This week ESPN and Buffalo Wild Wings hosted the inaugural Take Back Sports Youth Sports Summit, which brought together thought leaders from sports organizations around the world to address the challenges facing youth sports.
According to ESPN, the summit’s goal is to make youth sports more accessible and bring the power of sport to more youth athletes.
ESPN first launched this initiative in 2025 with a goal of getting 63% of youth to play sports by 2030. Currently, only 38% of youth ages six to 12 play sports on a regular basis.
“Here at ESPN, we have two objectives with all of our CSR programs. One, we want to build community impact, and another, to build business impact,” said Jen Paulett, director of ESPN Citizenship. “We have to build business if we want to build communities.”
ESPN has invested $5 million in community rec leagues and toward funding coaching positions. Among other top priorities, ESPN also wants to “promote fun in sports” because “fun is the primary reason for participation in organized sport.” These efforts combat the increasing pay-to-play environment as some families report spending unsustainable amounts of money for their childrens’ extracurricular activities.
Speakers at the summit shared their perspective on youth sports, the important role that parents can play in the process. Podcast hosts from Youth, Inc., Healthy Sports Parents and Pure Athlete sat on a panel discussing the difficulty parents face when navigating expensive youth sports. Other speakers and attendees represented the NBA, NFL, and PGA as well as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Peloton and Under Armour.
“Youth sports give us the safest place for our kids to experience all the things they need to experience, to develop the tools that they’ll take with them long into their lives, so they can have success with whatever they’re doing,” said panelist Jonathan Carone, founder of the Healthy Sports Parents podcast.
