Economy hurting sports and kid's lives?

Since the country is feeling the effects of the economic crisis or whatever you can come up with to describe the current situation, the economy is affecting what many Americans love the most, ok maybe behind family and friends: sports.

One of the biggest sports in the U.S., Nascar, is struggling in the economy because many drivers and teams are having trouble staying afloat with high fuel prices and the daily cost of having a team being able to compete each season.

Over the summer a story in Sports Illustrated covered a high school coach and the team he has been with for years. Bob Cimmino tried to have the school district continue to keep funding athletics but the school board disagreed, leaving Cimmino and others to try and raise enough money to fund the athletic program.

Even the three universities in the state of Arizona all have to cut their budgets because of the economy and the debt that the state is currently in. Back in July UA President Robert Shelton talked about the UA needing to cut the budget by more than $20 million. Because of this it will be interesting to see how the athletic department continues to operate even during these tough times. The football team's performance so far could bring in extra revenue for the athletic department instead of just relying on men's basketball to be the main producer of revenue.

Unfortunately I could not find the story I was looking for when writing this blog. In it the article described how some cities including Phoenix cutting some funding for kid's sports and only taking care of the trees on its main streets in the city.

It's a sad thing to see something like this take place because during my younger years sports were a constant theme each and every year. Without them, I could not even begin to think what I would have been doing during the hours of practice and games played. Hopefully these budget cuts don't hurt those kids looking to get involved in something such as sports instead of being left with nothing.