Ok, bear with me.  I’m getting my Freakonomics on.

Freakonomics was a book published by “rogue economists” Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner who discovered the hidden reasons why things were the way they are.  And their hypotheses are shocking . . . like the relationship between the drop in crime and the legalization of abortion or how Real Estate Agents are like the KKK . . . and so on.

Their finds are out there, but they make you think.

I’m going to do my best PRE impersonation of The Stephens by giving you an idea of something happening right now . . . that could have an effect on our biz way down the timeline.

What is it?

Football.

Or actually, the lack of football.

According to this article, high school football participation rates “have declined nationwide in six of the last seven years and are down 2.5% overall since 2008-2009.”

I’m sure you’re not surprised. We live in the “health and safety” era.  We worry about what we eat.  We worry about how pure our bottled water is.  So of course we worry about putting our kids in some pads and a plastic helmet when a coach tells them, “Run into that other guy . . . really fast.”

And the tipping point for a dramatic drop in that participation may be last year’s movie, Concussion.

So all those dudes . . . with no place to go.

Surely some will go to other sports like soccer and golf (whose participation levels were up last year), but there’s also a chance that we can pull a High School Musical on some of these males, and get them into the theater . . . or anywhere in the arts.

If I were a high school drama teacher or an arts educator, or heck the dang NEA, I’d be looking for ways to promote what we do to all those kids and parents who may be looking for a safer extra curricular. A spotlight beats friday night lights any day.

(And I actually bet the chances of having a successful career as an actor are better than the chances of having a successful career as a football player!)

Check back in with this blog in 10 years to see if I was right. 🙂

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