Economic Liberties Senior Fellow Katherine Van Dyck to Testify Before US House Committee on How Private Equity is Gutting Youth Sports

Washington, D.C. — This morning at 10:00am EST, Economic Liberties Senior Legal Fellow Katherine Van Dyck will testify in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education at a hearing titled, “Benched: The Crisis in American Youth Sports and Its Cost to Our Future.” The hearing will examine the growing role of private equity and financial consolidation in youth sports; the resulting rise in costs for families; declining access and participation; and the broader consequences for children’s health, safety, and community life.

“Youth sports in our country are beloved traditions and great equalizers, a place where children from all backgrounds can come together, learn teamwork and fair play, and build shared community bonds,” said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. “But it is quickly becoming the next victim of a financialized economy that has taken over virtually every aspect of American life. Private equity companies have been quietly and systematically capturing the youth sports industry across the United States, turning what was once an affordable public good into a profit-extraction machine. It is the same playbook that private equity used to consolidate industries as varied as veterinary clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, and firetrucks—stripping assets, raising prices, and degrading quality, and the consequences are devastating.”

Ms. Van Dyck’s testimony details how years of state and local budget cuts, combined with unfunded federal mandates and weak oversight, created a void that private equity firms have filled through serial acquisitions and vertical integration. She explains how dominant firms now control leagues, tournaments, facilities, apparel, technology platforms, travel and streaming services, and even governing bodies, allowing them to eliminate competition and force families into costly, non-negotiable arrangements. As a result, families now spend thousands of dollars per year on youth sports, participation gaps based on income are widening, and children face higher risks of burnout, overuse injuries, and exploitation.

“Private equity has become a predatory force in our society. It harms our children and threatens the stability of American society for profit, and it has turned its sights on youth sports,” Ms. Van Dyck added. “It is exploiting parents’ love for their children and their desire to give them opportunities to learn, grow, and succeed.”

In her testimony, Ms. Van Dyck calls on Congress to take bold action, including increased antitrust scrutiny of consolidation in youth sports, stronger consumer protection rules for families, and clear limits on private equity practices that prioritize financial engineering over children’s wellbeing. She argues that youth sports should not be a luxury good, but a broadly accessible public good essential to healthy childhood development and civic life.

Read Katherine Van Dyck’s full written testimony here.

Watch the full hearing here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; international trade arrangements that promote promote balanced trade and benefit workers, farmers and small businesses; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.