His 14-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 12 and 8, are on hockey teams, and he knows how expensive that can be. “It takes a chunk of your paycheck,” the Edmonton man said. “We’re taking a hit with equipment right now. Kids are growing like weeds in this age group,” Hussain said. “We haven’t even gotten into fuel charges … how much gas people spend just trying to get to the races. With three kids, we’re all over town.” He said his family is absorbing rising costs due to inflation by cutting back on certain things. “We’ll probably only have one vacation,” Hussein said. “We’re really cutting back on how much we eat out so we can save it.” Registration fees for youth sports can often be hundreds of dollars and increase as children get older. In addition, families must pay for gas, which has reached record prices this year, to drive to practices and tournaments. When the cost of equipment is factored in, families can easily pay thousands of dollars per child per year. Kaylee Delaney, 10, is seen playing soccer on a field in Edmonton. Her mother says the rising cost of everything makes it difficult to pay for sports. (Peter Evans/CBC) Katelinn Adams says her 10-year-old daughter, Kaylee Delaney, enjoyed Timbits soccer when she was younger, but when she outgrew the program, Adams couldn’t afford to sign Kaylee to a local team. “Sometimes there are programs that you could get into, but there’s either a waiting list because someone else got there earlier or there’s a deadline that we missed,” said Adams, of Edmonton. “I feel bad. You want to give your kids the world, right? And you never want to say no to them wanting to do a sport or fun activity.” The rising cost of everything from food to fuel isn’t making the situation any easier, Adams said. “It’s completely out of reach.”
Rising costs
David Legg, a professor of health and physical education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the cost of participating in youth sports is rising for two reasons. Many sports organizations folded during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, and those that survived raised their prices to accommodate more cleanup, fewer participants and increased staff costs. “Plus, just because of some of the supply chain issues, I also think the cost of the equipment has gone up as well,” Legg said. David Legg, a professor of health and physical education at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, says the pandemic has caused some sports organizations to fold and led to increased costs for those who survived. (Colin Hall/CBC) KidSport Canada, a national not-for-profit organization that helps families pay for registration fees and equipment for sports programs, expects high demand going forward, said CEO Greg Ingalls. “I would expect that we would start to see them [application] The numbers are increasing once again on an annual basis,” he said. Ingalls said that in 2019, KidSport Canada paid for registration fees for more than 40,000 children, raising $8.7 million. Applications dropped during the pandemic, but he said the agency is starting to see a rebound in 2019 numbers. And with inflation taking a big bite out of family budgets, he expects the number of applications to rise even more. Over the past five years, more than $40 million has been raised to fund grants for children across the country and 188,000 have received help to participate in a sport, according to KidSport Canada’s website. Greg Ingalls is the CEO of KidSport Canada, a national non-profit organization that helps families pay for registration fees and equipment for sports programs. He expects an increase in applications for funding. (Justin Pennell/CBC) Ingalls said some sports organizations are starting to adapt and be more accessible for families. “We’re seeing the development of some lower-cost sports options for kids to play sports and lower-commitment options where [it’s] more of a once or twice a week schedule as opposed to four or five or six days a week and less travel,” he said.
Benefits for children
Ingalls said there are benefits to youth participating in organized sports. “Sports provide an opportunity for kids to learn life skills that will carry with them for the rest of their lives — things like how to be a good teammate, how to make friends, how to set goals for yourself,” he said. Nota Clendrew, whose work in exercise physiology focuses on sports training in children and youth, said physical activity improves cardiovascular health, builds bone strength and reduces the risk of chronic disease. “Participation in sports is the best way to encourage and keep kids in physical activity because it’s structured,” said Clendrew, a kinesiology professor at Brock University in St. Louis. Catharines, Ont. “It provides some competition, which the kids enjoy.”
