Take Back Sports is ESPN’s nationwide initiative focused on restoring joy, access, and opportunity in youth sports. The effort invests in community recreation leagues, quality coaching, multisport play, and mental wellness — helping ensure sports remain reachable and fun for kids of all backgrounds and abilities. That commitment comes to life year‑round through philanthropy and storytelling, including moments like Youth Sports Week, when ESPN platforms come together to spotlight the people, programs, and athletes working to keep kids playing and thriving.
In the first year of Take Back Sports, the initiative reached nearly one million children and 67,000 coaches. Young people who play sports are 14 times more likely to become avid sports fans as adults, underscoring how early opportunities shape lifelong relationships with sports.
That message is being amplified by some of the most recognizable names in sports, including Stephen Curry, A’ja Wilson, Peyton and Eli Manning, Luka Dončić, Kerry Walsh Jennings, and Francisco Lindor, who serve as Take Back Sports athlete ambassadors. Through appearances and storytelling across SportsCenter and ESPN platforms their voices help elevate the importance keeping sports fun and accessible for every child.
In the Q&A below, Kevin Martinez, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at ESPN, shares how Take Back Sports is building on this momentum and how Disney and ESPN are working together so the next generation grows up with access to the benefits — and joy — of sports.
Why is access to sports so critical to a child’s development — not just physically, but socially and emotionally?
Research shows that participation in youth sports contributes to children’s happiness and emotional well-being, fostering social connection, physical activity, and a sense of achievement.
It’s how kids can learn to lose, how to cooperate, how to manage emotions and so many other important life skills that they can carry with them their entire lives.
Project Play aims to increase youth sports participation from 38% to 63% by 2030. What makes ESPN uniquely positioned to help drive that kind of systemic change?
With wide reach, deep sports expertise and commitment to community impact, ESPN can help elevate the narrative, invest in solutions, and bring stakeholders together to reimagine youth sports for the next generation.
There’s no national governing body of youth sports in the U.S. like there is in many other countries — so we have to work together across the industry. Only by using collective action can we create real change. It’s why we’re so proud to serve on the Aspen Institute’s 63×30 committee, which is designed to get 63% of kids playing by the year 2030.
In its first year, Take Back Sports reached nearly one million children. What are the key priorities for building on that momentum and deepening the initiative’s impact going forward?
ESPN has invested in organizations focused on the four pillars that will help remove barriers to entry. These are key areas where we believe ESPN can make the biggest impact:
- Community Rec Leagues — We want to ensure kids of all skill levels and backgrounds have a place to play.
- Quality Coaching — We’re striving to get coaches trained in critical competencies that help kids thrive.
- Multisport Play — We want kids to play a lot of different sports — especially at the youngest ages — to help prevent injuries and burnout.
- Having Fun — It’s the #1 reason kids play sports; we need to bring the fun back and help coaches with mental wellness training.
We’re incredibly proud to have impacted 935,000 youth and 67,000 coaches in the first year through those focus areas, but we know the work is not done. We’ll continue to align our philanthropic investments, storytelling, and activations to ensure the next generation remains connected to the game.
The Take Back Sports Report found that youth who play sports are 14 times more likely to become avid sports fans as adults. Why does early participation matter so profoundly — not just for individual children, but for the future of sports culture and society as a whole?
By investing in youth sports, we’re not only nurturing the next generation of athletes, we’re strengthening the future of fandom and the ecosystems that power it: families, schools, and local leagues.
As we look at how to grow sports fandom, getting kids playing early is critical because the younger sports fandom begins, the higher likelihood of adult avidity. This is important to the leagues as well, which is why we’re working in tandem with our business partners across the sports industry.
So, as we look to grow and expand our audience and engage younger sports fans, it’s imperative that we get kids playing.
This year, ESPN’s Youth Sports Week presented content and storytelling across ESPN platforms to drive awareness to the importance of youth sports. How does Youth Sports Week support ESPN’s broader, yearlong Take Back Sports strategy?
ESPN’s Youth Sports Week was dedicated to celebrating the positive impact of youth sports on young athletes, families, and communities. As part of Take Back Sports, the effort spotlighted the people, programs, and organizations working to ensure sports remain accessible, positive, and impactful for the next generation.
ESPN presented content and storytelling across ESPN platforms, including SportsCenter, ESPN Digital, the ESPN App, and ESPN social platforms, amplifying voices across the youth sports landscape while driving awareness around the importance of participation, coaching, and community engagement.
It also was an opportunity to highlight the 25 Take Back Sports athlete ambassadors, from Stephen Curry to Peyton and Eli Manning, A’ja Wilson and many others.
How did support from The Walt Disney Company help amplify the reach and effectiveness of Take Back Sports, and why is that kind of enterprise-wide collaboration so important to advancing ESPN’s corporate citizenship goals?
The commitment to youth sports is embedded across the organization, reflecting a shared belief in the power of play to shape confident, healthy communities. Youth sports serves as a cornerstone of Disney’s broader youth development strategy, aligning storytelling, community investment, and cultural influence to drive meaningful impact.
One way this comes to life is a collaboration between Disney Jr.’s Let’s Play initiative and Take Back Sports. ESPN and Disney Jr. teamed up with the nonprofit Every Kid Sports to introduce sports to preschoolers, paying for sports registration fees — marking the first time preschoolers benefited from these resources and making sports accessible to even the youngest kids facing financial hardships.
More than 1,200 young children from income-restricted families from Chicago, Fresno, Calif., Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, N.C. and San Francisco young children from income restricted families received fall sports passes to cover fall registration fees across 22 different sports.
Additionally, ESPN and Disney Cruise Line have teamed up through the Play Project, which was established to advance the physical, social, and emotional development of young people in The Bahamas. Disney Cruise Line is bringing play opportunities to communities across The Bahamas, so students have access to accessible, enjoyable, and rewarding play environments.
