🥎 Growth Opportunities For Rec Sports

YEB is backed by Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Group.

Which means i9 Sports is another well-received, well-respected youth sports player that would be automatically banned from the industry if the Let Kids Play Act passes (it would be able to petition the FTC for a waiver).

"I'm not the right person to speak to the legislation. It's out of my lane as the president of the brand," Shimek said.

"What is in my lane is how i9 operates, what we stand for, what it delivers to families. What I do know about the legislation is that they're looking to predatory practices, what's happening and honing in on those.

"What I'll tell you about our model is that there are no tryouts. There are no travel requirements. We are not out there signing deals with hotels to get a certain number of room nights at a certain rate. We're never going to do that. We barely keep score, right? We're expanding access to play with what it is that we're offering, sportsmanship-first coaching.

"If the values behind Washington's interest in youth sports are about keeping sports accessible and affordable for families -- i9's been living that since Day 1."

Since launch on Friday, 58 members have joined our Circle community from around the US and the world— including leading tech platform executives, large operators, PE investors and advisors.

We already have 2 investment opportunities available to community members:

1) 150-acre youth-sports destination in the upper Midwest — major operator lease is already signed

Raising equity for a phased, ground-up multi-sport complex anchored by lighted turf soccer fields and a 6-diamond baseball quad with concessions and batting cages. The differentiator: a long-term facility operator is already locked in on a 25-year triple-net lease with annual escalators and concession/sponsorship splits, and has signed an LOI to take the second phase on the same terms — de-risking the lease-up that most ground-up projects struggle with. Checks start at $250K, with a ~10% target return over 5-7 years and adjacent commercial land being marketed in parallel. The full deal name, location, and prospectus is available to Premium Members with Investor access.

2) Northeast baseball complex — $20M Phase 1 equity raise

A ground-up baseball/softball and multi-sport complex in the Northeast (New York metro corridor) is raising Phase 1 equity — roughly $20M of a ~$47M total buildout, ideally all equity with limited debt capacity. The facility will pair a ~47,000 SF indoor performance center with 50+ acres of lit turf fields, targeting a 14–18% return depending on structure and operations within 12–18 months. The differentiator is built-in demand: an established league of roughly 600 teams has already committed to relocate all of its operations to the complex once built. The sponsor is a former professional player who owns and operates a sold-out training facility today, backed by an investor/CPA and a team spanning real estate, institutional finance, and construction. Premium Members with Investor access can request an introduction and full prospectus.

As a reminder, the Buying Sandlot community offers:

Join the community based on which most closely defines your role in youth sports:

^{Operator includes: Clubs, 
Leagues, 
Tournaments, 
Facilities, 
Scholastic, 
Community, and Non-Profit. Service Provider includes: Tech platforms
, Software
, Insurance, Compliance, 
Founders
, Service Providers, 
Data and Analytics. Investor includes: Investors, 
Private Equity, 
Family Offices, 
Investment Bankers, 
Advisors
, NGBs and Professional Services.}

Independently-owned operators gain access at no cost and can apply simply by filling out our operator intake survey.

We need to be able to scout way more players in this country, and we need to make sure way more players are a part of our pathway than currently exist today. That will be a combination of technology, a combination of standards, a combination of scaling the number of scouts and the programming that U.S. Soccer offers.

For a number of years, we’ve been building out our own proprietary software system to manage talent identification and development in this country. We have well over 10,000 players we actively track and manage through that system, which has very much expanded the funnel of players who are part of our national team pool.

We know that’s not enough. And we know that there has been incredible growth in capabilities in technology, and being able to use AI to both identify players but also to support players in their development journey.

On the podcast recently, we’ve talked about how the confluence of a general sentiment shift in willingness to travel (+ the costs associated with it), streaming quality, verified data, and wearables may enable scouting at-scale. I’m gonna identify this as a Trend Watch™.

The one unlock that would supercharge all of this: data interoperability between platforms. Video lives here, wearable data there, and player profiles everywhere. Parents (and college and pro coaches) will increasingly demand and support platforms that aggregate inputs from various sources.

Also, the data angle here is substantial and complex… as James lays out.

There was no mention of how USSF will obtain and harness the avalanche of data needed for such an undertaking.

That’s a question a lot of people will be asking, especially those who say “pay-to-play” is holding the federation back on the world stage.

But I think the most intriguing thing here is Helfrich using the term “U.S.-eligible player.”

Does that mean leveraging AI to scout the eligible players known to USSF, or leveraging it to find eligible players? The latter is a major topic in international soccer right now because FIFA has relaxed its eligibility rules and the expanded World Cup means many more countries have viable shots to qualify.

Only eight World Cup nations this year will have 100% natural-born rosters. And Germany has already called for a compensation system when players switch federations.