or artificial breaks are introduced (as at the World Cup) so that more commercials can be played.
At the US Open this month, banks of seats were left empty as scalpers were allowed to buy up the cheap tickets, and over-price them for real fans. More seats this year were reserved for corporate entertainment, whose attendees were more interested in socialising with each other or posting influencer videos, than actually watching the tennis. Daily play was also divided into two sessions ā a daytime and a night-time one ā requiring separate tickets, so that more tickets could be sold. The desire to have more games running at peak TV time in the evening also resulted in some games starting so late or running on so long that fans were unable to stay awake long enough to watch them. The best match of the tournament so far, a brilliant five-setter between the defending champion and number two seed, Carlos Alcaraz, and the rising American star, Ben Shelton, was missed by thousands of tennis fans because it didnāt start till after 11pm and only ended at 3.30 am the next morning.
In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex ā an over-close relationship between the military and defense contractors which risked creating undue influence over Government decisions and undermining democracy. Today, if the US wants to retain its status as a top sporting nation, or, even more importantly, if it cares about the mental and physical well-being of its youth, it should also heed the dangers of its burgeoning Sports-Industrial Complex. It could learn a lot from the Norwegian model.
Unfortunately, the same thing seems to be happening to sports in the UK. For most youngsters, and parents, the focus seems to be on becoming a professional, doing well enough to get a youth contract with a professional team, ignoring the fact that only a tiny percentage will ever manage this.
There are all too many people ready to take financial advantage via charges for coaching and equipment. There is now a plethora of āperformanceā apps available, with even childrenās and youth games subject to the analysis that even professional sports were not subject to.
There have also been a series of scandals regarding the sexual abuse of young players by adults within the āsystemā, which has resulted in some safeguarding improvement.
Am I looking back through rose-tinted glasses to an imaginary time when sport was enjoyment?