Wall Street Journal 08_04_2020

A16| Wednesday, April 8, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

I

n early 2016, Thomas Bach

traveled to Silicon Valley to

ask Facebook, Twitter, You-

Tube and Google for advice.

Bach, president of the Inter-

national Olympic Committee,

wanted to learn how the multibil-

lion-dollar Olympic Games, for de-

cades a broadcast-TV juggernaut,

could better reach young audiences.

But Bach told the companies he

also saw them as competitors. As

kids spent more time on their

habit-forming wares, he worried,

they were spending less time play-

ing sports—and the fewer of them

might go on to become Olympians.

“The smaller the base of the pyr-

amid, the weaker the pyramid at

the end,” Bach said in a 2018 inter-

view with The Wall Street Journal.

Bach’s fears of physical inactivity

are growing before our eyes. Mil-

lions of kids are hunkered down on

the couch amid stay-at-home or-

ders to curb the spread of the coro-

navirus pandemic. Swimming pools

are closed, basketball hoops re-

moved from public courts, school

teams’ seasons postponed or can-

celed.

Organizers hope the halt in kids’

sports will end in the coming

weeks or months. But with 10 mil-

lion Americans applying for unem-

ployment benefits in March, the

sudden financial hit from coronavi-

rus could leave a long-term hole in

opportunities for kids to play.

There are already signs it is start-

ing to erode funding for the devel-

opment of future Olympians, as

governing bodies react to the post-

ponement of the Tokyo 2020

Games.

“The short-term impact is going

to be dramatic,” said Dave DuPont,

CEO and co-founder of TeamSnap,

which provides software used by

nearly 23 million people to coordi-

nate activities, mostly in youth

sports. “Organizations are not go-

ing to survive. There are not going

to be as many around.”

TeamSnap has seen an 80% drop

in usage of its app, DuPont said,

and he recently was forced to fur-

lough half the company’s staff of

about 100.

President Trump tweeted on

Saturday for Little League players

to “hang in there!” and continued:

“We will get through this together,

and bats will be swinging before

you know it.” But Little League In-

ternational has suspended activi-

ties through at least May 11, and

has shown little sign that its two

million baseball and softball play-

ers world-wide will be playing

soon.

Little League president and CEO

Steve Keener said he’s optimistic

parents will find a way to overcome

the slumping economy and get

their kids back into sports once

they resume.

“I know as a parent myself,

you’ll do things for your kids and

you’ll put your own needs on the

back burner in order for them to

have what they enjoy,” he said.

But the global recession of 2007

to 2009 suggests there could be

long-term damage.

The share of children regularly

playing team sports in the U.S.

dropped from nearly 45% in 2008

to 38% in 2014, according to data

from the Sports & Fitness Industry

Association. Even by 2018, when

the economy had improved, the

share of kids playing sports hadn’t

rebounded.

And although Little League

pledges not to deny a child the op-

portunity to participate due to an

inability to pay, the sudden down-

turn from the month-old pandemic

is unlike anything that has come

before it.

In Huntington (N.Y.) Tri-Village

Little League one parent asked for

a refund of the $175 fee after she

and her husband were furloughed

from their jobs, league volunteer

Roger Snyder said.

“The mom called me up and

said, ‘We really kind of need it. Nei-

ther of us are working,’ ” Snyder

said.

Many leagues rely heavily on

player fees to operate, and registra-

tions have come to a standstill.

Lynn Berling-Manuel, who oversees

a group of 30,000 soccer coaches at

all levels of the sport, estimates

that by the time it’s safe to resume

play, as many as 25% to 30% of

youth soccer clubs in the U.S. could

have folded.

“That goes lower or higher

based on the time element,” said

Berling-Manuel, CEO of United Soc-

cer Coaches.

In recent years the rising cost of

playing youth sports, including

pricey travel teams, has created a

growing divide. Less than 22% of

kids in the lowest household in-

come bracket played sports on a

regular basis in 2018. About twice

that share, 43%, of children with

household incomes of $100,000 and

above did, according to The Aspen

Institute’s Project Play.

“This crisis could force even

more of a divide,” TeamSnap’s Du-

Pont said.

