BALTIMORE — Ever thought about joining an organized sports team, or putting your kids into sports at school, or simply attending a sporting event? You're all set to go until you see how high the prices are.
The cause of that is inflation. Prices for sports equipment have gone up by 1.1% in the last year according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Not only does inflation affect the equipment, but it affects referee costs as well.
In years past, the cost of a referee was around $40-50. Now, that number has increased to around $90.
Why does the cost of a referee matter? Well, everything trickles down, so the referee costs will now impact the cost of travel for a team.
This in turn hits the equipment because the budget gets tighter as costs are increasing everywhere else.
Jeff Byerly, an elementary physical education teacher for 29 years, says he's noticed an increase in almost every generation.
Transportation is one of the biggest areas impacted by inflation.
"Not only do they [kids] not have money for equipment, they don't have the ability to get a ride to play ball," Byerly said. "If we went to a home game we have 15 kids, we go to a road game and we have six kids."
Rules and regulations change season to season as well, so this causes families to go out and buy something else they may have already owned.
"They change the rules every couple of years where the bat you had when you're 14 might not be good when you're 18. It's still a good bat, but it's not legal anymore and that stuff's expensive," Byerly explained.
Despite these barriers, a Baltimore nonprofit is working hard to keep children in sports. The program redistributes equipment to expand access and equity within youth sports and recreation programs in under-resourced communities.
RELATED: How Leveling the Playing Field helps communities gain access to sports equipment
Luke Weierbach is the Program Director at Leveling the Playing Field. He's in charge of not only the day to day operations, but making sure they have a steady flow of gear coming in.
He remembers when he was a kid, the cost of sports equipment was much lower.
"I could get a decent bat for $50 growing up, now, the average bat is probably $300 at Dick's Sporting Goods with the cheapest bat being 125," Weierbach explained. "Someone's gonna see that price tag and just think, that's just the bat, now I need to get a bucket of balls, I need to get a glove, I need to get cleats."
Add all those things up and you're looking at a bill close to $1,000 and that's where LPF comes in.
"We're just here to make sure that, coaches and schools know that they have the resource. You might be able to find something here or at least something to practice with to get those students engaged in that interest level up," Weierbach said. "So that way they can continue to athletic career."
Some of the most commonly donated items are soccer balls, basketballs, softballs, baseballs and cleats.
When people need new equipment, they come in and do a bit of "window shopping," according to Program Associate Brandon Wright.
"We do a site visit with them. And that's where we ask them, 'hey, what equipment are you looking for,'" Wright explained. "Our goal is to end up making sure that we have an idea of what they're looking for before they come in. So that way we can end up being like, 'alright, so you're here, you're looking for a soccer equipment, it's going to be right this way.'"
Some needs are harder to meet than others. People are hanging on to sports equipment, specifically football and lacrosse gear, longer.
Wright says a lot of this has to do with inflation.
"Youth sports as a whole is becoming more expensive. A lot of programs are asking kids to make year round commitments," Wright said.
These all stem from supply chain issues due to COVID.
The end goal of LPF is to reach as many programs as possible and they're headed in the right direction.
In 2021, they reached a total of 215 programs. That number rose to 325 in 2022.
This year they're aiming to reach 350 total programs.
