[broost3r]

check out this article (gift link) from yesterday about private equity in youth sports

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/business/youth-sports-pri...

> For many families, the money they spend on sports is an investment in their child’s future. Roughly two in 10 youth sports parents think their child has the ability to play Division I college sports, and one in 10 thinks his or her child could reach the professional ranks or the Olympics, according to the Aspen Institute survey.

[kergonath]

> one in 10 thinks his or her child could reach the professional ranks or the Olympics

That is properly insane. The delusion…

[MrFoof]

Agreed. For anyone thinking the above comment might be mean spirited, here's why it's not:

* In 2017, there were ~1,108,400 US high school football players.

* In 2017, there were ~67,800 US college football players.

* In 2017, 255 players were drafted into the NFL.

So from high school to playing in the NFL, odds of 0.023%, or about 1:4346.

Even then, the average tenure of a professional NFL player is 39 months.

--

Football is one of the easier sports to go pro in as well.