This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
📊 Digging Into AP/Ipsos Data
The Associated Press and Ipsos released a new report that covered a lot of bases — participation, benefits and motivation, costs, challenges and public opinions on key talking points.
The full survey and methodology can be found here, including raw numbers. A few takeaways:
1) The AP story on the survey led with the cost/participation headline — about 70% of K-12 parents with a household income of $100K or more have kids participating, compared to about 40% of parents “with a lower household income.”
Ipsos broke respondents into six different income brackets — under $25K the lowest; $150K or more the highest.
The sample sizes were too small for each individual bracket to draw participation rates, Ipsos senior research analyst for public affairs Johnny Sawyer told Buying Sandlot, but the broader breakdown was as follows:
$100K+: 68% participation rate
$50K-$99K: 48%
Under $50K: 35%
That mirrors the Project Play/National Survey of Children’s Health figures for the most part. It also reinforces a larger survey that digs into more specific bracket with sufficient sample sizes would likely be more informative about the relationship between household income and participation.
2) 54% of adults surveyed said they played youth sports and 65% of youth sports parents played. It’s one survey and there is a difference with retroactive identification and current. But those numbers suggest a) the most recent national participation rate of 58% meshes with the experiences of the adult population and b) the national goal of 63% participation by 2030 meshes with the experiences of what we’ll call sports parents.
3) 68% of youth sports parents are spending $2K or less on their kids’ activities and 89% are at $5K or less — another point that shows mean costs are likely being inflated by high-end spending and the perception of families spending thousands of dollars is driven more by narrative than data.
4) The survey also found the demise of community and recreational sports has been greatly exaggerated — another narrative that does not hold when data is introduced.
72% of parents say their kids have participated in rec sports
64% have played on a school team
44% have played club or travel
43% have gotten private lessons
26% have played on an academy team
5) The survey found 42% of adults would support “a law banning private equity from investing in youth sports,” compared to 26% who oppose it and 31% who are not sure.
And opposition was actually a tick higher (30%) among youth sports parents while support was flat at 41%.
Youth sports families were far more energized about tax credits for expenses — 70% support — than PE involvement.
That last one stands out to me.
Despite all the media fervor around private equity in youth sports, more than half of adults and youth sports parents are either for or at least not against private equity in youth sports. Even more telling is that current youth sports parents are more likely to defend PE’s involvement than the average adult (26% → 30% who oppose a law banning private equity from investing in youth sports).
And a dramatically higher percentage of parents were in favor of tax credits for expenses rather than taking aim at an ownership structure.
I continue to think that most parents simply don’t care if their child’s sports program is non-profit or for-profit, owned by private equity or not, or part of a larger platform or independent. What they really care about is 1) is it well-run, and 2) are they getting value for what they’re spending and not getting ripped off.
If nothing else, that 31% of adults who are “not sure” tells me that parent education on the positives of private capital in youth sports is the single biggest opportunity for the industry to take head on, rather than letting a vocal minority of detractors - the loudest of which are not current youth athlete parents - continue to lambaste it every opportunity they get. Especially on the heels of high-profile stories about the largest volunteer-led organizations - Little League and AAU - completely dropping the ball.
In the words of Sandy Ogg, “youth sports needs capital.”
📆 EventConnect Exists To End Tournament Chaos— For Organizers And Families*
Tournament weekends have become mini supply chains: teams register, rosters change, schedules shift, hotels fill, and parents scramble.
Too many events still run things on spreadsheets, portals, and last-minute calls.
What we do (and why it’s different):
Centralize the weekend workflow: registration, rostering, payments, lodging, and real-time reporting.
Organizers can run end-to-end on EventConnect or integrate the systems they already use— no rip-and-replace required.
Either way, the data lands in one place so operators aren’t stitching together reports from multiple tools.
The “moment that changes outcomes”:
HousingConnect embeds hotel booking directly into checkout— capturing rooms at peak intent instead of sending families to a separate portal later.
