by jdilaura

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Social Class & Sport by John DiLaura

By examining sports, one can determine that economical backgrounds have a major influence on a athlete's
career.

Mitch Nathanson on Social Status and Sports

GREATEXPERIMENTFILM 3 YEARS AGO

Since the beginning of sport, individuals have used sport as a sense of status. When examining sport today, one
can still see the socio-economic impact certain sports have on an individual.

College Athletic Scholarships. College Sports Recruiting.

In order to find a college athletic scholarship you need to be willing to actively
promote yourself to college coaches and engage with them throughout the
college ...
WWW.COLLEGESPORTSSCHOLARSHIPS.COM

There has been a notion in recent years in order to obtain a college scholarship, an athlete needs to play for the
best high school and travel teams, attend the best schools, and have the best equipment. Parents are always
trying to give their child the advantage over the competition in hopes of one day reaping the rewards of an
athletic scholarship. With that being said, sports have become a "who's richer?" competition to the finish line.
Parent are willing to spend thousands of dollars on their child because they believe it will positively impact their
child's career.

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PrepBaseball Report > Events

Prep Baseball Report

PREPBASEBALLREPORT

Prep Baseball Report is a popular baseball scouting service that provides a service to high school athletes so they
can be seen by college coaches. Players can attend a PBR event with the hopes of exposing themselves to college
coaches through a workout (which will later be posted online). However, PBR charges its participants more than
$125 to attend. Other scouting services for other sports also charge ridiculous amounts to have athletes attend
their events. By charging these amounts, services may be eliminating certain athletes due to their social class
constraints. It seems as though only the rich will survive.

Easton Baseball Bats | Easton Sports

Check out the all new Easton Baseball Bats including the 2014
Power Brigade and its newest addition the Easton Mako Bat!

EASTON

Equipment has also become a major issue in sports. Due to the costs, it seems as though athletes playing
throughout their high school years are the ones that can afford it. Easton is currently selling a bat for over $500;
hockey sticks are $250; and skates can cost upwards of $100. Families with low socio-economic backgrounds
struggle to afford this throughout their child's playing careers. Consequently, children from low-income families
opt for cheaper sports. Why do you think soccer is the most popular sport in the world? All you need is a ball!

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MONROVIA, LIBERIA - AUGUST 19: Boys play soccer in the West Point slum on
August 19, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. With a population of 75,000 people in a small
area with poor sanitation, sickness is common in the area. A holding center in West
Point for people suspected of having the Ebola virus was overrun and shut down by a
crowd on August 16. The Ebola virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four
African nations, more in Liberia than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty
Images)
JOHN MOORE 4 MONTHS AGO

Sport Participation Rates among Underserved American Youth

data is aggregated and summarized by social class, race, gender, and disa- ... kids
exceed that of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian kids. Further- more ...
WWW.ASPENINSTITUTE.ORG

Variations in discretionary income and cultural norms also contribute to racial differences in both access to and
participation in sports. Relative to whites, racial minorities are more likely to live in poverty and have restricted
resources available to pay for sport participation. Cultural norms and expectations also influence who takes part
in what sports - they set expectations and signals of what is appropriate or popular to young athletes.

Why African-Americans don't play pro baseball - ESPN

Apr 19, 2013 ... The decline in African-American participation in baseball has
become .... The kids who can afford to play on the best travel teams get the most ...
ESPN.GO.COM

Over the past 15 to 20 years, the kick-start of pay-for-play teams in youth baseball (and the same for parents
willing to pay for them and coaches willing to cash their checks) has had more of an impact on African-American
participation than anything another sport has had to offer. As previously examined, it's based on the theory that
the more you pay and the farther you travel, the better you will become. Longtime big leaguer LaTroy Hawkins
said it perfectly: "Baseball in the United States has become a sport for the rich."
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Baseball's demographics shift away from African Americans

Jun 25, 2011 ... Whether it's access to ball fields, the expense of equipment or
opportunities in other sports, fewer African Americans are playing baseball today ...
ARTICLES.LATIMES.COM

The kids who can afford to play on the best travel teams get the most exposure -- a word that is the coin of the
realm in youth baseball -- and the most direct access to the inside world of showcases and high-profile
tournaments. They are the ones with the personal hitting or pitching coaches. They are the ones who enter high
school, usually a wealthy suburban high school, with the buzz that makes coaches take notice. They're the ones
who are seen by scouts at the $500-a-day Perfect Game showcases attended by more scouts than have seen an
Oakland public high school baseball game in the past 10 years combined.

