Quiet Quitting in Youth Sports

About this episode

Chad and Craig discuss the financial implications of youth sports and the recent Let Kids Play Act, exploring the tension between athlete welfare and profit motives.

No guest this week — just Craig and Chad back in the garage, one of them fresh off a dance audition and the other off a baseball playoff thriller. What starts as the Savannah Bananas and a $100 parking ticket at the Giants turns into the most honest money conversation the show has had all season. A few weeks ago, Congress introduced the Let Kids Play Act — a bill to force private equity out of youth sports leagues, facilities, tournaments, and tech platforms, refund the "junk fees," and hold PE investors personally liable. The headline number the sponsors are using: youth sports costs are up 46% since 2019. Every parent listening has watched their tournament-fee line item climb. So is the bill naming the right enemy? Chad and Craig don't fully agree, and they don't pretend to. The bill is the easy conversation. The hard one is the one Craig walks straight into: we built the studio. They're not outside the system pointing fingers — they're inside the economics they're critiquing, and they say so. From there it goes everywhere the real tension lives: the 501(c)(3)s sitting on millions in cash while there's no green space left to play, franchise clubs that sell structure to…

People in this episode

Hosts: Chad Kutting, Craig Surgey

Topics covered

• youth sports
• money in sports
• Let Kids Play Act
• high school NIL
• youth sports costs
• private equity in sports

Keywords

• youth sports
• Let Kids Play Act
• NIL
• Savannah Bananas
• private equity
• tournament fees
• high school sports

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Savannah Bananas, Congress, Let Kids Play Act, NIL

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• The Long Game with Lisa Mitchell · April 27, 2026 · 41 min
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