Soccer veteran Landon Donovan warned U.S. sports have a problem—and it’s the prohibitively high costs keeping out potential talent.
In a recent episode of the The Late Run podcast, the all-time leading scorer for the United States Men’s National Team explained that the early stages of his career were contingent upon outside benefactors sponsoring his participation in high-level youth sports, such as a club or travel teams. Donovan played in three FIFA World Cups for the U.S. team and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2023.
“Growing up, there is zero chance I could have played club soccer,” Donovan said. “My mom made $34,000 a year as a single mom raising three kids. She couldn’t pay $4,000 for me to play club soccer—are you kidding? She couldn’t pay $400.”
“Somebody let me on the team and paid for me,” he added. “Otherwise, I couldn’t have. That’s not a good system to create good players. How do you create good players by doing that? You can’t.”
Youth sports have become increasingly expensive to participate in, with costs soaring 46% from 2019 to 2025, according to a 2025 Aspen Institute report. By some calculations, travel soccer leagues can set a family back by up to $15,000 for year-round coaching and travel.
Beyond club fees and uniforms becoming more expensive, travel is the largest expense for families putting their kids through youth sports, Tom Farrey, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society program, told The Athletic.
The exorbitant costs of participating in club sports, not just soccer, isn’t just detrimental to kids with dreams of scoring goals for Team U.S.A. in the World Cup. It risks shutting talent out of the sport and weakening a pipeline for gifted but less-resourced players who could someday bolster professional teams.
The U.S. sporting world “is not a youth-centered or a talent-development system,” Farrey said. “It’s primarily a system set up to use kids to make money for adults.”
How did club sports get so expensive?
Despite the cost to play, youth sports participation in the U.S. has remained high, with about 55.4% of youths aged 6-17 playing a sport as of 2023, according to federal data.
However, the way organized sports in America are set up creates the need for equipment, referees, and travel, but little way to subsidize those costs. The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 prohibits the U.S. government from funding any Olympic sport, meaning the organizations that emerged to create amateur sports teams were usually in higher-income areas.
High demand for clubs means various leagues—such as MLS Next, USL, NPL, and Girls Academy—charge higher costs, arguing they are able to offer prospective players a shot at honing their talent.
That’s on top of private equity firms taking interest in youth sports. In 2023, Swedish private equity firm EQT acquired the sports-oriented boarding school IMG Academy Bradenton, Fla., for $1.25 billion. For the school, the deal means greater access to global athletes, particularly rising football and tennis stars. But with high tuition and the need to demonstrate strong returns, these private equity projects could price out many families.
While Donovan did not disclose who paid his club fees, he began his sporting journey in earnest at IMG Academy, formerly called Bradenton Academy, supported through the U-17 national team’s residency program.
He had his big break at age 16, when he signed a six-year contract with Bayer Leverkusen, a German club competing in the Bundesliga, for more than $1 million. The team loaned him to the San Jose Earthquakes, where he began his MLS career. Donovan suggested he wants other kids to be able to find the same support he did.
“Think about how many kids you’re missing out on in this country because they can’t afford to play the game,” he said. “The clubs are winning, and the kids are losing.”
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