This is Buying Sandlot β the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Letβs get to it.
In the email today:
ποΈ Recapping The Latest Congressional Hearing
The House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education did not produce any fireworks yesterday.
There was not much daylight between the witnesses. And, despite it being the subcommitteeβs second hearing on youth sports in seven months, the lawmakersβ questions still remained surface-level.
But the hearing still garnered a good amount of media attention and had some substance.
Hereβs who attended:
Linda Flanagan, author of Take Back The Game
Bryan Finnerty, founder/CEO of High Velocity Sports Center (and The Sports Facilities Companies co-founder)
Matt Kakabeeke, executive director of Kalamazoo Optimist Hockey Association
Katherine Van Dyck, senior fellow at American Economic Liberties Project
The subcommittee also received submitted statements from:
Ankored CEO Seth Liebermanβ read statement
Buying Sandlot founder Kyle Scottβ read statement
Some takeaways:
1) The Let Kids Play Act is going nowhere
It was always a long shot to pass as currently written. But this hearing really hammered that home, even as a few Democratic subcommittee members said they supported it.
A general sentiment throughout the hearing: Private capital and investment is not inherently bad and the real issue is so-called vulture practices.
But the LKPA bans all PE on Day 1, even the players praised during the hearing.
And there continues to be confusion on the vulture practices part. Multiple people suggested the bill moves to ban these practices, but that is not true β it only looks to force PE players that engaged in them to divest.
Case in point: Some of the more prominent examples of stay-to-play come from national governing bodies and housing firms that do not have PE involvement β two groups the bill does not apply to.
2) Data without context continues to steer the conversation
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA) referenced an SFIA statistic during his opening statement that is being increasingly cited β and is quite flawed.
The stat: SFIAβs 2025 participation report found the participation gap between households earning under $25K and households earning $100K or more was 20.2 percentage points in 2024 β compared to a 13.6 point gap in 2012.
The issue: SFIAβs methodology does not adjust for inflation, but more importantly also fails to adjust for drastic shifts in household incomes nationwide.
The number of households making $100K or more almost doubled between 2012 and 2024, according to Census and Federal Reserve data, and is believed to be approaching 40% of all American households.
The number of households making under $25K has dropped considerably in the same span β close to a quarter of American households in 2012 and about 15% in 2024.
And if you examine the figures through the lens of the federal poverty line β not a perfect metric, but one Project Play leans heavily on via its use of National Survey of Children's Health data:
$25K was 108% of FPL for a four-person household in 2012
$25K is 80% of FPL in 2024
$100K was 433% of FPL in 2012 (highest NSCH income bracket)
$100K was 320% of FPL in 2024 (second-highest)
The bottom line: Yes, there are real access challenges and concerns that need to be addressed. But the oversimplified narrative of private equity β greed β high costs β only wealthy kids can play continues to be buttressed in part by data that is flawed or presented without any nuance. Or both in this case.
3) The need for federal funding
Van Dyck β the only returning witness from Decemberβs hearing β continually called for more government funding.
Congress sends no federal funds to the USOPC. We are seeing middle and high school sports get slashed all over the place because of state budgets. People often refer to Great Recession-era cuts to local parks and recreation organizations, but that was almost two decades ago now.
The argument seemed to resonate with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), who pointed out the youth sports industryβs size is a drop in the bucket compared to the federal budget.
4) A few quick thoughts
There was talk of how PE involvement can remove the community feel of youth sports. But many PE investments do the opposite. Curve Sports has been adamant about retaining local leadership under CEO Sandy Ogg and Weatherford Capital. Shore Capital launched RISE Partners to grow New York Empire Baseballβs programming. And Brand Velocity Group plans to maintain RCX Sportsβ hyperlocal approach.
Van Dyck said Congress should βmake the private investors behind the leagues liable for deaths and safety violations." Safety is obviously extremely important. But recent high-profile failings β USSSA and the city of New Orleans β came on the community/nonprofit side of the industry. The safety discussion also continues to be presented almost solely through the lens of SafeSport with very little discussion about on-field safety and the alarming athletic trainer coverage gap.
Black Bear Sports Group took some heat, as Kakabeekeβs nonprofit says BBSG evicted it from its home arena after it refused to go along with its demands (BBSG has since gone on the offensive with its side of the story). But it also got credit from Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH), who spoke about how BBSG invested in critical repairs needed to keep a rink in Youngstown open (the company co-owns a junior hockey team in the city). The Kalamazoo rink in question was also going to close if BBSG had not bought it. Rulliβs point goes back to the funding question β if not private capital, public money is needed.
Didnβt have that clip on the 2026 Bingo card.
A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a policy advisor about the possibility of testifying at this hearing. But I didnβt think it was appropriate - as the guy who runs a media outlet covering the space - to offer up the defense of private equity in youth sports. However, I did submit the statement because I think lawmakers are genuinely searching for unbiased views of the spaceβ and, as outlined in this section by James, they need some guidance. There are lots of positives of private capital in youth sports. The statement is 3k words, but hereβs a brief overview of it:
There are real problems in youth sports, but they are not the result of a single ownership structure. Current proposed legislation targeting ownership, and not conduct, makes no sense.
