Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids' Sports

[nradov]

Beyond this specific issue with ice hockey, participation in youth sports in general has become an escalating financial arms race affordable only to more affluent families. Any parent who wants their child to develop sufficient mastery to maybe have a shot at a college athletic scholarship — or the remote chance of a career as an Olympic or professional athlete — is pretty much forced to pay for travel club teams plus extra private coaching. Sometimes low-income families can get reduced fees but still it's tough to make the logistics work.

[hnburnsy]

> Any parent who wants their child to develop sufficient mastery to maybe have a shot at a college athletic scholarship

By the time they get to college parents will figure out they spent 2-3x what that scholarship will pay and with NIL now non revenue sports will be disappearing

[estearum]

… why would college athletic scholarship or Olympic/pro athlete be a reasonable bar or something anyone would care about?

Sports should be accessible to kids of all income levels for the sake of playing sports while they’re kids.

[alphawhisky]

Seems like redirecting the incentive of athletic scholarships to merit or needs based academic scholarships would solve the problem.

[IChooseY0u]

Like how much does this actually cost a year?

[toast0]

> In 2015, the Maryland-based Black Bear Sports entered the scene. The company, owned by the private equity firm Blackstreet Capital, began buying up struggling ice rinks, some of which were on the verge of closing.

This is the basic strategy of private equity. Find a sector of businesses that is doing poorly, buy them up (they're motivated to sell), run them poorly for several years while collecting money, file for bankruptcy and find a new sector to take on.

If running an ice rink was good business, PE would have a hard time finding rinks to buy for prices they're willing to pay.

[hnburnsy]

Almost as bad as the professional teams controlling and monetizing youth sports...

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/11/06/te...

[jerlam]

Similar previous discussion:

Private Equity's New Venture: Youth Sports (80 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46006183

[mzajc]

https://archive.is/8liIR

[nkmnz]

So this is about parents complaining they cannot videotape other people’s children and put it online without any form of permission? Disgusting. I want my future children to be able to play sports without being displayed on YouTube.

[s09dfhks]

Ironic that the article is paywalled

[euroderf]

Utterly superficial analogy, eh wot.