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:
🧠 Northwestern Report Is Promising For Youth Contact Sports
A study in the latest Journal of Alzheimer's Disease could be a literal game-changer for youth sports.
People who play contact sports like football and hockey at the amateur level do not have an increased risk of developing brain diseases like CTE, according to a group of Northwestern Medicine scientists.
The study examined 174 donated brains
48 men played contact sports in college or high school, 126 did not
No professional athletes were included— the median age of death was 65
The study focused on a specific brain region tied to memory
There was no correlation between participation and the build-up of a protein tied to brain diseases
“The long and short of it is no, this protein in this specific brain region is not increased in people who played football at the amateur level. It throws a little bit of cold water on the current CTE narrative.” — Dr. Rudolph Castellani, professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine neuropathologist
More research is needed, the authors said. But Castellani said that "rather than assuming [protein presence] is inherently pathological, we're asking whether it might be part of normal aging or a non-specific response to environmental factors."
"Modern studies on CTE may be expanding the boundaries of what's considered normal variability in the human brain," he added.
Youth football participation numbers have seen double-digit declines in the last 15 or so years, roughly coinciding with the GQ report that inspired the film Concussion.
But there have also been significant advances in brain injury education and prevention in the same span.
This is just one study. But if researchers can replicate the findings and new science can be married with all the safety measures that have been implemented at the youth level, that could be enough for more athletes and families to embrace contact sports and spike participation levels. We will see.
Keep Kids Safe with Less Risk and Less Paperwork*
Keeping kids safe and mitigating risk should not be at odds.
And Ankored is here to help.
Ankored automates all of the administrative work to make sure…
… coaches, players, and staff have all completed…
… background checks, abuse prevention training, concussion training or age/grade verification and physicals for players, through…
… real-time reporting, automated reminders, audit logs and more.
Safe coaches means safe kids.
Come join the Ankored movement just like Ashley:
"For our club administrators, they're all so happy that it's easy to see what coaches have completed their compliance requirements and which ones haven't. In Ankored, they can view it as a team, instead of going individually, coach by coach....they can see all of the staff and where they stand from a compliance standpoint.”
*Sponsored
🗞️ Well, That Was Fast!
Kyle wrote this last Wednesday after The New York Times discovered youth sports:
There will be derivative coverage of the space, all citing the NYT story. At first, this will elevate interest, increase valuations, and add some froth. But after about 2-3 years, the switch will flip, and mainstream coverage will focus solely on the costs, the damage specialization is doing to young athletes, and pressuring regulators to provide some guardrails.
Make that 2-3 days.
“Is This the End of Youth Sports?” screamed a Vice headline published on Friday, taking aim at private equity’s involvement in the space:
“[I]f you’ve been to a youth sports tournament recently and felt like you accidentally wandered into a minor league stadium crossed with a theme park, it’s because youth sports leagues are increasingly being sold to private equity firms.
Those firms are pricing out underprivileged communities as they cater exclusively to the wealthy parents of youth athletes who display even a modicum of talent.
(…)
Josh Harris and David Blitzer, the billionaire owners of the Philadelphia 76ers, are major players in the world of private equity youth sports. They saw a potential gold mine. So they launched Unrivaled Sports, a company that gobbles up youth leagues and the fields they play on with the intent of making a fortune off the hopes and dreams of children.
It’s Little League meets the depressing dystopia of late-stage capitalism. Where nothing can be good and pure anymore. Something can’t exist for its own sake. It has to turn an enormous profit, or it is an abject failure and it’s ripped to shreds, leaving a gaping hole in its wake that at one point provided a sense of community.”
The column also throws skepticism at IMG Academy and concludes the only winner will be PE, because it will separate well-heeled families from their money at the expense of the less affluent.
No real facts, but a lot of feelings. And the sort of critical coverage that was always inevitable, but not necessarily expected so quickly.
🚨 ‘Active Aggressor’ Scare Derails Big Hoops Tourney
Run 4 Roses — which bills itself as the world’s biggest exposure event for girls basketball — was shut down Sunday.
All athletes and spectators were cleared from Louisville’s Kentucky Expo Center after a report about an “active aggressor” on the premises proved false.
Cops said no shots were fired and there were no victims at the scene.
The event said a “mechanical issue” triggered an alarm. The event will resume today with added safety measures in place.
Run 4 Roses brings in over 200K people annually— it only trails the Kentucky Derby in local economic impact for the city.
🧱 Youth Sports Complex Switcheroo Drama
Rochester, Minnesota, has a $65M facility in the works.
The controversial backstory and current strategy are noteworthy:
The Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex is funded by the city’s half-cent sales tax
The sales tax was extended by voters via ballot initiative in 2023
Original plans called for 8-12 multi-purpose rectangular fields
Local soccer leaders campaigned in favor, citing the need for more playing space
Officials decided post-vote to build a baseball/softball complex with only two fields usable for soccer (plus 12 pickleball courts)
One regional soccer leader expressed his displeasure with some very Midwestern fighting words: "We kind of got hoodwinked. We got shafted a little bit on this, this whole thing."
The sentiment is understandable. But so is the logic behind the pivot.
The National Sports Center is about 90 minutes away in Blaine
That facility has 40 soccer fields and is about to host the USA Cup with over 1K teams
Rochester officials decided there was more sports tourism opportunity in avoiding a competition with NSC and focusing on baseball and softball
The softball business is expected to be particularly lucrative — no other complex in the region will have more fields and there are two other venues in town with a combined 13 tournament-caliber fields
Rochester officials should not get too much credit — they should have fine-tuned their plan before inspiring the soccer people to get out the vote.
That said: Charting a path to provide something new, rather than betting the demand will still exist when you are the fifth place to have a similar facility in a three-hour radius, seems more prudent.
But we tend to see the same sorts of complexes built over and over within a condensed region. Or even in the same city!
The soccer community seems to be upset the project has become about economic impact first and foremost. That feels a bit naive.
You cannot spend $65M on something that is not going to almost assuredly return a multiple on that investment (sorry, Vice).
Last thing: This story should serve as a warning to officials and politicians.
When you need/use public money to build these facilities — especially when it requires voters’ approval — some people are inevitably going to be unhappy.
Especially when they feel promises have not been kept.
That may mean electoral and political consequences. Youth sports complexes are no different than any other matter in the political arena.
⚽️ Kinder, U.S. Soccer Foundation Set 3-Year Partnership
The Ferrero-owned candy brand and USSF recently announced the start of the “Goals of Joy” initiative.
The three-year program is "designed to empower youth to build positive attitudes toward movement and build vital life skills" through soccer, leveraging the upcoming men’s and women’s World Cups.
Only 20-28% of kids 6-17 have 60 minutes of daily physical activity
The U.S. got a D-minus grade for overall physical activity in 2024
Initiative will begin in New York metropolitan area and expand
Over 30K families will be impacted by 2027
🔗 Youth Sports Links
We’re new — help us build up our social media accounts by following along:
Good game.