Kobe Bryant announced the news with a tweet, followed by an in-studio appearance on SportsCenter as ESPN launched the PSA campaign on all networks. Clayton Kershaw, Albert Pujols, Cody Bellinger, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Blake Griffin, Swin Cash, Cassius Winston and other stars chimed in on social media, most of them encouraging Heyswiver to unretire. In the first week alone, the campaign to address the problem of early attrition in youth sports generated 167 million impressions. Nearly every major national TV news network ran pieces on the campaign, as did many online outlets.
The Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills ran the PSAs in-stadium. So did leading non-profits in youth sports, using them to recruit donate to their organizations. From Major League Baseball to the PGA of America to the Hospital for Special Surgery, nearly all 20 members of Project Play 2020, the cross-sector advisory group that inspired the campaign, activated in some form or another around “Don’t Retire, Kid.”
The campaign generated 4.8 billion organic media impressions, 220,000 social mentions and $142 million in earned media. Traffic to the Project Play website grew more than 600% where parents, coaches and leaders could find an array of helpful resources, advice from pro athletes, and results from a new survey showing the average child spends less than three years playing a sport, quitting by age 11. Don’t Retire, Kid went on to win many social good awards, including a Halo Award, North America’s highest honor for corporate social initiatives, and four Clios, the top honor in advertising.
Then, kids everywhere retired from sports. En masse. By force.
Thank you, COVID-19.
“We could lose some of them forever due to unforeseen pressures,” said Kevin Martinez, ESPN vice president of corporate citizenship. “We’re going to have to solve for it.”
So where to from here for Project Play 2020?
Reload. In the coming weeks, the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program will announce the next iteration of Project Play 2020, called Project Play 2024. The first cohort signed on for three years, to connect silos, develop a theory of change, and lay the groundwork to grow sports participation rates and related metrics for youth, ages 12 and under. The next cohort will include many of the same organizations, plus new agents of action, committing to work together for four years.
Collective impact takes time. Trust-building leads to a shared agenda, which ignites mutually reinforcing actions and later, if sufficiently aligned, systems change. The effort is all that more challenging when applied nationally and in a space as disjointed as youth sports. But, with Aspen as the backbone facilitator, we are eager to see what the new cohort develops, building on the successes and lessons of the initial group.
Thank you, COVID-19.
“We could lose some of them forever due to unforeseen pressures,” said Kevin Martinez, ESPN vice president of corporate citizenship. “We’re going to have to solve for it.”
So where to from here for Project Play 2020?
Reload. In the coming weeks, the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program will announce the next iteration of Project Play 2020, called Project Play 2024. The first cohort signed on for three years, to connect silos, develop a theory of change, and lay the groundwork to grow sports participation rates and related metrics for youth, ages 12 and under. The next cohort will include many of the same organizations, plus new agents of action, committing to work together for four years.
Collective impact takes time. Trust-building leads to a shared agenda, which ignites mutually reinforcing actions and later, if sufficiently aligned, systems change. The effort is all that more challenging when applied nationally and in a space as disjointed as youth sports. But, with Aspen as the backbone facilitator, we are eager to see what the new cohort develops, building on the successes and lessons of the initial group.
Leadership has never been more needed. On April 1, two weeks after COVID-19 shut down youth and all other forms of sports, Project Play hosted a webinar on what the future holds, pressure-testing our predictions with speakers and the Project Play network. They mostly have held up, with some new wrinkles that underscore the creativity that will be required to stabilize and ultimately put youth sports back on a path to growth.
The immediate challenge is:
Deeper than imagined: We now know that, from our national surveys of sports parents since the start of COVID-19, 1 in 5 kids have lost interest in their primary sport and have no desire to return. They’ve gotten a whiff of life beyond the pressures of organized sports, or maybe just fully realized the joys of Fortnight, so they’re retiring. Not good.
The biggest hit is to come, starting in the fall when school returns – online-only in many areas. Our network recognizes as much, telling us in a live poll in our most recent webinar that school sports, more than any other form for youth, are likely to suffer the most over the coming year. And in some districts, there’s still no plan on what to do with P.E.
The immediate challenge is:
Deeper than imagined: We now know that, from our national surveys of sports parents since the start of COVID-19, 1 in 5 kids have lost interest in their primary sport and have no desire to return. They’ve gotten a whiff of life beyond the pressures of organized sports, or maybe just fully realized the joys of Fortnight, so they’re retiring. Not good.
The biggest hit is to come, starting in the fall when school returns – online-only in many areas. Our network recognizes as much, telling us in a live poll in our most recent webinar that school sports, more than any other form for youth, are likely to suffer the most over the coming year. And in some districts, there’s still no plan on what to do with P.E.
Better than imagined: Try to order a bicycle, surfboard, or set of junior golf clubs. You may have to wait a couple months for supply chains to replenish. That’s how much demand there is for such equipment. That’s phenomenally great, given the intrinsic benefits of casual play which builds athletes for life – and healthier, more vibrant communities, the ultimate aim of Project Play.
