Rising cost of living taking its toll on youth hockey participation

The rising cost of living is taking its toll on a beloved Canadian sport. There's been a steady drop in youth hockey participation right across the country, significant equipment and registration fees forcing families to opt for sports like soccer and swimming that have much lower price tags. It's challenging. It's challenging to have to get trying to find kids to play for your team. It's turning into a recruiting game where you have to go out and talk to parents, talk to kids, try to convince them to come play. It's disheartening, it's sad. The sad reality is that the future of the sport could be in jeopardy. Decline in youth hockey participation started well before the pandemic. According to Hockey Canada. The peak was 2010 with over half a million kids under 18 playing across the country. Since then, the number has dropped by almost 1/4 and remains below pre pandemic levels even while other sports rebound. A recent report finding the top choice for families is soccer, followed by swimming. It's a lot cheaper to play those sports and put your kids into those sports than it is hockey these days. For instance, one of my son's place, I was like, it's going to cost me roughly. $1700 before he even before I even buy equipment A soccer is going to cost me $500 and the numbers only go up from house league. The cost of being on a competitive hockey team can start at $4000 annually. Between the equipment cost, hotels, tournaments, your gas to get from point A to point B all plays a varying factor. Another concern, a growing number of indoor ice rinks are in disrepair or have been forced to close altogether with fewer options for places to play. The cost of renting ice is also up drastically. No matter what level a kid is playing out, whether it's grassroots or like a house league or or a competitive, you know, getting nice time, getting access to the facilities is always an issue. And that's what costs so much money, too. The Ford government says it is investing $2 billion over the next two decades on parks and rec infrastructure, but the majority of that money will go to fields, basketball courts and pools. There's a lot of these community rinks were built a long time ago and have not had. Much investment since then and that becomes another barrier to you know, it's increasingly rare for somebody to be able to walk to hockey with their bag and and, and play. One solution. We're told there are programs in place that will offer subsidies for kids and families that can't afford hockey and help newcomers get equipment and understand the game to keep it as open and accessible as possible. For City News I'm Tina as Danny.