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Can Youth Sports Power Offseasons in Vacation Towns?

🥎 The business of youth sports

Author

Kyle Scott
May 14, 2025

This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.

In the email today:

🏀 A New Front In The Youth Sports Facility Arms Race™?

Branson, Missouri, has carved out a niche for itself as a family-friendly oasis in the Ozark Mountains. So why not throw in some youth sports with Dolly Parton’s Stampede?

The city is working with Sports Facilities Companies on a feasibility study for a year-round indoor sports complex that serves the local communities and also attracts tournament visitors.

The reported focus would likely be on basketball, volleyball and pickleball facilities— there is no mention of a price tag yet.

Officials want the complex to be somewhere in the main downtown area and believe it could boost Branson’s economy by up to $30M annually with a specific emphasis on the months of January, February and March, when vacation crowds typically die down.

My take:

Economic impact figures tend to be quite, er, optimistic when it comes to pitching new complexes. And it’s easy to roll your eyes at a whopping $30M-a-year guesstimate when you read it the first time. But on second glance … that projection may not be that crazy. And the fine folks in Branson could be onto something here.

This project would not be relying on a youth sports complex to be the foothold for an economic ecosystem created out of thin air, as so many facilities nationwide are. All of the dining, entertainment and lodging infrastructure is already there. The complex just needs to be a magnet that draws more people into town and allows the rest of Branson’s robust offerings to do the heavy lifting. And it does not hurt that Branson is within roughly 3 hours of several major metropolitan areas.

Think about all of the seasonal family vacation destinations that make their nut in 3/6/9 months out of the year and then sit relatively dormant for the remainder.

Youth sports complexes could be the blueprint to generate revenue and take advantage of everything that sits idle during slow seasons.

🗣️ Attention Complex and Facility Owners and Operators

If you own, operate, or help run a youth sports facility, fill out our Great Youth Sports Facility Survey, which launched yesterday.

It only takes 2-3 minutes, and responses will be aggregated and anonymized, and presented in a premium report to Buying Sandlot subscribers— which include other facility owners and, perhaps more importantly, investors.

All questions are optional.

Take the survey now

⚽️ Youth Soccer Club Merges With Pro Teams

Elizabethtown FC, a youth soccer club located in central Kentucky, has joined forces with the club arm of the Louisville City (USL) and Racing Louisville FC (NWSL) professional teams.

The tie-up between Elizabethtown FC and the LouCity and Racing Academy will expand programs in the state and grow an already-established relationship between the clubs. Elizabethtown FC coaches and support staff will stay on with added support from the academy.

U.S. Soccer has also awarded the academy’s foundation a $200K grant to expand youth programs and coaching education over the next three years.

My take:

Soccer has a built-in advantage with these relationships because the academy system has already taken root.

But this is a good blueprint and exactly the type of relationship people have been suggesting the NBA look to make as it faces a development crisis — an established and successful independent organization aligns with a professional franchise(s) and the latter provides resources and training for coaches to catalyze growth.

This specific merger will allow Elizabethtown athletes to be part of the LouCity and Racing operations without driving an hour one way to the Louisville area while letting the pro teams expand their reach into more of the state. The pact also likely helps generate more exposure for the pro teams. Everyone wins.

👨‍🦰 Parents Behaving Badly

Former youth sports officials in Florida and Texas face embezzlement charges.

Herminio Molina is accused of stealing roughly $14K or so in various personal enrichment schemes -- improperly renting out fields, getting personally reimbursed for a $7.7K purchase that was paid for with donated funds, pocketing concessions revenues -- in his former role as president of the Cooper City (Fla.) Optimist Club. He did reportedly give some of the money back, though.

John Freeman allegedly embezzled over $300K as treasurer of the Wylie (Texas) Youth Soccer Association over roughly five years. An audit of the organization's records found hundreds of unauthorized transactions.

My take:

It is probably long past time youth sports organizations start hiring real accountants. There is just too much money flying around to rely on the mom or dad who is good at math to be above board.

🏢 Youth Sports Facilities News

Jefferson City, Missouri: Developers have broken ground on a $10.7M multi-sport complex. Mid-American Bank Sports Complex will have several outdoor turf fields and be utilized by several organizations in the area.

Gig Harbor, Washington: Construction has begun on a pair of artificial fields in the first wave of a new sports complex that will combat field access issues in the city. Lighting and 100 parking spots will also be added; the all-in cost is expected to be about $7M.

🧠 Players Health, MaxU Partner On Mental Skills Training

Players Health and MaxU announced a strategic partnership to provide elite-level mental health and mental skills training to youth athletes across North America.

The pact directly integrates MaxU’s mental performance platform into the Player Health ecosystem of digital risk management services, reporting tools and insurance products, scaling access to the tools for schools, teams and youth organizations.

đź“‹ Job Alert: Coordinator, Baseball & Softball Development -- MLB

Major League Baseball seeks a highly-motivated individual with a passion for growing the game through youth development to be its coordinator for baseball and softball development.

MLB’s Baseball & Softball Development department spearheads youth and amateur programming, ranging from grassroots and introductory level activations through elite development programs and beyond. This specific role is responsible for shaping various MLB youth initiatives from concept to execution, with a particular focus on softball and girls baseball development. It’s a unique opportunity to blend on-field experience with event operations in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, working cross-functionally with Sponsorship, Communications, Marketing, Strategy, and Consumer Products to achieve common goals.

The full job posting can be found on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to list an open position here and reach more than 3,500 youth sports professionals in a single email, you can book this slot and upload all the details right here.

đźš” Another Youth Sports Theft Incident

A trailer containing over $19K of equipment used for youth soccer games, including a riding lawnmower, generators and sports gear, was stolen in Texas.

The equipment is owned by Victory Youth Sports, a Catholic non-profit in the Bryan-College Station (Texas A&M) area. The trailer was stolen from a church parking lot and served as the group’s mobile fieldhouse. There is surveillance footage of the theft.

đź‘Ą Welcome To New Members

You can view the full list of members who wanted an introduction to the Buying Sandlot community right here.

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Good game.