Built around the theme “A New Scoreboard for Sports,” the 2017 Project Play Summit saw organizations make 33 commitments to action to improve youth sports. The nation’s premier gathering of leaders at the intersection of youth, sport and health sold out for the third straight year and featured more than 400 attendees. The hashtag #ProjectPlay trended nationally during the event.
Among the announcements was the roll-out of Project Play 2020, a multiyear effort by more than a dozen leading sport, health, media and other organizations to grow national sport participation rates and related metrics among youth. The featured conversation was with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Watch all sessions
Did you miss something from the 2017 Project Play Summit? Every panel session, individual speaker and Project Play announcement are available to watch.
Summit lineup
Revisit the speakers and panel topics. For the first time, a Day 2 workshop was added in which we taught stakeholders strategies to directly help kids in their communities.
Original Aspen Coverage
Latinos in soccer: What's the U.S. model so they're not left behind?
7 charts that show why we need to fix youth sports
Project Play Summit wrap-up: News, quotes and more
Project Play Summit photo album
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred: Kids, don't just play baseball
Ex-MLB players Harold Reynolds, Rick Ankiel and Jake Peavy: Adults, let the kids enjoy sports
Swimmer Reece Whitley and 11-year-old Nina Locklear discuss what kids want from sports
New York Times reporter Karen Crouse: Why Norwich, Vermont is the best sports town in America
Olympian Angela Ruggiero: How video games can get kids active
Rich Luker's dilemma for esports: How to pass video games down by generation
Media Coverage
What’s lost when only rich kids play sports? (The Atlantic)
Sports stakeholders join forces to stem decline in sports participation (Sports Business Journal)
Declining participation, rising costs, untrained coaches (The Washington Post)
No one is asking Baltimore youth what sports they want to play (The Undefeated)
Group aims to help Baltimore fill youth recreation gaps (The Baltimore Sun)
They Said It
Memorable quotes from the 2017 Project Play Summit
““Women are more detailed. They’re better coaches. … We have to open up our minds that an athlete is an athlete and if you can coach, you can coach.””
““If I was a young kid I wouldn’t know what he was doing besides making his kids’ shoes and looking cool while doing it, and yelling at a female (referee) is just a side product. ... I look at it as what are you doing to these children? Are you creating a path that’s going to be helpful to the kids that don’t make it?””
““We have to be mindful that just saying go out to play is nice and nostalgic, but the reality is for many, many children, unless we can create a safe environment that their parents feel safe for them, then that’s going to be a very challenging thing to overcome.””
““(What) I don’t like about coaches is putting pressure on you and they’re always thinking you can win or you’ll do very well.””
