Summit Recap: Project Play network rallies around 63X30

BERKELEY, CALIF. – The largest crowd in the history of the Project Play Summit came to the campus of the University of California prepared to share ideas about what it will take to help the nation get 63% of youth playing organized sports by the end of the decade, a call to action made a year earlier by partners of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program.

The more than 700 attending the sold-out event, plus more than 1,000 on livestream, left the two days and its 26 main stage and breakout sessions with clear opportunities to do so.

Project Play survey: Family spending on youth sports rises 46% over five years

Participation in youth sports is getting more expensive – and there seems no end in sight.

The average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute’s latest parent survey in partnership with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University. The rising commercialization of youth sports impacts who can access quality sports opportunities or whether some children play at all.

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How sports can help Washington D.C.’s absenteeism challenge in schools

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The Aspen Institute’s State of Play Washington D.C. report, released in 2025, explored the role sports can play to reduce student truancy in schools. High levels of involvement in school sports are one of the strongest correlations with lower risk of cutting or skipping class and school misbehavior, according to a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Families lack information about available sports programming in Baton Rouge

Sports offerings are only as good as the ability to market them. Families need to know how and when to register, costs to play, scholarship opportunities, locations of practices and games, and much more. We heard from parents who say they don’t have enough information about available sports programs, including costs.

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How Oakland is mobilizing for kids

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Oakland’s passion for sports was recognized by the Aspen Institute in “State of Play Oakland,” the 11th community report from our Project Play initiative. Two data points stood about above all: only 14% of Oakland youth received the 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (below the U.S. average of 23%). And just 9% of Oakland girls were sufficiently physically active. The good news is many organizations and leaders in the city saw the numbers and got to work. 

Baton Rouge youth are socially isolated and struggling with mental health

We heard positive and negative sports experiences from Baton Rouge youth. Many talked about the joy and freedom they feel when they play, describing how sports are an escape from problems in life. In addition, too many young people told us they feel anxious and pressured by adults in sports.

Transportation is limited for children in Baton Rouge to access sports

East Baton Rouge Parish Schools offers magnet programs to retain students, but that has consequences for extracurricular activities: Thousands of students don’t attend schools near their homes and are transported right after school back to their homes. For many children, their only way home is the school bus, which can be a long ride across the parish.

Climate change is impacting how children play sports

Changes in the climate increasingly expose football players (and all athletes in outdoor sports) to higher temperatures and dangerous levels of humidity that surpass recommended safety thresholds. Not only football is being affected, of course. How, or if, children play sports and recreate outdoors continues to be impacted by climate change, and the challenges are not going away.

Distrust in government has contributed to the privatization of sports, leaving behind children who lack access

Many youth sports providers in the public and private sectors don’t communicate much with each other, in part due to distrust of each other. There is a belief by some that no intersection exists between people who strive to use sports as an economic engine and people who focus on providing affordable, quality access for all children. The divide between the haves and have-nots in youth sports within East Baton Rouge Parish resembles that in the educational environment.