The final whistle has blown on FIFA World Cup 2026™, bringing to a close one of the biggest sporting events ever staged across North America. For host cities, sports organizations, parks and recreation agencies, sponsors and community partners, however, the more important question is only just beginning.
Research from Kinetica Group. Please reach out to Malcolm Mizen with any inquires on how data insight like this can help your business.
Download the Participation Growth Playbook
What will the participation legacy actually be?
Throughout this research series with Youth Sports Business Report, we’ve explored that question through localized participation intelligence across North America. What began as an investigation into World Cup legacy ultimately uncovered something much broader, a practical way of thinking about participation growth itself.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from the series is this: Participation growth isn’t created through a single initiative or campaign. It is cultivated through a series of informed decisions, made consistently over time. That lesson extends well beyond soccer. It applies equally to tennis, basketball, swimming, pickleball, parks and recreation, community wellbeing, and indeed any organization seeking to grow and engage a participation audience.
Five Lessons from the Series
1. Market size is only the starting point. Our first article quantified the participation opportunity surrounding FIFA World Cup 2026™.But one insight quickly became clear.Market size alone is an incomplete guide for participation growth.Understanding how many people are interested in playing tells us the size of the opportunity.It doesn’t tell us how to realise it.
2. Every market behaves differently. As we analysed host cities across North America, a second insight emerged.Markets don’t simply differ in size.They differ in how participation opportunity presents geographically.Boston behaves differently to Dallas. Los Angeles behaves differently to New York.Kansas City behaves differently again. That knowledge led us to develop a series of Participation Growth Archetypes. A strategic framework describing the dominant participation dynamics of different metropolitan areas and the types of growth strategies they require.
3. Local is everything. The deeper we looked, the clearer the picture became.Even within the same city, neighbouring communities often presented very different participation opportunities.The maps consistently demonstrated that broad city-wide strategies overlook important local variation.The closer we looked, the more actionable the intelligence became.Participation growth happens within communities, not averages.
4. Participation is cultivated community by community This may be the most important lesson of all.Interest alone doesn’t create participation.People become participants when the right conditions exist.Facilities.Programs.Coaches.Local organizations.Community connections.Accessibility.Awareness.Confidence.These ingredients combine to create participation ecosystems that help people move from interest to participation.Participation isn’t simply realized.It is cultivated.
5. Insight only matters if it leads to action. Research should never end with a report. Its purpose is to improve decisions. Localized intelligence helps organizations understand where participation opportunity exists. Participation Growth Archetypes help explain how markets behave. Audience identification helps reveal who existing and potential participants are within priority communities. Audience activation enables organizations to reach and engage those audiences efficiently through digital platforms and community partnerships.
The real value comes from connecting those elements into one continuous process, from intelligence to implementation.
A Framework That Extends Beyond the World Cup
Although this series used FIFA World Cup 2026™ as its catalyst, the framework that emerged extends far beyond one tournament. The same principles can help organizations cultivate participation growth across virtually any participation audience in any community large, small or otherwise.
Whether the objective is:
- growing participation in a sport;
- increasing coaching or volunteer numbers;
- strengthening club membership;
- improving community wellbeing;
- engaging sports fans;
- increasing event attendance; or
- building healthier, more active communities,
the challenge remains remarkably similar.
- Understand how the market behaves.
- Identify where the greatest participation opportunity exists.
- Prioritize local communities.
- Engage the right audiences.
- Measure the impact.
Participation growth is not a campaign. It is an ongoing process of cultivating participation ecosystems.
Introducing the Participation Growth Playbook
Throughout this series we’ve frequently been asked the same question: “How do we actually put this into practice?” To answer that, we’ve developed the Participation Growth Playbook.
The Playbook brings together the key lessons from this research into a practical framework for organizations seeking to grow participation through better informed local decisions.
It explores how to:
- Understand participation opportunity.
- Identify Participation Growth Archetypes.
- Prioritize communities.
- Identify participation audiences.
- Reach and engage those audiences effectively.
- Measure and optimise long-term participation growth.
While developed through our FIFA World Cup 2026™ legacy research, the Playbook has been designed to support organizations working across sport, recreation and community wellbeing more broadly.
From Legacy to Lasting Growth
Perhaps the greatest legacy of FIFA World Cup 2026™ won’t be the tournament itself. It will be the decisions made over the coming months and years by the organizations responsible for growing participation.
Those organizations now have an opportunity to move beyond broad legacy ambitions and toward a more informed, localized and measurable approach to participation growth. Because understanding markets is only the beginning.
Lasting participation growth comes from understanding how markets behave, identifying local opportunity and cultivating participation ecosystems, one community at a time.
Download the Participation Growth Playbook
To accompany this research series, we’ve developed the Participation Growth Playbook, a practical guide for governments, sports organizations, parks and recreation agencies, sponsors and community partners seeking to build lasting participation growth through localized intelligence and audience engagement.
image: Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
About Youth Sports Business Report
Youth Sports Business Report (YSBR) is the largest and most trusted media platform covering the business of youth sports worldwide. YSBR delivers youth sports news, market intelligence, and original analysis daily across facilities, sponsorships, private equity, NIL, sports technology, and league operations. With more than 50,000 followers, YSBR is the leading source of youth sports industry news for the investors, owners, operators, and brands shaping the future of youth sports.
How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
Who founded Youth Sports Business Report?
Youth Sports Business Report was founded by Cameron Korab, a sports marketing veteran with more than a decade in the industry and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Korab also co-founded Vertical Sports, a sports marketing advisory serving brands across youth, college, and pro sports.
What does YSBR cover?
YSBR delivers original reporting and market intelligence on youth sports facilities, youth sports technology, sponsorship and brand partnerships, private equity and venture capital deals, NIL policy, coaching development, equipment and apparel, tournaments and events, and community sports initiatives. Readers include industry executives, investors, facility owners and operators, league administrators, and youth sports parents.
Youth Sports Business Report resources
- Newsletter: Subscribe to Youth Sports HQ, the most-read newsletter on the business of youth sports, delivering curated youth sports industry news and analysis to thousands of industry leaders every week.
- Research: Read the Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, an exclusive YSBR and Kinetica Group analysis of market size, parent spending, and marketplace opportunities.
- Jobs: Browse the YSBR Youth Sports Job Board, the most comprehensive destination for careers in youth sports, with hundreds of active listings across facility management, league operations, coaching, sports technology, and marketing.
- Services: Find vetted partners and solutions for your organization in the YSBR Services Hub, connecting youth sports operators, brands, and investors with verified providers across the industry.
- About: Learn more about Youth Sports Business Report and our editorial standards.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
