Over the past fifteen years, if there has been one thing that has typified the modern American family, it has been that they have been on the go, darting from scheduled activity to scheduled activity – and many of those activities have revolved around organized sports.
Much has been discussed around the topic of post-pandemic family life, including the question of whether families will return to lives filled with weekday practices and weekend tournaments. And while many believe that families will be back to this lifestyle before we know it, there is some evidence to suggest otherwise, begging a second look at the future of traditional sports.
In September 2021, The Aspen Institute and Utah State University conducted a nationwide survey among parents of kids aged 6-18 who regularly play traditional sports. Here are a few of their key findings:
About 30% of child athletes have reported losing interest in organized sports and do not want to return back to the sports they were playing before the pandemic began.
Some parents have also been hesitant about returning back to team-based sports due to health concerns.
The pandemic has impacted the business of organized sports and in some cases, the leagues and organizations kids in which formerly took part no longer exist.
And while there are signs of a slow return back to organized sports, there has been rapid growth in e-sports.
E-sports refer to competitive, multi-player, organized video gaming, and if you’re only thinking about games like Madden or NBA2K, let me introduce you to titles not based on traditional sports: Super Smash Bros, Fortnite, Dota 2, League of Legends and Overwatch. E-sports can be every bit as formalized as traditional sports – with leagues sponsored by community centers like the YMCA that include strategy sessions with coaches and tournaments on the weekend.
The pandemic certainly promoted the popularity of e-sports among kids, but the reality is that organized traditional sports had started to decline before COVID, and e-sports began its ascendency in the 2010s.
As The New York Times writer Joe Drape put it in his article on the e-sports generation, the battle between e-sports and traditional sports is not a zero-sum game – kids often enjoy both – but there are trend lines that reflect the decline of organized physical sports and the rise of its virtual counterpart.
As kids are now digital streaming natives and nearly 9 in 10 teenagers have iPhones, it’s no wonder that a youth phenomenon like e-sports exists, and that it is as natural an option for recreation as physical sports.