Kansas City is a sports town—there’s no denying that. Championship teams, devoted fans and world-class arenas have deeply ingrained a love for sports in Kansas City culture. Despite that, a new study says kids in Kansas City are among the most inactive in the country, and that can have serious implications on their self-esteem, mental health and social lives.
Four in every five Kansas City-area kids get less than the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day, according to the Aspen Institute’s annual State of Play study, done in partnership with Children’s Mercy Kansas City. It’s a problem everywhere, but Kansas City’s numbers put it below the national average, which is already low. Just 24 percent of kids across the country receive 60 minutes of physical activity per day. In Kansas City, the number is 20 percent.
Inactive kids aren’t just seeing less sunlight; their mental health suffers, too. Inactive youth were nearly twice as likely to report daily feelings of depression than active youth, and just under half of kids spend three to five hours a day online.
So why aren’t kids in Kansas City playing sports? According to Dr. Robin Shook, director of the Kansas City Healthy Lifestyles Collaborative at Children’s Mercy, the city lacks the infrastructure needed to support youth sports.
“There are many people in Kansas City who don’t live in environments that are supportive of physical activity,” Shook says. “Sometimes that means the physical environment, like the neighborhood that they live in, but sometimes that’s also the social environment, the school environment—they’re not conducive to kids being active.”
According to the study, 22 percent of inactive youth surveyed indicated that they didn’t play sports because they are too expensive. Most fields and parks are on the outskirts of the city, and with limited public transportation, it’s challenging for inner-city kids to access them. Some kids surveyed also indicated that they didn’t feel safe walking to local green spaces, and the report cited Kansas City’s high rates of homelessness and gun-related injuries as contributing factors to the problem. The report gave the city grades of an F for active transportation and a C- for community environments that encourage outdoor activities, even walking or biking on sidewalks.
For children with disabilities, it’s even harder. There are limited resources to support youth sports that are accessible to those with disabilities, and cost is an even bigger factor for children with disabilities than for those without.
But there are solutions. The Aspen Institute and Children’s Mercy outlined numerous community organizations working to make kids more active, strategies to improve infrastructure and health policy, and ways to optimize the city’s existing resources to help improve youth sports in the city. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City is working to create a volunteer program with AARP to drive kids home from practices and games, but currently there aren’t enough drivers who have volunteered.
Uncover KC is another potential resource, the report says. The organization works with underserved communities and connects them with organizations and resources to help them. They already partner with local youth sports organizations in the greater KC area.
Shook says that city officials have expressed a desire to improve youth sports in Kansas City. Mayor Quinton Lucas was one of the first mayors in the United States to endorse the Aspen Institute’s Bill of Rights, which states that all children should have the opportunity to learn, grow and develop through sports.
“They are interested in being part of the solution,” Shook says. “I am very pleased that Mayor Lucas agrees that there are problems.” With the World Cup coming to Kansas City in 2026, Shook hopes the city takes it as an opportunity to make lasting changes.
He also hopes people who read the report change their mindset around youth sports. Instead of a time commitment or a chore, physical activity is something that can bring people together.
“Physical activity is often viewed as something that is done when you’ve got a little bit of extra time on the weekends,” Shook says. “But I truly believe that physical activity is much more than that. It is also a way that people can come together as a society, as a region, for something bigger.”
