“Each risk is different; you may have an amateur-sports football league in one town, and an amateur basketball league in another town,” says Himmer. Both programs are run by local parents, who cycle out over the years as their kids move up into other leagues or enter high school. What also changes is the extent of player-safety knowledge exhibited among each league's set of parents during each new season.

K&K Insurance Group Inc. of Fort Wayne, Ind. is seeing growth across all five of its underwriting units, each focused on a particular segment of the sports, leisure and recreation industry, says Marketing Resources Manager Lorena Hatfield. While Sexual Abuse & Molestation coverage is still a concern, Cyber Liability also is becoming a trend, she says. “The need for program-specific coverage developed for the unique needs of the sports and recreation industry is as great as ever.”

Overall, the amateur Sports & Rec market continues to see growth, particularly for youth programs—partly due to a continued focus on healthy activity for kids, Hatfield says. That includes team sports, dance and martial arts.

“We're seeing city economic developers gaining awareness of the financial income that sports tourism can add to cities via teams traveling to large tournaments and events, and are developing sports-friendly facilities that enhance the ability to host sports events,” she notes.

Markel Insurance Co. opts to stay with the more conventional amateur sports and away from the more dangerous activities, says Mark Nichols, executive manager of Markel Specialty's new-product development team. The company's excess & surplus business insures most amateur sports other than “extreme” sports like skateboarding, mountain biking, downhill skiing and rugby.

Markel also limits its involvement in tackle football and hockey, as well as currently trendy obstacle-course events like Weekend Warriors, Tough Mudder or Spartan Races, all of which entail a huge amount of exertion—and potential liability.

“There's been a fair amount of accident activity coming out of [extreme obstacle-course racing],” says Nichols. “There are a lot of events like those held around the country, and we get a lot of requests for them.”

Such contests, in which participants must traverse courses filled with ice ponds, mud holes, rope climbing and other obstacles meant to test their mettle, present serious exposures to the regular 5K or 10K footrace.

While Markel won't write General Liability for such spots, it will write accident cover.

“We'll write participant accident cover because we can limit the exposures from a GL perspective,” Nichols explains. On the GL, typically people need $1 million dollars to reserve the park or the event site they're going to use, he notes.

Philadelphia Insurance has also looked into these basic training-style sports and come to similar conclusions.

“That's not something we're looking to pursue,” says Himmer. Some of these races “have exposures that are 12 miles long,” he points out. There's a good chance for a severe claim arising from a broken neck or brain damage, which may be infrequent, but still very costly.

“You're climbing mountains, jumping into water, jumping over fire; you have to incorporate everything,” he adds. “We're still doing research on the product-development side of things.”

K&K also eschews obstacle races, but does value walking and running for a cause. The company developed a program specifically for fundraiser walks and competitive runs due to increased coverage requests.

“The coverage is offered at a rate lower than our standard sports and non-sport special event programs and is for walks and runs with a maximum of 10,000 participants, lasting three days or less, and a course distance less than 16 miles,” says Hatfield.

Autumn is a particularly heavy season for charity walks, and non-profit organizations are often surprised by municipal requirements for liability coverage, she says. This product can quickly fill that need.

THE PREMIUM PICTURE

Rates are up slightly in the Sports & Rec market, especially for accounts that have claims activity, Nichols says. Larger accounts, like National Governing Body accounts for various amateur league sports including the U.S. Olympics Committee, “continue to attract attention and are very competitive, even if results are marginal,” he adds.

Otherwise, pricing has been generally flat, he says. In terms of capacity, Nichols adds, “The ideal situation from our perspective is the same capacity or less.”

The Sports & Rec market remains (appropriately) competitive, and has remained stable up until the last year or so. “We had a firm market ending in 2005-2006; then from 2006 through about a year ago generally speaking, rates were going down in this market. Now rates are modestly going up. We're glad to see rates stabilize. But they could be going higher.”

K&K has seen rate increases between 5 and 10 percent, particularly in programs that typically experience higher loss ratios such as bowling alleys. “In other areas, such as our online sports and event programs, our rates are holding steady but we have seen some competitors raising rates,” says Hatfield.

Pricing is highly competitive in the recreational products insurance market, especially for off-road units like all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or utility vehicles (UTVs), says Kelly Meiser, product manager for American Modern Insurance Group. “Many times these units are hitting our minimum premium,” she adds.

The company offers coverage in several such lines, including collector cars, motorcycles (street-driven bikes as well as off-road), watercraft (personal watercraft, boats and yachts) and snowmobiles. “We are seeing more scooters, low-speed vehicles/electric vehicles, as well as UTVs,” says Meiser.

DEADLY TOSS: CHEERLEADER INJURIES

Among amateur sports, the toughest to insure are the three big ones in the U.S.: youth soccer, youth baseball or softball, and youth contact football, says Himmer—all of which carry the risk of concussions.

Yet the area of youth Sports & Rec that's seeing the largest increase in severe injury is not always regarded as a sport, at least not nationwide: high school cheerleading. Cheerleading injuries that led to emergency room visits have increased almost six times since 1980, to nearly 30,000 in 2008, according to the CPSC. And during the 26 years leading up to 2008, female high school cheerleaders sustained almost twice as many disabling head or spine injuries while practicing or performing than in all girls' sports combined.

Sadly, that includes 83 “catastrophic” injuries, such as paralysis, and two deaths, recorded from fall 1982 to spring 2008. 

Cheerleading is definitely more dangerous today, Himmer agrees. Concussions are just one of the potential injuries young females face.

“Competitive cheerleading is almost a branch of gymnastics. There's a lot of tumbling stunts and aerial movement, tossing girls in the air,” he points out.

An arm or a leg of a falling cheerleader could easily hit one of her supporters in the head, “or the flier [the girl being tossed] is dropped and hits her head on the floor,” Himmer says. If that person leads off from someone else's shoulders, “You're talking about a lot of force, and potential for head injuries. It's imminent that's going to happen.”

While football concussion injuries are currently in the spotlight, concussions are a concern in many youth sports, says Hatfield. K&K is seeing across-the-board claims increases in cheer gym, gymnastics, dance and martial arts studios from parties or practice sessions (often called “open gym”) at facilities that include friends of students who are not familiar with safety practices that are enforced during formal class sessions.

Lack of adequate supervision during these activities can often result in injuries to guests, whose skill levels often do not match the stunt/maneuver they are attempting, Hatfield adds.