This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
The narrative in youth sports is that club teams are driving up the cost of participation for all athletes and families, but this isn’t fully supported by the data. So we’d like to separate fact from fiction. Take our first-ever youth sports club cost survey and see how your club stacks up— full results will also be available to premium members.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🏟️ Base Sports Group Partners With Major Operator
Elite Tournaments has tabbed Base as its exclusive sponsorship agency for its national youth sports event portfolio.
Base said the partnership will offer “an incredible concentration of highly engaged, affluent families who travel nationwide, providing corporate partners with an undeniable level of reach and value.”
"The families who attend Elite events year after year represent one of the most engaged audiences in youth sports,” Base CEO and co-founder Mark Dvoroznak said.
Elite operates in 28 states; it said it has hundreds of thousands of athletes, parents and fans participate annually.
Elite has over 1K youth soccer events under its umbrella, as well as several dozen elite lacrosse events and relationships with several top lax and soccer leagues.
🤝 You don’t have to go it alone*
AI.
Those two vowels are everywhere these days, including in youth sports. But operators do not have to navigate the excitement, fear, and exhaustion — or try to understand what all these LinkedIn word salad posts mean — alone.
Robin will work together with your organization to co-develop solutions and tackle challenges as a team, creating authentic, cohesive experiences for athletes and families.
We are a global brand and digital product studio that knows the industry. We've worked in youth sports since day one across capital, equipment, facilities, tech and training, including as a licensed service provider with MLB for its youth and tech initiatives.
We also know AI, and see that the most important piece is being lost in all this discussion.
Nothing requires more thoughtful human effort than developing kids. Using AI as a blunt instrument strips an organization of its essential humanity. Orgs need to be intentional and precise. But if done the right way, tech can address real issues at all scales and sizes while allowing people to be more present and thoughtful when working with young athletes.
Robin can help.
*Sponsor
👥 Buying Sandlot Premium
Investment Opportunities
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150-acre youth-sports destination in the upper Midwest
Northeast baseball complex — $20M Phase 1 equity raise
Top-ranked youth flag-football program in a major Northeast metro — full sale
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Surveys
The narrative in youth sports is that club teams are driving up the cost of participation for all athletes and families, but this isn’t fully supported by the data. So we’d like to separate fact from fiction. Take our first-ever youth sports club cost survey and see how your club stacks up— full results will also be available to premium members.
🪑 Giving Parents A Hand — And A Seat
Game Day Valet rents chairs, tables, tents and wagons to families attending tournaments.
Packages range from $129 to $529 for entire event
Targets out-of-town teams
Gear is at first field when parents arrive
Parents can move gear around; it is collected at final field
Revenue-share deals with complexes
Katie Bennett — a North Carolina physical education teacher and youth sports mother — came up with the idea when trying to lug her stuff to the field while toting a fussy 1-year-old. She told Buying Sandlot her original idea was to put pre-order smart lockers at complexes, but “people want that extra little bit of customer service that we provide.”
LakePoint Sports and Grand Park Sports Complex are among the venues Bennett said she has contracts with. The extent of the venues’ involvement is allowing access and some help with publicity.
Rentals are currently only available at events if Bennett is there. She is a one-woman band at the moment, driving around the country in her Jeep with an enclosed trailer and two “unpaid interns” — her parents.
But her long-term goal is to have independent contractors manage inventory in various regions near major complexes. Bennett — who also has an app offering travel tips for youth sports parents — said she would also like to eventually move into coolers and other offerings, including food delivery.
“In my mind, I’ve already got the next ten years planned out for this,” she said. “I’m trying to start small with what we’re doing now.”
I love this.
The Sports Parent Economy piece is one of my favorite pieces I’ve written here.
Why? There is a substantial consumer opportunity in serving parents and families where they are increasingly spending more of their time at youth sports fields— from food, to convenience, to comfort, and even finance and travel. The opportunities are massive, but so are the challenges. The very long-tail of sports participation makes for logistical headaches. With the consolidation and proliferation of tournament venues, however, you are now getting broader surface areas to which to market.
These businesses cut one of two ways:
Way 1: You develop regional storage hubs in high-density areas, a network of independent contractors or gig workers, and stellar customer service and marketing and build a high-cash-flowing business.
Way 2: You start doing this well, and larger venues see what works and decide to do it themselves.
Re: Way 2: You can offset this risk with quality and service. At Disney World, you can choose to rent a Disney stroller, which appears to have the comfort of a shopping cart. Or you can get the super-hyper-deluxe model from a third-party and ride in style.
