{"id":1089,"date":"2026-06-05T23:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:07:31","slug":"youth-sports-are-pricing-out-families-the-millers-want-to-change-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1089","title":{"rendered":"Youth sports are pricing out families. The Millers want to change that"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A new fundraising campaign hopes to increase access to youth sports for children across the state of Utah.<\/p>\n

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Executives from Miller Sports + Entertainment, the Larry H. Miller & Gail Miller Family Foundation and the Daniels Fund announced the inaugural Utah Youth Sports Giving Day on Friday at The Ballpark at America First Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtah Youth Sports Giving Day is about one simple thing: it\u2019s about giving more young people across our state a chance to experience the lifelong benefits of sports,\u201d Michelle Smith, president of Miller Sports + Entertainment, said. <\/p>\n

The campaign will run from Sept. 12 to Sept. 26 with the goal of raising $3 million to support youth sports nonprofits.<\/p>\n

America First Credit Union, SME Industries Inc., Mountainland Supply, the Forever Young Foundation, George S. and Dolores Dor\u00e9 Eccles Foundation, the Huntsman Family Foundation, Maverik, Ken Garff for Good, The Boyer Company and the Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation already committed to match $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

Just below where the announcement was made alongside Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah first lady Abby Cox and two-time Olympian Kaysha Love, 500 Utah youth baseball players took the field for Major League Baseball\u2019s Play Ball Weekend. Another 300 softball players will participate Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the power of sport,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe know that that helps them build character, and resilience, and confidence and how it also gives them a sense of belonging. Youth sports is more than building an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympian on the power of youth sports<\/h3>\n

As a mother with children who were involved in baseball, soccer, volleyball and karate, Smith has personally seen the lessons learned through youth sports participation and the lifelong impact they can have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question that it helped them grow that ability to be a friend, to be a teammate, but also to communicate, listen, have resilience,\u201d Smith told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n

Before Love, who hails from nearby Herriman, was a two-time Olympic bobsledder, she participated in Junior Jazz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was absolutely terrible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

When her parents, who both played basketball in college, saw her play for the first time, \u201cthey were so embarrassed of how terrible I was,\u201d Love told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n

Though basketball didn\u2019t end up being Love\u2019s sport, that experience became \u201ca core memory\u201d for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something that I got to do that my parents had done in college. It gave me the opportunity to do something within my community, and it led me to the sport that I was passionate about, which was gymnastics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gymnastics led to sprinting and sprinting led to bobsledding, something Love said she never considered doing until she was approached her senior year of college. Bobsledding then led to Love meeting her fianc\u00e9, fellow bobsledder and 2026 Olympian Hunter Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely think that everything that happened leading up to this point was to help me become the bobsledder that I was supposed to be,\u201d she said. \u201cI truly believe that bobsled is my purpose.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gov. Cox said \u201cwe\u2019ve priced too many\u201d kids out of youth sports, and Love said that breaks her heart.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t ever want to know that there is an athlete or a family out there who cannot continue to chase their dreams because of financial burdens, and that\u2019s what makes me so excited about this campaign,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Cox, Abby Cox remember Junior Jazz days<\/h3>\n

Like Love, both the governor and first lady participated in Junior Jazz, which the governor said \u201csaved my life,\u201d and led to dreams of playing in the NBA and WNBA, respectively, they said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here today because of those opportunities that I got when I was a kid, and there is no reason in the year 2026 that any kid in this state shouldn\u2019t be able to have a sports experience,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

He and first lady both spoke on the importance of kids spending less time on screens and the role sports can play in getting them moving. According to the governor, children average at least six hours of screen time a day, a statistic that caused Salt Lake Bees mascot, Bumble, to cover his eyes in horror.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need the opportunity to put their screens down, to be outside, to connect with other humans,\u201d Abby Cox said. \u201cWe are in trouble if we raise a generation of kids that don\u2019t know how to connect with each other and aren\u2019t outside and aren\u2019t part of this sporting experience. So, we need to get back to a play-based childhood, and that\u2019s what this sports opportunity does.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is Utah Youth Sports Giving Day?<\/h3>\n

In 2024, the Denver-based Daniels Fund launched the Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day after noticing the rising costs of youth sports participation, according to Luke Ragland, the chief impact officer of the Daniels Fund.<\/p>\n

The average family spends over $1,100 on their child\u2019s primary sport, according to Ragland.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, that puts participation out of reach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Daniels Fund wanted to \u201ccreate a statewide moment of generosity that connects donors directly with organizations helping young people play sports,\u201d Ragland said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado campaign has since raised over $9 million and worked with more than 240 youth sports organizations. It has now expanded to its second state in Utah. <\/p>\n

In 2025, Smith and Jenny Teemsma, Miller Sports + Entertainment\u2019s head of communications, and Kyle Schroeder, vice president of community relations, traveled to Denver for its Giving Day, where they were asked if they\u2019d like to replicate the campaign in Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all up for it,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the start of the campaign in September, the organizations are working to recruit and register youth sports nonprofits to be recipients of the fundraising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we need our community to come together in September and donate to their favorite nonprofit that\u2019s supporting youth sports,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n

She envisions Utah Youth Sports Giving Day as being \u201cfoundational\u201d for Miller Sports + Entertainment and the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation going forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a one and done,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a building block. This is year one. I think that this will last for decades. I think we can keep building upon it and grow and grow, just like Colorado has been able to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor expects Utah to surpass the inaugural $3 million goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to beat Colorado,\u201d he said, doing a little friendly ribbing. \u201cI have no doubt about that. We are the most generous state in the nation. We always have been. I feel bad for them because it\u2019s not going to be close at all. We\u2019re just that competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Why troops who don\u2019t meet fitness standards won\u2019t be found at upcoming White House UFC bouts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miller Sports + Entertainment, the Larry H. Miller & Gail Miller Family Foundation, and the Daniels Fund announced the Utah Youth Sports Giving Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nYouth sports are pricing out families. The Millers want to change that - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Youth sports are pricing out families. 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