Is Youth Sport The Next Kodak?

Youth sport is on a track that rivals the decline of the travel agent, photofinishing, video rental, newspapers and all the other staple businesses that could not pivot as times changed.

Dec 05, 2021

Using a travel agent is about as common as a leap year today, but that was not always the case. Prior to the internet, finding the best way to get to a destination, accommodations, and activities once there were tasked to someone who specializes in this area. Not so much in 2021.

The newspaper industry has 60% less employees than prior to the internet. There was a time when getting a daily newspaper subscription was as common as days of the week. As we head into 2022, we consume information a variety of ways from a variety of sources. Only very few organizations have survived being able to pivot to providing quality relevant content on digital platforms.

Video Rental. Most of us are not so old that we don’t remember the local video rental location. Blockbuster, at one point was on every block. They did not evolve in offering video services and they are now gone.

Getting your picture developed at the corner Walmart or pharmacy in less than an hour? That was a thing. Not anymore.

Over 40 million kids in North American register to play a sport each year. 70% of those registered will quit their sport by the age of 13.

Do we see a parallel with every other business that was prominent in our culture and disappeared?

Those that have pivoted and adapted have survived, the others not so much.

Does anyone remember Kodak?

There was a time when Kodak was a household term. Their cameras and picture technology were the standard worldwide. They filed for bankruptcy in 2012. There fall was quick and painful. While there are many theories on what happened, the accurate lessons are subtle. Companies often see the disruptive forces affecting their industry. They frequently divert sufficient resources to participate in emerging markets. Their failure is usually an inability to truly embrace the new business models the disruptive change opens up.1

In the last 25 years I have combined my passion for sport, physical activity, teaching with business. I taught physical literacy and coached at all levels for 8 years before transitioning to business.

Since that time, I have worked for 13 years as 100% all commission sales agent which opened doors to 6 years business ownership which opened doors to the sale of the business to the global company that have worked with for the last 6 years. The learning curve has been steep, but there have been many lessons along the way. One of them is recognizing when something is not working and adjusting accordingly.

While the above examples represent a disappearing act of many, there are organizations that made adjustments and were rewarded accordingly. Twitter, Paypal, Wrigley, Avon, Instagram and Starbucks are just a few household names today that pivoted from their original plan to become giants.

While the world of education (in my experience) did not reward good performance, business is all about performance. Business provides zero areas where to hide. You either become in tune with customer needs and address them in a profitable and beneficial way or you perish.

Business history tells us that youth sport is heading right down the same track as Kodak and others who were not able to navigate a changing landscape.

There is no business (Youth Sport is a $28 Billion dollar industry in North America) that can survive the decline metrics that youth sport is currently going through. 70% of your customers leave after purchasing your services? Unless you have a massive replacement strategy for new customers, that is a big problem. Yet, many in youth sport will carry on with the status quo hoping for something different.

Attract, retain, and grow participation is exactly the goal of a successful business. Yet, youth sport carries on without a care in the world?

If the organization you volunteer in has declining participation, you need to start talking solutions. Time is running out.

Is youth sport worth saving? I think so.

Is the trend worrisome, yes?

It is fixable, yes!

What are the steps to solutions?

1. Youth sport needs to come to grips with the fact that they are business and should be run as such.

Let me draw your attention to a terrific discussion this past week on one of my favorite podcasts: Leave Your Mark with Scott Livingston. An outstanding conversation between Scott and his guest Matt Young of Quality Sport Hub. 3

Solutions outlined in the podcast lie in approaching same as growing a successful business.

2. Organizational leadership (and the federal, regional, and local levels) need to start acknowledging the crappy customer experience they are providing. An internal audit via feedback is a critical customer satisfaction step that is the foundation of a successful business. This feedback that is not personal or emotional. It is how the customers feel about your services. And you build from that.

Let’s review the performance metric we know: Over 35% of the millions of children who play youth sports quit after the first year of competition. 85% of the children who continue to play dropped out of organized sports all together between ages of 10 and 17. 2

3. Map out solutions around the customer feedback. The Quality Sport Hub team suggests

· Prioritizing acquiring a turnkey operating system (OS), or,

· Develop an OS within the organization, or,

· A combination of both via a 3rd party consult/customization in 1 or more areas of operation that are weakest.

The challenge in creating a successful OS within the organization is the same that every business confronts, developing an OS sounds lot easier that it is to implement.

The most successful businesses implement an OS that maps out every step required for successful execution. They pursue the execution of this OS with pig headed stubbornness until they reach their targets. Reminder, I said successful businesses do this, not every business.

The most common approach to providing a business with a successful OS is the franchise. The franchisor provides an OS to support attracting customers (marketing), maps out every step required around cost of goods, human resources, accountability, and reporting. The good franchisors will also support their franchisees in building a positive culture.

The devil is in the details. Training materials, hiring policies, guidelines on what to avoid, accountability, reporting. A blueprint to success. Also known as an operating system.

When we add it all up, we look at the volunteers with good intentions, who step into roles with the youth sport organization who do not have experience or skills in any of the above areas. Not being familiar with any aspects of business ultimately hurts the product or service being offered. Customer attrition is the result, also known as declining participation.

We have just defined the difference between a successful business and unsuccessful one. Business rewards good performance and punishes the bad, the outdated, too expensive and those which do not address customer needs. Businesses get reminded of this every day.

Youth sport is getting a reminder consistently. Losing millions of customers every year is a very clear measure of how we are doing.

A change of thinking required.

The good news is a group like Quality Sport Hub is starting to get some traction with their solutions. Kudos to Canada Soccer, PGA of America and USA Hockey. They are just some of the few that are determined to make sure they are not the next Kodak.

Call to action:
If your organization has a declining participation, send the board of directors this article.
Send the regional and federal associations for your sport this article.
Initiate accountability. Get to the head of the organization. What are our customers saying? Where can we improve? Who can help us?