Is Baseball Getting Too Expensive For Kids? | FanGraphs Baseball

Jun 28, 2012 ... For a family with multiple kids playing youth sports, it can easily be in
the ... So, is the decline of poor Americans playing baseball making the ...
WWW.FANGRAPHS.COM

The number of children aged 7 to 17 playing youth baseball declined 24% in the most recent 10-year period for
which statistics are available, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
A Division 1 football program can give out 85 scholarships, and baseball teams only 11.7, said Jamie Lee Solomon
(MLB Executive). If youre an African American kid and you need help to go to school, do the math.

Increasingly high cost of hockey is making the game

an elitist sport
Hard to believe that the 2012-13 hockey "season" would have
billionaires and millionaires and parents talking about exactly the
same thing: Money. In the case of the ridiculously rich, however, it's all about
dividing up more cash than any child's game should ever be worth; for the parents,
it's about divvying up limited disposable income to pay for a child's game that too
many are deciding just isn't worth it.
THEGLOBEANDMAIL

The same issues examined in youth baseball can also be said for youth hockey.

FireTheLandlord
@firethelandlord

how many poor kids playing sports in the fields, gyms and courts?
@BrianBowmanWpg Biggest issue I see moving forward in Winnipeg.
6 DAYS AGO

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Is the Good Old Hockey Game only for the rich? | The Current with ...
Dec 2, 2013 ... Hundreds and thousands of dollars pour out of parents' pockets
toward hockey that has become more expensive for kids to play, more ...
WWW.CBC.CA

It costs more to buy game tickets, it costs more to rent ice time, and many parents are hesitant every year to buy
equipment based on the pricing. In fact, some believe the Good Old Hockey Game is becoming the Grand Old
Hockey game; an entertainment for the elite.

Pay-to-play sports keeping low-income kids out of the game

UMHEALTHSYSTEM 3 YEARS AGO

Low-income kids are being kept out of the game due to financial restrictions at some public schools.

Exploring social and environmental factors affecting adolescents ...

Abstract. This study explores the social factors that influence young people's
participation in school and out of school physical activities. Fifty-two 16-year-old ...
EPE.SAGEPUB.COM

Rich parents are able to spend more money and time on their kids. Low-income youths are targeted by diploma
mills that burden them with debt and offer no real opportunities. When they get a college degree, but still live in
an impoverished neighborhood, theyre kept at a distance from opportunities as well.
Based on socio-economic status, it would seem as though athletes in private schools would benefit more than
public school athletes when examining their future in their respective sport.

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Public-private war in high school sports is national issue - Blogs ...

Jun 14, 2012 ... That's a great thing, because the public vs. private war is growing to a
boil in many states. In Colorado, three private schools have dominated ...
WWW.RRSTAR.COM

It seems as though athletes in private school generally receive more exposure and success than public school
athletes. Compare what happened this spring at two Los Angeles City Section schools with long traditions of
baseball success: Crenshaw High in urban Los Angeles, which produced major leaguers Darryl Strawberry, Ellis
Valentine and Chris Brown, played a 14-game schedule that included just two non-league games. Chatsworth, in
the affluent San Fernando Valley, played 22 non-league games and 30 overall. In this case, it seems as though
private school athletes benefited more than their public school counterpart in terms of exposure.

Public vs. Private school hoops

WLUK 5 YEARS AGO

Football | MHSAA Sports

The Michigan High School Athletic Association, Inc., is a private,
voluntary association for public, private and parochial
secondary schools which choose to join and participate in the
organization. The primary function of the Association is to conduct postseason
tournaments and to help member schools have rules and guidelines to follow and
enforce locally to promote equitable competition.
MHSAA

In 2014, 7 of the 8 Michigan High School State Football Champions were from Private Schools.

