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City economies based on sports Towns place huge investments in youth athletics, facilities Nate Albin
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albinnat000@hsestudents.org
y parents have told me before that some of the most fun moments as a parent includes watching your kids do what they love. For many kids, a love of sports develops at a young age. I can safely say that the sports bug got me very early on. It is possible that Hamilton County cities may want kids to catch the sports bug a little too much. In ishers alone, eight of the fifteen parks include some sort of sports field, ranging from basketball courts to baseball diamonds and everything in between. o compare, only five ishers parks have bike racks, a simple amenity. These are just the parks o cially run by the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department. Indy Premier, a soccer group primarily in Fishers and Noblesville, purchased 20 acres for Trinity Sports Park in Fishers. Zillow shows the estimated prices of vacant lots in Fishers. fter finding the cheapest deal listed ($1.2 million for 11.54 acres) and setting the price per acre equal to 20 acres, the price for 20 acres is over $2 million. That price is before the 12 months of labor and added costs would be added in necessary to build the facilities. All of this was for 7 fields. This is not even the most expensive youth sports investment in Hamilton County. That title of most expensive would belong to Grand Park. The park contributes to a very large part of estfield s economy. Their project, in which they had to get a loan of $45 million dollars (and $85 million taxpayer 3 dollars), has been the reason for the town to 221 hotels and restaurants everywhere. build The 400-acre behemoth sits gracefully along two highways and features a giant warehouse with 2
fields and a restaurant inside, baseball softball diamonds, rectangular field and all the room for the next American sporting hero to grow. But that is where the problem with all of this comes in. What if the next great American sports hero never comes? ESPN has written an entire series of articles all about the youth sports crisis in America. Citing reasons such as cost and excessive pressure as issues, the number of young athletes continues to dwindling. In 2008, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reported that 45% of American kids ages to played some sport. Today, that number is down to 38% nationally. ESPN is so worried about losing athletes to report on in the future that their president, Jimmy Pitaro, launched the on t etire, id campaign alongside sporting 2 greats such as obe ryant and Wayne Gretzky to encourage more participation in youth sports. ut places like estfield are not sweating this. Right now, their economy, which is built off of the backs of children, is working great. Their debt from the project is getting paid off slowly but surely. he olts now hold preseason practices there, and they believe they are well on their way to the . billion pro ected profit in the first years of operation. Sure, everything is going according to plan right now. But that will not be the story when participation in youth sports is below 30%. That revenue will go down. The billions projected will look like an optimistic dream. Maybe everyone will realize then that a baseball diamond costing millions functions exactly the same as an old sandlot.
Two youth players go after a layup at a practice on Sept. 30 at the auxiliary gym. Basketball is one of the many sports seeing a decline in popularity. Photo by Nate Albin.
