Let The Kids Play! There's Finally A Movement Underway To Force Private Equity Out Of Youth Sports
LuckyBusiness. Getty Images.It's a pretty well established fact at this point that private equity has been trying to bleed out the average American family out of every dollar they have over the past few years while taking over youth sports. You have all of these scumbag corporations buying up rinks and clubs in America, sending the prices through the roof for kids to participate, and making a shit ton of profit under the guise of "growing the game".
Gas is $4.50 per gallon. You can't leave the grocery store without dropping at least $150. Have you seen your energy bill lately? They are charging you like you're running your own power planet. And now on top of everything else, you can't send your kid to go play in a youth sports tournament without dropping at least a couple grand.
It's insanity. And usually you can't count on politicians to do anything for the people, but it looks like they may might finally be onto something here with a federal bill being introduced which would ban private equity from investing in youth sports.
USA Today -- Private equity companies would be banned from investing in youth sports teams, leagues, facilities and events under a new federal bill, a move lawmakers say would lower participation costs for families and restore control of a public good to local communities.
Sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pennsylvania), the Let Kids Play Act targets private equity firms and other companies that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into youth sports in recent years, turning kids activities long rooted in local charitable organizations into profit vehicles for wealthy investors.
…If passed, the law would require private equity companies to divest from their youth-sports businesses within two years, compensate community-based programs they harmed and refund families charged "junk fees."
Now obviously, the most important words in all of that are "if passed". The bill has only been introduced, so it hasn't been voted on yet. That gives these piece of shit corporations like Black Bear plenty of time to buy the right people off.
But at least someone is trying to get these vultures out of youth sports in America. At least someone is putting some pressure on them to cut the shit. It's already happening now, but there is going to come a point when the majority of families are completely priced out from putting their kids in sports. Especially a sport like hockey, where it's not like you can just set up a community league at some random park. There are only so many rinks, and dickheads like Black Bear are buying them all up.
I'm a big believer that team sports are the one thing that holds our society together. The life lessons you learn while playing sports growing up turn you into a contributing member of society. You learn to work with others. You learn to work in general. Work ethic, team work, the determination to win and be great. I can guarantee you right now that the majority of the worst people you know didn't play sports growing up. Now imagine an entire generation of those people because everybody was priced out of playing sports growing up by private equity firms. We can't allow that to happen. There are already too many nerds as is.