Good Sports — a nonprofit focused on equitable access in youth sports — released the 2026 Good Sports Cost of Play Index after conducting an online survey with The Harris Poll.
The headline numbers: 68% of parents have seriously considered pulling their kids out of sports and 53% are concerned they won’t be able to afford sports next year.
Good Sports and Harris surveyed 574 U.S. adults ages 18 and older who are parents of kids under 18. But a more comprehensive version of the results provided to Buying Sandlot noted that only 512 of those parents have kids who have played sports, 451 of which have kids currently playing sports.
The numbers from the 512:
61% have considered pulling their kids out
53% worried about next year
51% believe the system is profit-driven
77% “agree that growth in private and travel sports risk excluding kids who can't afford it”
36% have missed work or left early for youth sports
The 53% of parents who said they were afraid they may not be able to afford sports next year actually dropped 3% YoY from Good Sports’ 2025 survey. As for the reasons for potentially exiting youth sports (multiple responses allowed):
23% costs
21% injury concerns
20% kid does not enjoy sports
20% poor coaching
20% negative team environment
19% time demands
15% negative impact on academics
Other stats of note: 67% of respondents said “there has been a decrease in low-cost or public school sports opportunities over the last five years” and 56% said “there are not enough viable recreational or intramural youth sports options available locally.”
Almost the same number of parents said they were satisfied with their youth sports experience (33%) as said they were stressed (31%).
This is a thin survey which set out with a goal of finding headline-getting figures by cutting thin slices of data - some of which look like they come down to single-digit findings - and of course it found some. There’s very little disclosure on the size of subgroups, and inconsistent comparisons for age groups and regions designed to elicit the largest differences to suit the argument.
The survey also found 24% of parents have paid “junk fees.”
This was defined as “hidden charges like parking, venue admission, and processing fees (that) have become a routine burden.”
I think this is an important discussion to have amid the stay-to-play lawsuits (and for the industry in general).
Parents bristling at paying admission and parking for their kids’ games is understandable. And obviously there are some examples of prices being higher than they probably should be, especially when you have a top basketball recruit appearing at a tournament.
But are parking and tickets junk fees? I think it’s tough to say that as a blanket statement.
There is not a firm legal definition of what constitutes a junk fee, but the general gist is when a consumer pays a fee and does not receive anything tangible in return.
But parents are getting to park and watch the game. Which kind of negates the claim. Not to mention there can be perfectly legitimate reasons for these charges.
Junk fees are definitely real in some cases. But it also feels like the term is being used in a similar fashion to “clickbait,” which is also a thing but often is used as a catch-all for media content someone does not like or agree with.
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