This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
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In the email today:
⏱️ Athlete Testing Without Doubts
It happened too many times to count during Clif Marshall’s years working as a Division-1 strength and conditioning coach.
A supposedly 6-foot-8 basketball recruit would prove to actually be 6-foot-5 on an official visit to Indiana. Or a Louisville football camp attendee would say his high school coach hand-timed his 40-yard dash at 4.4 seconds, only to run 4.7 against laser timing.
“There have been years of inaccurate measurements and inflated testing numbers that have hurt athlete credibility and trust,” said Marshall, now D1 Training’s senior director of coaching and pro training.
“There were moments where there were tears in the eyes of these athletes because of the inaccuracy of the data.”
D1 has launched the D1 Verified testing platform to address this ongoing issue. The youth sports training franchise aspires to have its certified, recruiter-ready data become “as recognized in sports as the ACT or the SAT in academics,” Marshall said.
Sport-specific standardized testing, combine-style events
Anthropometric measurements — height, weight, wingspan, hand size, etc.
Identity verification at check-in
Photo/video evidence captured
Home office data review, network-wide analysis
1-5 star rating system
Publicly available athlete profiles
D1 will continue foundational core testing for all ages, but D1 Verified will focus on high school athletes and add sport-specific tests. The program has launched with football, but additional sports — baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball — will go live in the coming months.
D1 has about 175 locations nationwide. The company, which is reportedly exploring a sale, previously said it aims to have 200 by the end of the year.
Marshall envisions each location will hold quarterly D1 Verified events alongside foundational testing every six weeks. The combine events will be open to families outside of D1.
Results will not be released until D1’s corporate headquarters in Nashville reviews and signs off on all testing. An athlete’s profile page will then effectively act like a LinkedIn page.
“We will really dissect those scores to make sure there are no outliers,” Marshall said. “We’ll watch the videos, we’ll check the times. These are scores that parents, coaches, college coaches can trust because of the way we test and the thorough background we do after the test.”
The lack of accurate data is not only an issue for college recruiters. Marshall said athletes and their families are often in the dark about physical measurements and areas for improvement, which hinders development.
Each D1 Verified athlete will receive a star rating for their sport. The system will be similar to recruiting rankings — five-stars will be rare — and based on all D1 data nationwide.
“There are coaches and facilities that can do the athletic testing events,” Marshall said. “But what makes this unique is the technology behind it, the ability to gather all this data in one place, capture it and start coming up with some norms. To have a platform that an athlete can share with a coach to give his verified times is a game-changer. I think this is going to help more athletes get recruited in the long run, especially if they’re able to test well.”
D1 is a prior Buying Sandlot sponsor.
We’ve talked about the verified data opportunity often in the newsletter and on the podcast. MPI Sports (a Buying Sandlot partner), Curve Sports, Scoreability, On The Radar, and many others have unique takes on it. I’ve long compared it to the SAT or FICO score for youth athletes.
The challenge has always been distribution, scaleability, and… shh… interoperability.
And, most importantly, getting a score to be as universally accepted as an SAT or FICO score is.
D1, with its near 200 locations and existing brand recognition, is well positioned to do this. Won’t be easy, but I’m intrigued!
🏉 A continent’s largest tournament, streamed in full*
Tropical 7s, held annually in Tampa, bills itself as the largest youth rugby event in North America.
Every kick, phase, scrum and try at this year’s edition was streamed thanks to Blackmagic Design.
Youth sports production company Game On Live Studio uses BMD products in all its work, including its role broadcasting Tropical 7s — 250+ teams and 750+ matches across 15 fields (and 1.2 million square feet) over four days of frenetic action, streamed live in its entirety at a level not previously seen in the sport.
ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, Mini Pro ISO switchers for multi-camera streaming
ATEM Streaming Bridge converter
DaVinci Resolve, the world’s most popular post production solution
Everyone who watches youth sports — athletes, parents and grandparents, coaches, college recruiters — has come to expect streaming that looks and sounds professional.
Blackmagic Design can deliver just that for your club, event, facility of school. Our suite of affordable products are the same high quality as those used by professional sports teams and in Hollywood, delivering easy-to-learn multi-cam streaming that open new revenue streams.
For more information, visit Blackmagic Design.
*Sponsor
👩⚖️ Latest On Stay-To-Play Lawsuit
Team Travel Source filed a motion to dismiss on Wednesday in Kentucky federal court, seeking to have the class action tossed.
ICYMI: A group of youth sports parents sued the Louisville-based housing firm in May on consumer fraud grounds, including allegations of junk fees, false advertising and unlawful practices.
But TTS argues the plaintiffs “fail to allege any actionable claim” in its filing:
STP policies are driven by operators, not TTS
TTS properly discloses “legitimate booking fees”
The lawsuit does not allege or support fraud by TTS
Some plaintiff claims are outside statute of limitations
Lawsuit fails to meet various legal concepts/theories
The plaintiffs now have at least 21 days to respond, plus any extension requests.
TTS said it books 1.4M hotel room nights annually and paid out over $17M in rebates to operators in 2025.
🇳🇴 Houston, Vi Har Et Problem
Well, this is going to be a wrinkle for the LinkedIn crowd.
