Survey: Parents feel comfortable with kids returning to play in fall

According to a new study, parents feel far more comfortable to allow their children to travel and compete in sports in the fall as opposed to this month.

The study, conducted by the Huddle Up Group, a sports tourism consultancy based in Phoenix, Arizona, collected nearly 2,700 responses in a roughly two-week window ending on May 17. And the results show a positive light on the prospects of youth sports, according to an article posted on The Mail Tribune.

Dubbed the “Return to Play” survey, the study asked five questions centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of comfort parents felt about allowing their children to return to sports.

Here are a few of the key findings from the results.

• 77.8% of respondents said they would be willing to allow their kids back into travel sports in September and beyond, compared to 48.5% in May.
• 82% of parents said they would only allow their kids to participate within a three-hour drive of home today, with that number gradually decreasing to 48.5% in September (meaning as time goes, the radius of competition will get wider).
• Parents were nearly five times more likely to allow their kids to fly for competitions in September (22.2%) than they are today (4.8%).
• Parents anticipate that they will travel with 2.5 family members per athlete when competitions commence.
• Nearly half of all respondents (48.7%) said today’s market challenges will not impact their sports travel budgets.

“I thought [the survey] was very valuable,” Kevin Primerano, the Rogue Valley Timbers youth soccer club executive director and director of coaching told The Mail Tribune. “It actually gave me a little optimism by taking the temperature nationally of what families and parents are thinking.”

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Huddle Up plans to conduct a follow-up survey on what parents consider to be essential needs if they are to attend tournaments and other youth athletic activities.

To read the full story on Huddle Up’s survey from The Mail Tribune, click here.