Participation rates among lower-income households may not be the direct result of expensive for-profit clubs and tournaments, as sports hold up better than many other extracurriculars among lower-income households. Excess at the top doesnβt explain access (or lack thereof) at the bottomβ we made this argument here.
Private capital does a lot of good in youth sportsβ examples include professionalized recreation franchises, tech platform funding, B2B service providers standardizing youth sports and improving safety, and media sponsorship models with the potential to subsidize participation costs.
Our first-party club data found a $2,800 median annual cost with typical season length of 4 days per week over 9 months per year β roughly $19 per athlete touchpoint β with private-equity-backed clubs charging no more than the sample overall, meaning itβs the volume of participation that drives total costs, not ownership structure. It also found that club operators overwhelmingly say they need better facility access, and facility operators overwhelmingly say they need capital.
To date, public-private partnerships in facility development have focused on sports tourism impact around large tournamentsβ ironically the mechanism that drives up costs for youth sports families.
βTaken together, these realities point toward a more useful policy question: How can the country build more aο¬ordable, local, high-quality sports infrastructure so families have better options close to home?β
How did we get here?
On July 9, 2025, almost a year to the day, I wrote the following on the heels of a tentpole NY Times article about the ills of youth sports:
βAt 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. We are now entering the high-flying phase of youth sports. Enjoy it, but watch your back.β
I was off by about 2.5 years, as the conversation in Washington began to pick up in earnest by the end of last year.
π EventConnect Exists To End Tournament Chaosβ 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 itβs 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 useβ no rip-and-replace required.
Either way, the data lands in one place so operators arenβt stitching together reports from multiple tools.
The βmoment that changes outcomesβ:
HousingConnect embeds hotel booking directly into checkoutβ 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
πΊ A New Take On PE In Youth Sports
Wendover Productions β a YouTube channel with about 5M subscribers that makes videos "explaining how our world works" β entered the conversation yesterday.
The videoβs title is "How Private Equity Ruined American Youth Sports," but it does not rely on any of the paint-by-numbers anecdotes and stats that have powered all the other examples of the genre.
I love Wendover videos, and unsurprisingly, they presented one of the most detailed takes on youth sports that Iβve seen. The video did a good job explaining the structure and cost drivers beyond just finding a couple of parents or rink owners who felt wronged by PE.
One major point the video makes: In the US, individualism takes over and athletes and parents are expected to drive their own sports development outcomes (often by paying reams of money). In other countries, pro clubs invest in young talent, and sometimes even pay athletes to play in their system, with FC Barcelona being cited.
Wendover argued the existence of college sports is the reason for this. Thatβs partially the case. But I continue to argue that the bigger driver may be the existence of THE DRAFT in the major four US sports leagues that removes any incentive for multi-billion-$ clubs to invest in pre-draft, local youth talent development.
Sure, the MLS is the exception - offering fully-owned academies at no cost to invited players - and youth soccer still has the famous βalphabet soupβ problem, but the MLS doesnβt have the economic upside that the NFL, MLB, and NBA have. In other words: How much do you think the NY Knicks would invest in NY area basketball development if they got to retain player rights of NY-NJ area hoopers? Granted, parity concerns would need to be taken into account.
While it wouldnβt solve all cost and participation problems, and it may not be feasible, I think a homegrown or developed talent exception at the pro level would create a massive incentive for pro clubs to subsidize elite sports development.
π Playmetrics Partners With Pop Warner
The youth football organization has tabbed PM as its official technology partner, providing member associations and leagues with "modern technology that reduces administrative complexity and creates a more seamless experience for all."
Registration
Roster validation
Scheduling
Game day management
Communications
Integrated mobile app
Quick Take: Playmetrics β which is believed to have become the biggest management platform in the industry with the SportsEngine acquisition β continues to grow, and across multiple sports.
π§βπ§βπ§βπ§ New Tool For Youth Sports Parents
Jonathan Carone β the founder of the Healthy Sports Parents podcast β has launched Healthy Sports Parenting, an online parent education course.
The programming is designed for clubs, leagues and organizations to provide to their families, but individuals can also access it. Pricing starts at $49 annually.
Carone said the project grew out of many conversations at the Buying Sandlot Summit, where he moderated the professionalized rec panel.
βOne of the themes I heard over and over from league and club operators was that parent education is one of the biggest gaps in youth sports,β Carone said. βThey all agreed their lives would be better if they had less issues with parents, but none of them have the time or staff to proactively take on the issues that come from the parent side.
βThe goal is to help organizations build healthier sideline cultures, reduce parent conflict, improve communication and ultimately help more kids stay in sports longer.β
π Youth Sports Links
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Good game.