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Friday, Jan. 16, 2026

Did youth sports get more expensive between 2018 and 2024?

Kate Reynolds, The Nevada Independent
yes

The amount of money the average American family spent on one child’s sports team significantly increased from 2018 to 2024, rising from $693 to $1,016. 

Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute think tank that collected the data, attributed increasing costs to inflation and to families’ eagerness to participate in sports after the pandemic shutdowns. 

According to UNLV professor Chris Kearney, the trend is also due to cultural shifts, which have made participating in sports a strong activity on college applicants’ resumes. This, in turn, has made students and families more willing to spend money on it.

In 2024 and 2018, the earliest year for which data was available, the greatest share of sports’ costs were travel related. 

In 2024, the second-greatest cost was team registration fees. In 2018, registration fees were not as prominent – parents spent more on equipment and sports lessons instead.

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The Nevada Independent is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news and opinion website founded in 2017 by veteran political journalist and commentator Jon Ralston. The site and its supporting channels are focused on ethical, unbiased and transparent journalism. In general, we aim to gather and disseminate important public information and increase civic engagement. We are supported by corporate donations, memberships, event ticket sales and sponsorships and foundation grants. We disclose all our members and donors. Donors have no influence over our content, ever. The Nevada Independent is the dba for Nevada News Bureau, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2010 by Elizabeth Thompson, who now serves as one of The Nevada Independent's managing directors and its Editor.

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