Executive Summary: Across the United States local governments have invested local, state and federal tax dollars to build sports facilities in order to generate local sales taxes, fees for use and to drive residential growth and value. The facilities are over-sized for the needs of the local recreation. The facilities are complimented with a hospitality infrastructure. This public investment is based on public-private partnering with sports management and sports travel associations. Concurrently, private equity is consolidating these same youth sport associations and who relying on the use of public facility and human resources and on capitalizing on youth sports’ inflation proof history. P-P-Ps have created a significant imbalance in the states between private profitability and the public interest for childhood wellness. Treatment of businesses in youth sports is becoming the domain of a municipal partnerships involving interstate commerce.
There is an apparent economic nexus as well as a social crisis on the horizon for every state. The private profits are significant in the race to consolidate a disparate $70B youth sports ecosystem. Executive leadership, with legislative support, can achieve a balance between the private equity’s return on investment and the youth development needs of the community. Legislation will likely require a financial accommodation to achieve equitable and revenue-neutral access for the citizenry of all the urban, rural and suburban populations of the state that have priced out of youth sports access. The oversight of state leadership can be achieved through the appointment of a youth sports commission made up of legislators and practitioners that annually report to the Governor.
Interview: Linda Flanagan, Freelance journalist; Allen Rice, Municipal National Consultant
Research Reports: Alabama Sports Commission White Paper ; Case Studies
Executive Summary: Because of the legal exposure related to the use of public facilities and recruitment of citizen volunteers, Louisiana legislators have codified that training coaches provides legal grounds for immunity. Alabama and Arkansas have codified youth sports as “High Risk” based on the CDC’s declaration of youth sports injuries being at epidemic levels. All three states base grounds for immunity on coaching behavior that is consistent with the codified training syllabus and its certification of course completion. The course is based on sports medicine science that is evidenced-based and peer-reviewed as well as periodically surveyed for efficacy and user efficiency. The course has certified 100,000 coaches. The course takes 75 minutes. The course is self-paced and accessible on a mobile app. A university led survey of efficacy reported that 84% adopted different coaching techniques based on course information. This course is on the states’ Public Health website.
Punitive legal complaints are becoming more common across the United States and have forced a rise in liability insurance costs and caused a reduction in the number of liability insurance carriers. Legal experts advise that youth sports involves an assumed responsibility for standards of care. Coaches are legally subject to 1) failure to supervise, 2) mishandling a medical situation. 3) unsafe conditions or equipment, 4) poor training or mismatch, or 5) sexual or other forms of abuse. Prudent behavior with regards to standards of care is based on the course syllabus and its behavioral instructions. Youth athletic associations use of school, city or county property carry the burden of liability for standards of care based on the behavior of the coach, as does the property owner.
Interviews: Sid Moreland, Esq. Legal Representative of the National Football League
Research Reports: Center of Sports Analytics, Samford Univ.; Case Studies
Executive Summary: The primary occupational code for sports coaches in the United States is SOC 27-2022.00 (Coaches and Scouts), as classified under the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS report 306,500 national jobs for coaches and scouts. Coaches that volunteer ( are eligible for an occupational code) are not included in BLS numbers but in fact are the largest population of coaches. High school coaches are under reported at 175,000. There is no direct data on the number of youth sports coaches in any state. And they are the gatekeepers to a $70B youth sports ecosystem. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association (sfia.com) collects data that is reported from the sporting goods sell of equipment. Equipment sales extrapolate directly to numbers of players, then to teams, then to coaches. For macroanalysis the numbers are very credible. They estimate is 7M+ nationally. It is up to every state to mandate that they are trained in health and safety.
The BLS features 867 detailed occupations. Youth sports coaching qualifies based on work performed and level of skill. Highly skilled coaches have become some of the highest paid professionals in our society. It is because they are responsible for a standard of success. In general, the professional development path for coaches is driven by winning. Strategies, tactics, organizational skills and leadership advance coaches at the professional, collegiate and high school levels. These are spectator sports that generate billions. By comparison aged 14 and under sports are participation sports. The occupational requirements of a youth sports coach have not been effectively distinguished. Retention should replace winning as the standard of success and recognized by a state code as an occupational skill. As part of a systematic change a youth sports coach occupational code would initiate the blending of all coaches into one occupational standard.
Interviews: Coach Rhett Lashlee, SMU Head Football Coach
Research Reports: TBD
