Youth sports is at a crossroads—only 38% of kids ages 6- to 12 regularly play sports. As costs rise and fun declines, many are missing out—even though research shows that sports are vital for children's physical, mental, and emotional health.
Through partnerships with Special Olympics, the Women’s Sports Foundation and many other nonprofit organizations, ESPN has helped underserved youth from across the country gain access to sports for years. Six years ago, we launched the ‘Don’t Retire, Kid’ campaign with Kobe Bryant as our lead spokesperson. But, the pandemic only exacerbated participation problems.
While benefitting kids and society is essential, getting kids to play sports is also a smart business decision—our research shows that youth athletes are 14 times more likely to become avid fans, and early exposure increases the likelihood of lifelong fandom. It’s vital we get kids involved in sports to engage young fans.
This organization-wide commitment marks the first time our parent company, The Walt Disney Company, has included youth sports in its CSR strategy. To unlock the reach, the IP and power behind the Disney brand is significant.
Increasing youth sports participation also is important to the leagues and the entire sports industry. To sustain our industry in the long-term, we need to work together to engage the youngest sports fans early and get them playing.
With wide reach, deep sports expertise and commitment to community impact, ESPN can elevate the narrative, invest in solutions and bring stakeholders together to reimagine youth sports.
ESPN developed a comprehensive strategy integrating philanthropy, marketing campaigns and meaningful storytelling to get kids into sports and keep them playing, with four strategic pillars:
Philanthropy
ESPN has invested $5M in organizations these pillars—including Special Olympics, Boys & Girls Clubs, National Rec and Parks Association, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA)—to remove barriers to participation.
Marketing
A multi-platform campaign targets parents of kids ages 5 – 11 and coaches, emphasizing their role in creating positive sports experiences. Age 5 is typically when kids enter sports, and 11 is the average age when they drop out. By equipping parents and caregivers with resources and messaging, ESPN aims to improve participation and retention.
Storytelling
ESPN leverages its wide reach and partnerships with leagues, teams and advertisers to highlight critical youth sports issues and inspire participation. Collaborations with professional athletes further underscore the importance of youth sports and the four focus areas.
Take Back Sports soft-launched at the College Football Playoff National Championship Game with the College Football Playoff Foundation and legendary coach Nick Saban.
At the Aspen Institute’s Project Play Summit, ESPN announced its $5M commitment to organizations removing barriers to youth sports participation and a partnership with Stephen and Ayesha Curry and their Eat. Learn. Play. (ELP) Foundation to remove barriers to youth sports participation. ESPN also introduced the Take Back Sports Innovation Challenge, offering $100K in grants to 10 small nonprofits delivering innovative solutions for youth sports.
Youth sports were featured across programming, including NBA Today’s spotlight on the Currys and ELP. ESPN also secured 20 athlete ambassadors—including Curry, Luka Dončić, Coco Gauff, Lamar Jackson, Francisco Lindor, Eli and Peyton Manning and A’ja Wilson. The ambassadors participated in a series of vignettes, which ran across ESPN platforms, that addressed critical youth sports issues and the importance of community rec leagues, quality coaching, multisport play and the value of having fun. PSAs also were produced with the Mannings, Curry and SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt to highlight participation challenges. And, during the Little League Softball World Series Lindor was interviewed about the importance of having fun while playing baseball, reinforcing ESPN’s commitment to positive youth sports experiences.
ESPN also launched TakeBackSports.org with Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) to provide parents, caregivers and coaches tips, resources and guides to help improve the youth sports experience. Additionally, ESPN offered free access to PCA’s Parent Online Courses.
To make sports accessible to the youngest kids facing financial hardships, ESPN partnered with Disney Jr. and Every Kid Sports (EKS) to introduce sports to preschoolers, paying for sports registration fees—marking the first time preschoolers benefited from these resources. We also hosted a multisport clinic with Mickey Mouse in Los Angeles to get young kids excited about playing.
And, as fall sports began, ESPN.com introduced a quiz to help parents determine their youth sports parenting style, while providing parents with personalized tips to create a positive youth sports environment.
To ensure kids have opportunities to play sports, ESPN’s grantmaking led to 650K youth impacted. ESPN’s efforts also led to 65,872 adults receiving training, impacting over 520K youth. 3K rec leagues were supported and nearly 130K kids received mental wellbeing training through ESPN’s grant programming
In just three months, TakeBackSports.org resulted in 130K site visits—with digital ads receiving over 1.2M impressions. ESPN also launched two PSAs: SVP’s PSA which debuted during ESPN film’s "Big Dreams: The Little League World Series 2024", and one with the Mannings and Curry during LLWS. ESPN.com activated its Parent Quiz ahead of the fall sports season to help parents understand their youth sports parenting style.
ESPN also leaned into its programs across ESPN and ABC to share meaningful stories about youth sports and promote Take Back Sports. Meaningful storytelling was featured in numerous shows including:
Additionally, ESPN released a series of vignettes from its ambassadors to help drive conversations around the importance of youth sports and shine light on ESPN’s key pillars: community rec leagues, quality coaching, multisport play and having fun. Ambassadors include:
