FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 1, 2002

"GENERATION Y" DRIVES INCREASINGLY POPULAR "EXTREME" SPORTS

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GROWTH OF NEW "MILLENNIAL" PURSUITS OUTPACES TRADITIONAL ACTIVITIES

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But Team Sports Still Attract the Most Kids

HARTSDALE, N.Y. — Sports and leisure preferences mirror an evolving society, reflecting not only explosive changes in the youth culture, but also the basic need for novelty and change. From 1998–2001, the largest gains in sports participation have come from the new "Extreme" Sports, (variously dubbed "Millennial," "Alternative," "New Age," and "Action" Sports): Skateboarding (+73%), Artificial Wall Climbing (+57%), Wakeboarding (+38%), Paintball (+30%) and Snowboarding (+25%). These were among the findings of the 15th annual SUPERSTUDY® of Sports Participation, conducted in January 2002, among 14,276 Americans nationwide, by American Sports Data, Inc. (ASD).

That the new action sports have gained ground during the same period at the expense of traditional American pastimes such as Baseball (-7%), Basketball (-9%) or Touch Football (-4%) is undeniable; but in the aggregate, team sports (which happens to include the trendier activities of Soccer, Lacrosse and Fast-Pitch Softball) continue to enlist the highest number of followers. In 2001, frequent participants in team sports (generally defined as having played 25+ days per year) totaled 26.5 million — still outnumbering the fast-growing army of Extreme Sports recruits, which including In-Line Skaters (a population of dubious "Extreme" characteristics), mustered only 14.2 million frequent participants.

Still, the Extreme Sports juggernaut seems unstoppable. As members of the Old Guard peer through their field glasses, they wonder not if but exactly when they will be overrun, and who the invaders are. But when they slide the template of cultural values over the map of Extreme Sports, their most alarming intelligence reports are confirmed: these hordes are the dreaded legions of "Generation Y" — a growing army of 70 million destined to become the most formidable demographic in American history. Also known as the "New Millennials,""Generation Next," the "Digital Generation" or the "Echo Boom," these future rulers of the 21st century are — depending on the source — between 6–17, 8–20, or even 6–24 years of age.

The defining feature of "Generation Y" is a disdain for authority, while the second most distinctive strand in the Millennial personality — and the one most relevant to sports participation — is a propensity for risk-taking. The common denominator of all Extreme Sports is the thrill-seeking experience, culminating in the adrenaline-rush.

These sports may in fact, be organized on a continuum — not according to degree of danger, injury potential or recklessness, but based on levels of adrenaline production. In the hierarchy, the most extreme sports are probably Sky-Diving and Bungee-Jumping while Snowboarding and BMX fall toward the middle; In-Line Skating, the category progenitor, would be positioned at the "tame" end of the spectrum. Paintball, neither a board sport nor one featuring gravity-induced adrenaline, offers not only Millennial panache, but a unique channel for the sublimation of "Y's" allegedly aggressive instincts — emerging as perhaps the quintessential sport of "Generation Y."

Most Extreme Sports are solitary activities that not only allow the participant to avoid social interaction, but provide an escape from supervision and authority. This is in stark contrast to the broad (but vaguely credible) generalization that years ago, traditional American pastimes were symbols of teamwork, cooperation, respect, authority and wholesome living; team sports were in essence, the metaphor of positive youth development. These were "Silent Generation" values of the strait-laced, button-downed Beaver family, and also much later of the Brady Bunch, icon of the "Boomers" which — despite a hint of evolving sassiness — still bore the authoritarian imprint.

By the time of The Simpsons and "Generation X," authority started to unravel. Decorum began to slip away from the Little League baseball field; shrill, whiny tennis players were no longer suitable role models, and a wave of barbarism — epitomized by the shattering glass of a slam-dunked backboard — swept over professional team sports. In some cities, Major League outfielders were in constant peril of being shelled by their own fans. And in grotesque contrast to an unbroken phalanx of coats and ties in stadium photographs of the 1940's and 1950's, the New Millennium portrait offers only a grandstand spectacle of the half-naked, half-painted bellowing role models of "Generation Y."

If "Generation X" represented a radical, postmodern break with tradition, "Generation Y" — raised on Barney, hooked on Real World and Professional Wrestling — is easily post-apocalyptic. However sound the typology, Extreme Sports seem to match the Millennial profile. They bear a distinctive "in-your-face" cachet, as sports participation — in and of itself — becomes a celebration of defiance and unconventional behavior, a statement that announces: "I'm doing this because it's cool and different, to thumb my nose at the world, and for the absolute thrill and excitement of it — even if it means putting myself at risk."

There is almost no question that to one degree or another, the new Alternative Sports are an authentic slice of the wider youth culture, and not just a fad. Whether or not they — like the radical values changes of the 1960's counterculture — will be an enduring legacy in the larger society is the key question. "Regardless of whether or not we buy into the pop sociology" concludes Lauer, "we better pay attention to this group, because Millennials are the biggest thing since their parents, the Boomers." Indeed, Millennials number around 70 million, and are much larger than "Generation "X." At its peak, "Y" will surpass Baby Boomers in absolute numbers. Most important, between now and 2010, this group will grow at twice the rate of the general population — and in addition to defining the 21st century, these future leaders currently participate in Extreme Sports.

The Superstudy® of Sports Participation was conducted in January 2002 and based on a nationally representative sample of 14,276 people over the age of 6, who were among 25,000 respondents targeted in a sample drawn from the consumer mail panel of NFO Research, Inc. 103 sports and activities were measured along over 20 demographic, attitudinal and behavioral dimensions. Data were also collected on health club membership and other subjects pertinent to physical fitness. This annual tracking study has been conducted by ASD every year since 1987, and sponsored by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association of North Palm Beach, Florida. For more information, call (914) 328-8877, or log onto www.americansportsdata.com.

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