Even youth sports organizations, at least the smart ones, are making the pivot. No provider has a richer history and investment in formal competition than Little League International, which canceled its community-based leagues and World Series due to COVID-19. So it’s promoting Sandlot Days, a format that put kids in charge and more than 100 of its leagues have now adopted. Read about how much fun kids are having and tell me you don’t want this at your local park.
Thornier than imagined: In a piece I wrote a couple months ago on how sports can help rebuild America and also tell a powerful story by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the challenge of sports governance was recognized. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee issue solid return to play guidance, as does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but youth sports providers do their own thing – because they can. They only need a green light from local officials.
Even government authority is now being tested. Last week, a hockey club in St. Louis announced that it was moving ahead with practices, games and spectators on both, despite an edict from the county executive banning as much. The county was one of the first to bring back travel tournaments, in early May, and now it’s a hot spot.
The situation speaks to the challenge of promoting other best practices that can protect child athletes, from coach training to safety standards.
With more opportunity than imagined: The providers that have moved most nimbly since the shutdown have been club programs and tournament operators, driven to keep their businesses afloat (and not always for the best given the need to control COVID-19). It’s at the parks and rec and community non-profit levels, which serve kids of all income levels, where there is devastation. Many YMCAs are at risk of shuttering and others have laid off 70% to 95% of staff.
“It’s like 52 Card Pickup,” said Jim Boyle, vice president of programs and communication at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation in Detroit. “We have historically disinvested in the recreation delivery system – whether it be program, physical infrastructure, or local capacity – that provides access to the broadest audience. Now, with fewer resources, they’re being asked to design a path forward.”
The upside of crisis is it seeds the garden for new ideas, while making it impossible to ignore the structural inequities that exist in systems.
“It’s like 52 Card Pickup,” said Jim Boyle, vice president of programs and communication at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation in Detroit. “We have historically disinvested in the recreation delivery system – whether it be program, physical infrastructure, or local capacity – that provides access to the broadest audience. Now, with fewer resources, they’re being asked to design a path forward.”
The upside of crisis is it seeds the garden for new ideas, while making it impossible to ignore the structural inequities that exist in systems.
As part of the Don’t Retire, Kid campaign, ESPN ran in its magazine an ad (at right) developed originally by the Wilson Foundation, which in its regional focus markets of southeast Michigan and western New York drove hard at raising awareness of access issues in sports for low-income youth.
That sets the table for a discussion around policies that can and keep more youth in the game and offer the sense of belonging they need.
“We created a system that is a safety net instead of one designed to focus on what we want to accomplish which is get kids active and build people,” Martinez said. “We compartmentalized (access to sports) as nonprofit, a charitable endeavor. We’re going to need to rethink that. Like the (United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals), maybe it needs to be a right for children. Or a fundamental education tool, or a health and safety and wellness tool.”
That sets the table for a discussion around policies that can and keep more youth in the game and offer the sense of belonging they need.
“We created a system that is a safety net instead of one designed to focus on what we want to accomplish which is get kids active and build people,” Martinez said. “We compartmentalized (access to sports) as nonprofit, a charitable endeavor. We’re going to need to rethink that. Like the (United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals), maybe it needs to be a right for children. Or a fundamental education tool, or a health and safety and wellness tool.”
Kobe is no longer with us, but, knowing his passion for developing the social and emotional lives of children through sports, I’m sure he would agree.
Tom Farrey is executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, the home of Project Play. He can be followed @TomFarrey and reached at tom.farrey@aspeninstitute.org.
Tom Farrey is executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, the home of Project Play. He can be followed @TomFarrey and reached at tom.farrey@aspeninstitute.org.
- Direct Lion Silver (Use of Broadcast)
- Direct Lion Bronze (Not-for-profit / Charity / Government)
- Direct Shortlist (Digital & Social / Use of Social Channels
- Entertainment for Sport Shortlist (Excellence in Sports Entertainment / Sports for Good
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- Direct Marketing Bronze Pencil (Targeted Online Video)
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- Integrated Merit (Integrated Branding Campaign)
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- Radio & Audio Merit (Broadcast - Campaign
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- Public Relations Shortlist (Events or Experiential)
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- Social Media Shortlist (Influencer Marketing / Single Channel)
- Bronze (Public Relations / Special Event / Activation / Public Service)
- Sports Gold (Social Good / Teams, Leagues, Governing Bodies, & Associations)
- Sports Silver (Social Media / Multi-Platform / Teams, Leagues, Governing Bodies, & Associations)
- Sports Bronze (Film / 31 seconds to 60 seconds / Teams, Leagues, Governing Bodies, & Associations)
- Shortlist (Digital / Use of Trends & Tactical Marketing)
- Winner (Creative Radio Spot for a Cause: Agency / Production Company / Advertiser)
- Finalist (Best Spot for a Cause: Agency / Production Company)
- Best of Show
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- Silver (Media Cut / Alternative / Nonprofit)
- Silver (Video)
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Don't Retire, Kid is an initiative of Project Play 2020, which is comprised of leading organizations to help make sports accessible to all kids, regardless of zip code or ability.