But leaders also hope that the

pandemic could force a rethinking

of how kids’ sports are organized

and supported. Unlike many other

countries, the U.S. has no ministry

of sports. The U.S. Olympic & Para-

lympic Committee isn’t govern-

ment-funded. Youth sports are a

multibillion-dollar industry of inde-

pendent for-profit and nonprofit

groups that have little to no finan-

cial reserves.

“Because it’s private-driven, it’s

going to suffer. There’s no question

about that,” said Clay Walker, exec-

utive director of the National Fit-

ness Foundation, the only congres-

sionally chartered nonprofit

focused on health and fitness. “But

I believe when the re-examination

happens, people are going to say,

BYRACHELBACHMAN

Bracing for a Youth Sports Slump

Millions of children are hunkered down on the couch—and the shell-shocked economy means some could stay there

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 35 19 pc 36 19 s

Atlanta 82 67 t 78 49 pc

Austin 90 66 t 77 58 t

Baltimore 77 51 pc 63 40 pc

Boise 68 41 s 71 45 s

Boston 48 39 r 51 36 r

Burlington 52 36 c 49 34 sh

Charlotte 85 61 pc 80 46 pc

Chicago 69 37 t 48 32 pc

Cleveland 61 44 pc 48 34 pc

Dallas 91 60 c 64 52 t

Denver 6634pc 5839pc

Detroit 67 40 pc 48 32 pc

Honolulu 82 69 pc 81 68 pc

Houston 89 68 pc 82 60 t

Indianapolis 72 41 s 50 32 s

Kansas City 80 35 pc 57 28 s

Las Vegas 62 46 t 60 48 pc

Little Rock 88 54 pc 67 46 pc

Los Angeles 63 51 sh 58 51 sh

Miami 92 73 s 93 75 s

Milwaukee 61 35 r 47 31 pc

Minneapolis 52 31 sh 43 26 pc

Nashville 83 56 pc 64 40 c

New Orleans 88 70 c 86 63 t

New York City 63 48 sh 56 41 sh

Oklahoma City 86 47 pc 61 42 pc

Omaha 65 35 s 52 27 s

Orlando 89 71 pc 89 71 pc

Philadelphia 74 51 sh 62 40 t

Phoenix 75 51 t 71 54 sh

Pittsburgh 67 46 sh 51 32 sh

Portland, Maine 50 36 r 46 35 r

Portland, Ore. 70 44 s 72 46 pc

Sacramento 68 50 s 67 51 s

St. Louis 82 42 pc 56 33 s

Salt Lake City 69 47 s 65 43 pc

San Francisco 61 52 pc 64 52 pc

SantaFe 7142pc 6735sh

Seattle 61 42 s 65 42 pc

Sioux Falls 54 28 pc 45 23 s

Wash., D.C. 79 54 pc 64 43 pc

Amsterdam 71 49 pc 66 45 pc

Athens 60 48 s 64 50 s

Baghdad 87 62 pc 84 60 pc

Bangkok 97 81 pc 96 81 t

Beijing 64 40 s 59 37 pc

Berlin 69 47 pc 63 38 pc

Brussels 74 51 pc 73 49 pc

Buenos Aires 63 52 s 65 57 s

Dubai 93 80 s 99 83 s

Dublin 58 43 pc 59 47 pc

Edinburgh 59 43 c 54 45 pc

Frankfurt 75 48 s 75 50 pc

Geneva 69 45 s 70 45 s

Havana 92 66 s 93 67 s

Hong Kong 72 67 pc 75 68 s

Istanbul 52 42 s 54 42 pc

Jakarta 88 76 t 88 77 t

Jerusalem 60 44 pc 60 49 pc

Johannesburg 71 51 pc 68 53 c

London 70 49 pc 72 50 pc

Madrid 70 52 pc 69 52 c

Manila 93 78 s 93 79 pc

Melbourne 64 50 pc 70 54 s

Mexico City 82 56 pc 81 56 pc

Milan 71 44 s 73 46 s

Moscow 54 33 r 58 43 pc

Mumbai 90 75 pc 91 75 pc

Paris 73 51 s 76 51 pc

Rio de Janeiro 75 71 sh 76 70 pc

Riyadh 104 76 s 104 78 pc

Rome 66 44 s 66 44 s

San Juan 84 74 sh 88 74 t

Seoul 59 36 s 59 36 pc

Shanghai 74 53 c 72 53 pc

Singapore 89 79 pc 89 79 t

Sydney 6963sh 7062sh

Taipei City 73 65 c 73 67 r

Tokyo 66 51 s 61 48 c

Toronto 5638pc 4731sh

Vancouver 53 40 pc 55 42 pc

Warsaw 6743pc 7037sh

Zurich 71 41 s 71 41 s

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

s...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;