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Hidden demographics of youth sports - ESPN The Magazine - ESPN

Jul 11, 2013 ... The hidden demographics of youth sports. Originally Published: ... The
suburban soccer mom (and dad) is based in fact. Indeed, Sabo's WSF ...
ESPN.GO.COM

There are also the kids who live in the wrong places. In New York, a state with well-funded schools, high school
teams could accommodate 75 percent of boys and 62 percent of girls. But high schools in budget-deprived
California and Florida, two other major states, had spots on teams for only 29 percent and 23 percent of girls, and
39 percent and 30 percent of boys, respectively.

Which Sports Have the Whitest/Richest/Oldest Fans? - The Atlantic

Feb 10, 2014 ... Major League Soccer has the highest share of Hispanics by far (34 ...
The NCAA demographics for football and basketball are practically ...
WWW.THEATLANTIC.COM

Examining sports at the professional level is also a good indicator when trying to examine social class and sport.
More specifically, one can look at the demographic of professional fan bases.
The NBA has the youngest audience, with 45 percent of its viewers under 35. It also has the highest share of black
viewers, at 45 percentthree times higher than the NFL or NCAA basketball.
Major League Baseball shares the most male-heavy audience, at 70 percent, with the NBA.
The NHL audience is the richest of all professional sports. One-third of its viewers make more than $100k,
compared to about 19 percent of the general population.
NASCAR's audience has the highest share of women (37 percent) and highest share of white people (94 percent).
The Professional Golfers Association has the oldest audience by multiple measures: smallest share of teenagers;
smallest share of 20- and early 30-somethings; and highest share of 55+ (twice as high, in the oldest demo, as the
NBA or Major League Soccer).
Major League Soccer has the highest share of Hispanics by far (34 percent; second is the NBA at 12 percent) and
the lowest income of any major sports audience. Nearly 40 percent of its fans make less than $40k.
The NCAA demographics for football and basketball are practically identical but they are surprising old (about
40% over 55+) and surprisingly white (about 80%), which clearly has as much to do with who owns a TV rather
than who follows the sports.

Professional leagues are recognizing the disparity in social classes within certain demographics. It is great to see
organizations such as the MLB and NHL reaching out to try and rid their sport of any financial restrictions.
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MLB Community: Programs: Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

Mark Teixeira took part in the first annual golf fundraiser to benefit Harlem RBI.
Teixeira, who donated $1 million to the organization in 2011, is a member of the ...
WEB.MLBCOMMUNITY.ORG

Major League Baseball is committed to bringing back baseball in the inner-cities. The MLB recognizes the issues
with cost, and they have been willing to invest millions of dollars into this program to rejuvenate baseball in
economically struggling areas.

LA Hockey makes hockey available to Los Angeles youth - ESPN.com

Oct 7, 2011 ... The "LA is too warm for hockey" trope was one, but even tougher, says
Gasseau, has been overcoming the idea that hockey is a rich kids' game ...
ESPN.GO.COM

According to the National Hockey League, 6 percent of its 720 active players are racial or ethnic minorities. "No
one ever played in my family because hockey is really expensive," says Nieto, a Mexican hockey player for the San
Jose Sharks. But with 30 minorities under NHL contracts in junior hockey and the minors, diversity numbers could
jump over the next few seasons. The league has programs like LA Hockey to thank for that growth. For a $250
deposit, parents of 4- and 5-year-olds can rent all the necessary hockey gear for their child along with a month's
worth of skating lessons. At the end of 30 days, if their kid isn't sold on the sport, they can return the gear and get
their money back. This no-risk plan is expanding LA Hockey's reach. There were zero minorities when the club
started, but now there's an estimate that up to 15 percent of the program's nearly 300 players, ages 4 to 18, are
non-white.
At the end of the day, there will always be economical issues with sports. Social class will always play a role in
determining an athlete's sport of choice. Hopefully, athletes can somehow find a way to pursue their dream
without financial limitations.

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