SANDY, Utah — As the World Cup Final was about to kick off, Geena Saez was talking about how many soccer games she plays every year.
“More than like a hundred maybe,” said Geena, age 12. “I don’t know.”
And her parents, Ivan and Brittney Saez, of American Fork, were talking about the bill.
“Just to be on the club is around $1,900 plus all the trips,” Ivan Saez said. “Every year we go to St. George or Mesquite. We spend around $3,000 between trips and Airbnb and everything, so it's really expensive.”
“There's cheaper options to do with the city,” Brittney Saez said, “but with playing with this league, she gets more experience, more practice. She gets a lot more with what we pay.”
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A lot of American families agree. A 2024 survey and report called Project Play found that U.S. households, on average, pay more than $1,000 per child on that child’s primary sport and $475 on that child’s other sports.
“In most places in the world, you have community-run, neighborhood-run club systems where youth sport is virtually free; parents are the coaches,” said Travis Dorsch, a professor and the founding director of the Families In Sport Lab at Utah State University.
Dorsch, who helped survey parents for Project Play, said the U.S. system is more capitalist — with private coaches and clubs catering to market demands.
Specialization, where kids focus on just one sport, helps create those markets.
“We're spending more money because we're maybe not playing those four or five or six sports,” Dorsch said. “So, what that does is it frees up our discretionary income to put all the eggs in this singular basket.”
Dorsch said it’s too early to know whether spending more money on sports is producing better outcomes.
“What we do know is that kids are feeling pressure earlier to perform,” Dorsch said, “that kids are feeling more stress and anxiety in sport, and that they're dropping out typically earlier than they have in the past.”
Will Rader is the executive director of the Logan-based Utah Youth Sports Academy Foundation. It offers relatively low-cost soccer camps — an upcoming three-day camp in Farmington is $99 — as well as financial aid.
“Obviously, there's a cost to participate,” Rader said, “especially because facilities are very expensive. There's just not a lot of green space here in Utah.”
Traveling with a club is what can rack up the bills, Rader said. Meanwhile, it’s often mom and dad wanting a sort of trophy.
“I think the parents feel that it's an automatic ticket to get into college,” Rader said, “and that's not the case.”
NCAA statistics say less than 10% of high school athletes go on to play in college.
Ivan and Brittney Saez don’t believe Geena is an underdog. At that World Cup watch party at America First Field, the father talked about how local universities recruit from the club her daughter plays on.
“So, we hope that she can get a scholarship and go to college,” Ivan Saez said.
Geena is keeping a different score. When asked what she likes about soccer, she replied, “Making new friends and just playing mostly.”
Some tips to save money on youth sports:
- Skip the private teams in favor of leagues run by cities or nonprofits.
- If you do want your child to play on a private club, apply for financial aid or scholarships.
- Buy secondhand gear or equipment.
- Set a budget.
