Play It Again Sports, a resale sporting goods chain, opened in Bloomington in January, offering families a lower-cost option for sports equipment as youth sports costs continue to rise.

The store’s model can help families manage one of the biggest financial pressures in youth athletics, Community physical education teacher Mr. Marcus Mann said, allowing them to replace equipment as athletes grow or move from season to season.

Mann, the “proud father” of three active youth athletes in many different sports, said families can choose store credit or cash when selling equipment. He said credit typically provides a higher return, helping shoppers stretch budgets.

“That allows you to build up more equity,” Mann said, and “allows you to find what you want in the future.”

The average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. As those costs climb, Mann said resale and trade-in options can help families stay involved by lowering the upfront price of equipment and letting them recoup money when gear is outgrown.

Community senior Nadiyya Carbaidwala, a varsity athlete on the girls soccer team—a sport with light equipment compared to sports like golf and hockey—estimated her equipment costs for this season to be anywhere from $250 to $300.

Project Play also specified the health benefits of youth sports. Among these are physical, mental, emotional and educational benefits—even community strengthening and lifelong healthy habits through adulthood.

These benefits come at a financial cost, but a local resale option like Play It Again Sports, Mann said, “allows for more people to be involved in the sport, and not just the people that can afford the brand new high-end equipment.”

Affordability, Mann said, gives families more chances to try something new.

“The more that you’re exposed to [sports],” Mann said, “the more that you can find out what your actual preference is.”

Having a store like Play It Again Sports, Mann said, allows young athletes to explore sports more easily.

Play It Again Sports, owned and operated by Community alumni the Sieraskis, also serves former athletes, providing a way to clear out old gear in a way that can benefit both their wallets and the environment.

The chain says resale keeps used gear in “the hands of athletes instead of into landfills.” While some sports equipment materials can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, the company gives more than 3.3 million items a second life each year.