i9 and the Transformation of Youth Sport

Abstract

In this article I present an analysis of how traditionally run competitive, organized team sports reproduce multiple socionegative effects for youth who play them. After explicating how the structure and culture of traditionally run competitive team sports operates in western cultures, I explain that cultural resistance toward changing sport is beginning to wane. I analyze a consumer-oriented neoliberal approach to transforming these negative outcomes of youth sport through the creation of a new sporting organization, i9 sports. I draw on this example to conclude that structural and cultural changes to youth sport are increasingly viable for at least middle and upper class parents who are critical of traditional sport options and to initiate a conversation about consumer-led social change initiatives in youth sport.