t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice

Today Tomorrow

Warm

Cold

Stationary

Showers

Rain

T-storms

Snow

Flurries

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HELP! HELP!|ByFrankVirzi

Across

1 Ecclesiastical

split

7 Cloth scrap

10 Observe

Ramadan

14 Thrills to pieces

15 Tempest in a

teapot

16 Hardly

industrious

17 Seat of

Wisconsin’s

Marathon

County

18 Gift

20 Water balloon

sound

21 Farm fathers

22 Farm mother

23 Smog contributor

26 Pipe fitting?

30 “___ the Voice

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poem)

31 Set eyes on

32 Jin Young Ko’s

org.

35 Zip

38 Southern lights

42 Prudent

43 Wee one

44 See 45-Across

45 With 44-Across,

when Mozart

wrote his

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47 Demosthenes

delivery

49 “Tahitian

Pastoral” painter

54 Free app pop-ups

55 Provider of intel,

in spy jargon

56 Itinerant

61 Unrefined

63 Live-in help, and

what’s contained

in 17-, 23-, 38-

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64 View from the

Minster of Bern

65 Piece of fiction

66 Saffron-

seasoned dish

67 Shopping aid

68 Cal. spans

69 Chico, of the

Marx Brothers

TheWSJDailyCrossword|Edited by Mike Shenk

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31 32 33 34 35 36 37

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45 46 47 48

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54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63

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Previous Puzzle’s Solution

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Solve this puzzle online and discuss it atWSJ.com/Puzzles.

OPRAH POPPA LAP

REEVE TROI S EMO

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SHINES DI ESEL

GOODAT SLOWCLAP

NUTS OAKEN AUTO

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YET EDDI E MAGES

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say

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bagful, slangily

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feature

8 Really fancy

9 Follow in a

game

10 Tailor’s concern

11 Gallic “goodbye”

12 Loses steam

13 Precept

19 More pale-

looking

21 Visit, as a rest

area

24 Westwood sch.

25 Leaning

26 Bag checkers at

LAX

27 Major work

28 When repeated,

island near Tahiti

29 Like

Schoenberg’s

“Pierrot Lunaire”

33 Fella

34 Invite to dinner,

say

36 Et ___

37 Baja boy

39 UB40’s music

40 Polo of “The

Fosters”

41 Klobuchar,

Warren or

Sanders: Abbr.

46 Just like that

48 Like the Ides of

March

49 Kind of bull

50 Dwight’s 1956

opponent

51 App customers

52 TWA rival

53 Gifts from Mom

and Dad

57 Paper piece

58 Fella

59 Feels lousy

60 “Phooey!”

62 Get into the

pool

63 Lummox

Hawaii players, above, in the dugout

during the 2019 Little League World

Series. Aubrey Harmon, right, does

soccer drills in Brandon, Miss.

We need to take care of

our country. Youth

sports are an important

way of creating equity

health—so that every-

body has an equal op-

portunity.”

Late last year the

NFF launched the Na-

tional Endowment for

Youth Sports, a nonpar-

tisan, nonprofit fund

that youth sports or-

ganizations can apply

to for grants. The aim

is to fight on two

fronts: rising obesity

levels, and the in-

creased cost of kids

playing sports. The en-

dowment aims to raise

$100 million by 2023—

something Walker ac-

knowledges will be a

challenge in the post-

coronavirus financial

world.

Meanwhile, the cuts keep com-

ing. Facing a budget crunch due to

event cancellations, national gov-

erning body USA Cycling decided to

protect the funding for athletes it’s

helping get to the postponed Tokyo

Games in 2021. To do that, it’s cur-

tailing investment in younger rid-

ers.

“We basically furloughed youth

development Olympic efforts—

Paris and Los Angeles,” said Rob

DeMartini, USA Cycling president

and CEO, of the 2024 and 2028

Games.

The six-month hiatus will have

little more effect on athletes than

it’s already had, DeMartini rea-

soned. The races they would have

done have been canceled. FROM TOP: TOM E. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS; ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPORTS