This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Perfect timing for our podcast guest today: Vince Russomagno, the owner and CEO of All-Star Sports Academy, which has plans to expand its baseball and softball facility footprint up and down the East Coast.
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In the email today:
🏃 PlayLA Surpases 1M Registrations Amid Olympics Boost
The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles are three years away.
The city and region are already feeling the youth sports boost.
The IOC and organizers pledged $160M for local youth sports when LA was awarded the Games
LA28 has donated $60M to PlayLA, which serves athletes ages 3-17
PlayLA offers over 40 sports
The program recently surpassed 1M registrations
The investments have also reduced costs of the city’s Recreation and Parks program and subsidized participation for low-income families.
New sports offerings have been launched as a result. The city has also been able to beef up equipment and staffing capacities, such as buying surfboards for surfing programs.
💰 PHNX Sports Partners Launches $5M SPV After Ventnor Ventures Acquisition
PHNX, a Chicago-based investment and operating firm, and its portfolio companies have an active capital raise of over $5M after acquiring VV, a boutique consulting and investing group that is behind the ACTIV Sports Summit.
VV principals Rob Johnson and Taryn McCarty will join PHNX in integrated roles
The deal is a combination of equity and advisory integration
Advance Sports, part of VV's portfolio, will also be part of PHNX's portfolio
The $5M raise will be a special-purpose vehicle targeting early-stage systems and technologies; the raise will also provide sales infrastructure for the PHNX portcos
Johnson, who was previously at Playfly Sports and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, told Buying Sandlot the SPV will focus on "backing platforms that drive participation, athlete development and help organizers run better."
Tools for recreational leagues, training systems and community infrastructure are expected to be a particular emphasis. The press release announcing the deal also referenced AI-powered fan engagement and back-office automation.
McCarty has experience at Polygon Labs and Nerd Street Gamers.
Former Comcast Spectator executive Pete Powell leads Advance, which will provide HR consulting and talent strategy.
🧢 The Case For Youth Sports ‘Cross-Training Vacations’
Young athletes that specialize in one sport experience more injuries and injury-related surgeries, according to researchers at Michigan State.
Their recommendation? Kids should play at least one other sport for part of the year.
D1, D2 and D3 athletes were surveyed about lifetime sports participation
Half of those reporting an injury also reported a subsequent re-injury; some athletes never return to pre-injury state
The study says athletes should take a “cross-training vacation” and spend at least three months in the second sport
Using different muscle groups is beneficial, so non-sports physical activities can also provide benefits
“Athletes can still be very committed to a single sport and reduce their risk of injury by playing just one other sport for three months. Cross-training is like rotating the tires on your car. You’ll get longer use and better performance when tires are regularly rotated. For our bodies, diversification of movement reduces the risk of injury and helps maintain healthy functioning.” -- Dr. Nathan Fitton, associate professor of orthopedics in the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine and Michigan State athletics' physician
⚽️ MLS-Led Initiative To Expand Youth Soccer Access
MLS GO, the league’s youth recreational program, and RCX Sports have formed a multi-year partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association "to increase access to affordable, high-quality youth soccer programs through local park and recreation departments nationwide."
MLS GO and RCX are now proud sports partners of NRPA; they will also sponsor the NRPA Annual Convention in Orlando this fall and have a prominent presence there
MLS GO PLAY Fund will donate $100K through RCX Foundation to subsidize agencies implementing MLS GO programming
NRPA has over 60K member agencies
🏅 Nike, Special Olympics Announce International Partnership
The three-year collaboration was announced on Monday to kick off the Global Week of Inclusion — Sunday is the 57th anniversary of the Special Olympics’ founding.
The partnership will expand sports access for all youth and emphasize coach education and retention for Special Olympics Unified Sports, a program where athletes with and without intellectual disabilities compete together in team sports.
The pact will concentrate on communities in Oregon, Berlin, Tokyo and Johannesburg
Nike will help SO update protocols for training Unified Sports coaches (and trainer education)
The initiative aims to attract, train and certify over 600 new volunteer coaches across the communities
Creation of more opportunities for girls to access Unified Sports
🧱 Next Up In The Facilities Arms Race: LaFollette, Tennessee
We will be keeping an eye on this project, as we will explain in a moment.
An 18-acre multi-sport complex is in the works after LaFollette secured a $2.7M state matching grant.
Early plans call for baseball, softball and soccer fields, tennis courts, a splash pad and more. The complex will be free to the local community.
A noteworthy nugget: The city plans to sell land near the complex site to help fund the project and is hoping those deals attract sports tourism-thinking businesses like a hotel, sit-down restaurants and retail space.
The proposed site is close to an existing cluster of hotels and other commercial venues.
Hand up: I was not familiar with LaFollette until learning about this complex proposal.
I would imagine many readers can say the same.
But LaFollette is relatively close to many cities and towns we have all heard of.
Asheville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville and Nashville are all three hours away or less by car.
Atlanta, Cincinnati and Greenville, South Carolina are all four hours or less (with Birmingham about a half-hour outside that radius).
That is a big swath to pull people from. And then you throw in the city’s existing infrastructure and you can see how this could work out quite nicely for LaFollette.
🔊 New Podcast
Kyle is joined by Vince Russomagno, Owner and CEO of All-Star Sports Academy, which owns baseball and softball facilities throughout the Philly area and plans to expand through acquisition up and down the East Coast.
Vince talks about what makes All-Star different, his plans for expansion, the importance of consistency in coaching baseball, and the overall youth sports landscape.
You can listen and subscribe to the Buying Sandlot podcast with the following links:
🏢 Other Youth Sports Facilities News
Elgin, Illinois: The Illinois Youth Soccer Association will build a new $6-7M headquarters and training facility featuring a 78-foot-tall, air-supported dome and indoor turf field. The organization supports about 95K athletes, coaches and referees in the state. The facility may be used for other sports at times.
Kalamazoo, Michigan: An 11-member authority board for the city’s planned $40M indoor complex was expected to be approved last night. The group will feature three local hotel reps since a 4% assessment on lodging is funding the project.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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