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This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Never a dull moment— acquisition rumors, a facility that is falling apart before it was ever completed, and a public-private youth soccer partnership.
In the email today:
💸 A Major Acquisition?
Andrew Petcash reports on LinkedIn a possible acquisition of Playmetrics and Crossbar by Stack Sports for $400 million.
The PE-backed Stack Sports already reports over 50 million users in 35 countries after a wave of consolidation— acquisition of the smaller, more-focused Playmetrics (soccer) and Crossbar (hockey) would increase its unprecedented scale in the space, reaching more than the estimated aggregate users of the more consumer-focused TeamSnap and GameChanger.
There’s been no official announcement or further details on this, and we’ve reached out to executives from both companies (including some of whom are subscribers 😉) but have not heard back.
We’ll keep you updated.
My take:
2 quick thoughts:
1) At $400 million, we’re looking at fintech or enterprise SaaS like valuations here.
2) It will become almost impossible to compete with the tech platforms in this space. The opportunity will shift to building extensions or potential tuck-in acquisitions for these platforms, much like e-commerce startups build for Shopify.
⚽️ Soccer 5 and NRPA Announce Partnership
Soccer 5 and the National Recreation and Parks Association announced a partnership focusing on small-sided soccer facility development nationwide.
The goal is to establish a public-private framework that creates more spaces for kids to learn about soccer while bringing revenues to parks - with no capital expenditure for the parks - by using underutilized spaces for the downsized competitions, often 3-v-3 or 5-v-5. Soccer 5 has already invested $15 million in parks nationwide and plans to invest another $50 million by 2030.
The NRPA has 3 GOALS for 2029 to increase youth sports development:
Goal 1: “Develop, disseminate and advance NRPA’s Youth Sports Framework to achieve a 10 percent increase in key youth sports strategies” — the program includes things like equity and inclusion in underserved communities, and training coaches. How you measure a 10% advancement of that… is unclear.
Golazo 2: “Funding and training more than 150 agencies and 45,000 coaches to improve outcomes in under-resourced communities”.
Gooooooooooooooal 3: Increase participation in youth sports in parks and recreation by 10% nationally.
Sorry, got carried away with the soccer references there.
My take:
Makes sense. Think of it as maximizing the revenue per square foot of the United States.
©Trend(s) Watch™®:
There are several of them:
1) Lots of handwringing about access to organized sports in underserved communities— tangible steps being taken here to address.
2) I think we’re about to see a surge in coach training at all levels of youth sports, as evidenced by the NBA’s hard lean into Euro-style development and the 45,000 coaches the NRPA aims to train. As you expand the long-tail of sports participation, coaching quality becomes a real concern without said training.
3) The upcoming World Cup and the Olympics will drive additional youth sports participation— need more ways to play, at all levels of the socioeconomic ladder.
🏢 Youth Sports Facilities News
We typically hit on complexes that are opening or in the works here, but this item is about a partially-completed one in Colorado that is being shuttered — at least for now.
The Future Legends Youth Sports Complex in Windsor, a Fort Collins suburb, has been plagued with financial and legal issues and has yet to finish the bulk of its master plan, including a minor league ballpark. The facility, which partially opened in October of 2023, had managed to get some features going, including a sports dome and pickleball courts.
Among the issues: A lack of suitable bathrooms, deteriorating infrastructure, insufficient lighting and other safety issues. And it does not sound like things will change anytime soon.
Windsor's town manager, Shane Hale, told CBS News Colorado the lack of sanitation was just one of several reasons the TCO was pulled from major parts of the complex.
"Future Legends made a lot of representation about work they were going to do and financing that was coming into place," Hale said. "But, that was back in January of 2023. And we did a number of extensions and haven't seen any progress as far as the building went. But, we also saw the site deteriorate over time."
Hale said other major concerns for the town included a lack of fencing around bodies of water on the property and also insufficient lighting. Hale said those contributed to safety risks for visitors while the property continued to be completed.
That excerpt makes this large message atop the facility’s Our Facility page slightly more humorous:
Can’t have animals contributing to the waste problem.
The original TCO expired last October, but Future Legends was able to force extensions until now with legal maneuvering. The city said it cannot appeal the revocation for myriad reasons, chiefly that clear safety concerns cannot be challenged, and it anticipates it may soon find itself in new litigation with the complex's owners.
