The costs keep adding up — league fees, gear, travel — when it comes to youth sports in North America.

It’s a longtime issue exacerbated by inflation and hardly confined to the United States. The expense of playing youth hockey is one of the primary reasons cited by parents and others when discussing its decline in Canada.

“It just becomes increasingly more expensive for parents and families to play,” said Jon Solomon, community impact director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program. “There’s sort of this haves versus have-nots that exist in youth sports, in terms of who can play and who can’t or get quality access.”