Results can be up to 30% more room-night reservations and 24% savings on team hotel costs.
Proof of scale:
EventConnect powers 5,000 events and connects 30,000 hotels across 800 destinations.
Learn more about how EventConnect can help power your tournament right here.
*Sponsor
📰 AAU Subject Of Explosive Investigative Expose
ProPublica and The Washington Post published a stunning report — "A Youth Sports Giant Promised Reforms to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse. Most Never Happened."
The Amateur Athletic Union has become “a haven for coaches suspected of abuse … based on a review of public disciplinary lists and interviews with current and former executives from six national sports governing bodies and other key stakeholders,” according to the report.
Those sports officials say the AAU has earned a reputation as a place where coaches can escape discipline and are not bound by strict safety laws, making it more difficult to protect young athletes.
ProPublica and The Post identified eight coaches who continued to work with children under the AAU in the last five years after being banned or suspended by other youth sports organizations — even though the AAU pledged in 2012 that it would ban such coaches.
Among the report’s findings:
AAU did not implement promised reforms after 2011 scandal involving ex-CEO
Current official alleges org covered up abuse by another top executive
No child abuse prevention training; other trainings not verified
Pledged abuse reporting hotline does not work
Worked to force claims into confidential arbitration as recently as 2024
AAU does not adhere to SafeSport banned coaches list like other orgs
AAU says it has close to 800K athletes compete in all sports each year. But the media outlets found it “operates with a secrecy that is unusual for a nonprofit that serves children."
The report also examined how AAU — a non-profit — has become a cash cow in recent years, tripling its cash and investments reserves in five years.
The growth has been fueled by non-basketball sports like flag football. It has also been a result, the report found, of AAU undercutting other prominent organizations and NGBs with cheaper, less-structured alternatives.
Swimming, for example:
In swimming, some large clubs joined the AAU, where they could register less serious swimmers for $20 apiece instead of the more than $70 cost of USA Swimming. In 2023, USA Swimming’s registrations fell by almost 5%.
A top swim coach told the outlets that an AAU meet is “short, fast, easy and quick" and do not even require an official. AAU has also allegedly used its lack of "mandatory training hoops" as a selling point.
⚾️ Tulsa Little League Debacle Continues
A pair of Oklahoma Little League organizations and over 300 coaches, parents and volunteers have called on Little League International to fire state and regional leaders and revoke Tulsa National’s charter amid the eligibility scandal that threw the Southwest Regional into chaos.
Additionally: A report from Sports Illustrated’s affiliated blog network — but not from SI itself — claims there may have only been one team in the Oklahoma state tournament that was actually eligible under LLI rules.
That report alleges various clerical snafus, but also says state-level officials charged mandatory entry fees in violation of LLI rules.
⚽️ World Cup Impact Starting To Be Felt
Youth Athletes United is seeing participation increases of 10-20% with its soccer offerings post-WC, co-founder and CEO Adam Geisler told Buying Sandlot.
“Soccer fever is here,” he said. “We’ve got it, we’ve caught it.
“We are seeing the influence of international soccer on our kids. … It’s just wonderful to see what that impact was.”
YAU is deeply involved in the sport through its Soccer Stars franchise, which has over 150 location and serves over 100K kids a year; it also has a club platform. But YAU’s Amazing Athletes brand also has soccer programming.
🎥 XbotGo Goes Brick And Mortar
The AI sports tech company's products will now be available at Best Buy, making it the only AI sports camera on the retailer’s shelves.
XbotGo said it will be in 220 locations nationwide -- about a fifth of the Best Buys in the U.S. -- and will also be available on Best Buy’s website.
There will also be in-store displays featuring Argentine soccer star Julián Alvarez, the firm's global brand ambassador.
ICYMI: We spoke with XbotGo founder and CEO David Tan about its aggressive innovation strategy a few months back.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
🤳 Follow Buying Sandlot on Social
We’re new— help us build up our social media accounts by following along:
Good game.