All seems a far cry from the complex’s sizzle reel:
Stay tuned. Something tells me we’re going to see more of this sort of thing in the Youth Sports Facility Arms Race™.
🌺 Space Issues In Paradise
There are some things that are worth getting up before dawn for.
We would not put finding street parking for youth flag football games on that list.
But that is what some parents in Hawaii are doing.
It is no surprise that facilities are limited in the Aloha State. But the challenges are further complicated by standoffs between communities and schools, which are hesitant to open their doors to the public.
Case in point: One mom gets to a park at 4:30 a.m., hours before her kids’ games, so she can find street parking while a nearby middle school’s parking lot sits empty despite the fact the park gave up some of its land to build the lot!
Lawmakers are pushing state education officials to force schools to increase public access, but the schools counter opening up their facilities opens them to liability and security concerns and could cause an uptick in vandalism and other issues. Honolulu Civil Beat goes deep on the situation here.
In this case, perhaps paving paradise and putting up a parking lot would help.
🏟️ Perfect Game SEC Announces Merger with Jeff Casteel
This one hit the inbox just before sending.
Perfect Game announced a merger with Jeff Casteel— a PG affiliate operator.
From the press release:
The addition of Casteel, who has managed over 3,000 baseball teams annually across the Atlanta Metro area, West Georgia, and Alabama, marks a pivotal step in Perfect Game SEC’s mission to deliver unparalleled opportunities for young baseball talent. With deep-rooted experience and a vast network, Casteel is uniquely positioned to lead growth in Alabama’s AA and AAA levels. Under this unified structure, his expertise will enhance event quality, broaden regional coverage and drive meaningful expansion across key competitive divisions in Alabama.
👨🦰 Parents Behaving Badly
Even elected officials are getting in on the action!
Trevor Elkins — the mayor of Newburgh Heights, a Cleveland suburb — was involved in an altercation at his daughter’s 6th grade girls basketball game earlier this year.
Elkins and another father got physical with each other after running on the court in January, supposedly after a fracas between the players. Both men accused the other of being the aggressor, there were unspecified allegations of racism made and an official with the youth league sanctioning the game told cops both men were to blame. The mayor and the other father each pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct charges.
(Side note: Elkins was previously charged for his involvement in a brawl outside a bar. He also served jail time for campaign finance violations and resigned his office, only to later be re-elected due to his policy of aggressively using traffic cameras to rack up speeding ticket revenue for the town.)
👮♂️ Another Rising Expense: Security Fees
Badly-behaved parent are not just embarrassing themselves and/or facing legal consequences— they are also increasingly taking money out of the pockets of their well-behaved counterparts.
Kids Inc., a youth sports program in the Amarillo, Texas, region, has raised its registration fees 24% in order to fund increased security.
President and CEO Jimmy Luckey (great name, btw) said the organization will hire off-duty police officers to work every one of the over 6,600 games it sponsors annually.
My take:
This will not be the first time we hear something like this, because there is no shortage of idiot parents and costs will continue to rise.
We touched on an incident at an 8th grade boys basketball tournament in Nebraska recently where a man punched a referee. Part of the fallout was the idea the tournament, an annual event, would be forced to hire armed guards in the future in order to get officials to agree to work games.
That makes this a potential two-front issue for organizers: They need additional security to keep kids and spectators safe, but they also need to commit resources to get an already scarce resource — officials — to play ball.
🔗 More Youth Sports Links
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📋 Job Alert: Executive Director, RCX Sports Foundation
RCX Sports Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation committed to providing children in local communities with access to sports. It is currently hiring an executive director with a hybrid work schedule that includes time in its Roswell, Georgia, offices.
The Executive Director will be responsible for leading and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the RCX Sports Foundation. This position requires a highly motivated and visionary leader with strong expertise in non-profit management, sports programming, and community development. The Executive Director will work closely with our professional sports leagues, their member teams, and community-based clubs to design and execute programs that provide children across the country with greater access to organized sports.
The full job posting can be found on LinkedIn.
Would you like to put your open position in front of thousands of youth sports professionals? Pick an available date here.
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Good game.