⚽️ USMNT Coach’s Youth Soccer Take
American kids are not developing the “childhood relationship” with the game that other world powers do, according to Mauricio Pochettino.
“In soccer it’s not enough just to be a good athlete,” the national team coach told El Pais. “That childhood relationship with the ball determines how you compete as an adult.”
Pochettino elaborated further:
They set up soccer schools in the United States and tell kids: "Pass the ball from here to there, go back and shoot when you get there." That’s not soccer. When we learn, when we relate to the game, it’s with absolute freedom. I take the ball and my brother, my cousin, or my friend two years older takes it away from me. How do I get it back later? That’s the game; it’s not something robotic.
The earlier that relationship starts, the sooner talents like those in Brazil, Argentina, England, or Spain will emerge. On that point alone, the United States can’t close the gap yet. In everything else, yes. In preparation, mentality, psychology, understanding… that’s more than covered. What’s missing is the childhood relationship with the game. It’s what determines the winning character of the great football powers.
Pochettino’s contract expires after the World Cup; he will almost assuredly return to coaching a top European club. So he does not have to bite his tongue on subjects like this.
I actually had this thought yesterday watching the World Cup. Smaller, poorer countries with populations the size of large US states punch above their weight class. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that freedom of movement and play in far-less structured and resourced environments develops instincts that can’t be taught.
It’s basically the specialization conversation but in different clothes. Unstructured or “kid-structured” play is probably the single biggest unlock for all sports and general wellness. But since times have changed and most kids don’t just roam the neighborhood anymore, I’m particularly bullish on organized pickup and intramural formats as a business opportunity.
🥍 The Important Takeaway From Wild HS Lax Story
A Massachusetts high school boys lacrosse team made national news last week after it forfeited a state semifinal game after six seniors were suspended for allegedly smoking cigars at a post-graduation party.
The situation escalated when other teammates boycotted out of solidarity. Parents claim the cigars were fake and made of chamomile and English breakfast tea, but school administrators have alleged that is a lie, including claims of a fraudulent receipt.
But the made-for-Netflix debacle is not the biggest industry takeaway from the Ispwich High Tigers’ star-crossed season.
An Ipswich player suffered a gruesome broken arm — it required significant surgery days later — during a preseason scrimmage in March.
There was no athletic trainer present. Nor was the athletic director there.
Complete chaos reportedly broke out after the incident. And the AT — who was part-time — eventually resigned in part because she said the school failed to follow the protocols she had created in the event there was a serious injury when she was not present.
Oh, and it was discovered the school had broken state law and did not have an AED at the field during the fallout.
It is inexplicable how so many clubs, organizations, schools, tournaments, etc. completely fail when it comes to on-field safety.
Even more so when it is easier than ever to get an AT and devise emergency action plans — as we discussed in last week’s special send with Go4.
And when the heavy emphasis on background checks and SafeSport training continues to see high-profile compliance failures.
This is an area where Washington should come in pens blazing.
Having an AT present at all school sporting events should be a condition of receiving federal funding. And the industry should be pressing for much higher standards across the board, from private equity-backed players to non-profits and community leagues.
🛂 Speaking Of Background Checks …
A New Jersey state senate committee advanced a bill that would require all adults in youth sports to be subject to expanded vetting.
There would be uniform criminal background check standards and disqualification criteria for all groups deemed youth-serving organizations — the bill defines that as “sports teams, leagues, athletic associations, private athletic coaching and any other entity that provides recreational, cultural, charitable, social or other activities or services for minors.
Organizations that fail to administer the checks would be subject to civil penalties.
🧢 Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation Launches Initiative
DGSF and LISC, a community development organization, will team on the Game On-Community Places to Play campaign, which “provides funding and technical assistance to community-rooted organizations working to create and renovate multi-use youth sport spaces in under-resourced communities across the country.”
The goal is to improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of local athletic spaces for young people. Grant awards will range from $50,000-$100,000 and will require 1:1 match funding. Funds will be awarded to outdoor and indoor facilities that enable and demonstrate local community access and usage for all organized youth sports, including but not limited to basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, football, tennis, lacrosse, and volleyball.
Non-profit, community-based organizations leading renovation projects in low-to-moderate income U.S. communities are eligible; that includes schools and parks and rec departments that partner with those orgs. Applications are due Aug. 15.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly
Staying in Jersey — a woman has been charged with stealing about $1.7K from a youth cheer and football organization.
Cops say she used the org’s debit card for personal purchases. But the woman’s attorney says his client is innocent and is being put “through hell.” He claims another person also had access to the debit card.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.