Norway’s much-celebrated youth sports model is dealing with some challenges amid its World Cup pandemonium, according to Sportico.
Social media and fitness-tracking platforms like Strava have grown popular, especially among Gen Z, who value more individualized athletic pursuits over the traditionally community-based Norwegian sports and recreation systems. Economic uncertainty is threatening public funding for the sports industry, and recently proposed tax reforms may dent the affordability of fitness centers and other sports expenses for everyday Norwegians.
(…)
Public expenditures in Norway are on track to outpace revenues by 2040, creating uncertainty about the reliability of public funding for sports. And the state monopoly on gambling has also been subject to political pressure, with some in favor of opening up to foreign betting platforms.
The facet of Norway’s system that does not get mentioned nearly enough — their Joy of Sport is backed by hundreds of millions in lottery and gambling subsidies for sports, plus other fudning — is being thrown into question by the proposed tax reforms.
Also: This video from The Dan Patrick Show's Seton O'Connor on a youth soccer club in Spain run by a brewer got a lot of praise yesterday.
Two things:
1) This take from O’Connor is something, but it hints at a larger thing we’ve been talking about: corporate sponsors powering entire clubs and leagues. The ROI - compared to expensive TV ads for national brands or wasteful napkin ads for local brands - is potentially substantial. The white label operator for this - the “RCX for corporate-backed teams” - feels like a home run business play. That said, I find it truly insane that these takes are now bordering on zealotry about the importance of youth soccer in America (yes, we should care, but it’s not, and never will be, a national priority for myriad reasons). And ironically, everyone’s answer to what’s wrong with youth sports in America now seems to be more high-end training to better develop the .01% of kids who will go pro. We’ve lost the script.
2) I poured some water on the Norway model on Wednesday, but this Sportico article is really well done and points to more structural issues beyond my Erling Haaland hot take. Actual quotes from the piece:
“some feel that sports in Norway are moving away from play, community and a sense of belonging to a club, and increasingly toward performance and professionalism”
“Gen Z, who value more individualized athletic pursuits over the traditionally community-based Norwegian sports and recreation systems”
“costs for specialized soccer academies in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, can now run as high as $3,000 (NOK 30,000) per player per year, Deloitte notes. That’s triple the average annual U.S. family spend of $910 on soccer”
So Norway is… becoming more like the United States. What a plot twist. I think most notable in the piece, as James mentions, is the funding issue. Public youth sports funding is great until… there is a more pressing need for public funding, as this piece implies is the case in Norway. And while aping the betting tax → youth sports funding model is a decent proposal in the US, that revenue is not automatic as both prediction markets and regulation are coming for betting profits here— meaning that funding source could be eroding on both continents.
To Kyle’s point above: Many of the people who decry the high costs and professionalization of youth sports are simultaneously offering up solutions that are even more drastic than what is currently in place.
Sure, elite youth soccer academies in Europe and elsewhere are free. But they are also extremely cutthroat. Academics are often an afterthought. Children are sometimes leaving home before puberty. There is a risk of abuse and neglect. And the athletes are literally commoditized — the entire system runs on academies and clubs flipping kids for transfer fees and FIFA training/solidarity payments.
Is that really what people want?
Youth sports has gotten expensive and there are real access and equity issues. We can definitely do better. But placing the blame on “pay-to-play,” private equity and the like is missing the mark. So is romanticizing everything that other superior soccer nations do on a surface level.
Youth sports needs capital. And that has to start with Congress and state and local lawmakers delivering much more of it from public sources, however they may materialize.
The one transferable European approach — regardless of what happens in Norway — is subsidizing a quality baseline experience at the bottom of the pyramid. That would actually reduce costs for families because they would not be as compelled to pay for basic benefits.
As for O’Connor’s take: There is a colossal difference between donations and sponsorships, and many believe the latter leads to better outcomes for all involved.
I would argue that duplicating C.F. Damm in America would look a lot more like charity than a brand play. Why would SpaceX care about developing youth soccer players?
The one way I could see it working: Fox and Telemundo’s World Cup broadcast deals are over after this year.
Could a streamer write a massive check to FIFA for both English and Spanish language rights over a long term — the next five World Cups? — and then turn around and launch an academy in concert with U.S. Soccer?
Because that would be an investment — Netflix stands to make a lot more money on the rights if it can help ensure deep runs from the USMNT.
🎰 Facilities Arms Race: Reno, Again
One casino resort operator in The Biggest Little City in the World is all-in on youth soccer.
Another wants to roll the dice on youth hockey.
Meruelo Enterprises plans to build a new community ice center AND a 10K-seat arena as part of a $1B project at its Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, according to The Reno Gazette-Journal.
If the name sounds familiar: Billionaire Alex Meruelo owned the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes before they were sold to Ryan Smith and became the Utah Mammoth. Meruelo held onto the Mammoth’s Tucson-based AHL affiliate in the deal; it is believed he would either move the team to Reno or find another minor league club as an arena tenant.
Jacobs Entertainment, which owns the J Resort in town, previously launched an initiative to build 12 new multi-use fields in Reno. Jacobs also created a city amateur sports organization to attract more sports tourism.
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