This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
This is Part 2 of our BIG IDEAS from LeagueApps NextUp 2025. It’s based on conversations I had and ideas shared on panels.
If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here.
Before we get started: LeagueApps has posted some of its panels on YouTube, which you can view right here.
We posted all of our on-camera interviews in a playlist on our YouTube channel right here. You can also listen to all of them in a single podcast episode right here (each is only about 15 minutes). Guests include:
Tyler Kreitz, founder of Focus On The Field
Jordan Baltimore, CEO of New York Empire Baseball and RISE Partners
Andy Hayes, CEO of Go4
Dave Yoo, Founder of Onsides (of which I’m an advisor)
1) It’s Not Just Software
There’s no shortage of software products, services and ideas in youth sports.
But a recurring theme of this email has been the need to effectively operationalize them to achieve scale in a fragmented market— a difficulty that may be overlooked by some.
Even harder than deploying software, though, is deploying physical and in-person products and services.
Enter two companies:
Go4
I won’t hold the Penn Charter (PA) thing against Andy Hayes, who has built a platform of over 25k athletic trainers who can be hired to be physically present on the sidelines of games:
“We believe that there's a whole ‘nother level to participant health and safety, which is actually on the field, and that you need to have an athletic trainer present who can implement an emergency action plan and ultimately document injuries. You talked about the difference between the software compliance - that's maybe prevent, preventing, you're trying to be proactive - and then stuff is gonna happen on the field. It's boots on the ground talk about like scaling and building and growing that type of business verse a more software based business.”
He also thinks this stuff is table-stakes, especially when you consider all the money coming into the space and expectations that will follow:
“We're champions of athletic trainers. We believe that they are going to be critical to as all this money flows into youth sports in all different levels that the athletic trainer is going to need to be on the sideline of these games, matches, tournaments.”
In other words, software is doing a great job of preventing bad things from happening - shoutout to sponsors Zorts and Ankored - but you need humans present for when stuff hits the fan.
Check out Go4 here.
GoRout
Coincidentally, also with “Go” in the name and, like everything else in youth sports, no space between the two words!*
Anyway, I spoke to GoRout founder - and a Buying Sandlot premium member - Mike Rolih for an upcoming podcast.
His company says it is the leader in coach-to-player communication. They use a watch-like device so baseball, softball, and football players can receive pitch calls, positioning adjustments, and plays from the dugout or sideline. Think PitchCom, but more advanced… and preventing the need for Blake Snell to read an index card between every pitch!
This is a physical product, backed by software and tech. So while harder to build and scale, it also becomes much harder to disrupt.
Why I like these ideas: Again, youth sports is all about “the last mile.” You need operators, coaches, parents and players to adopt whatever product or service you’re offering.
Too many newer entrants seem to be abstracting away that “boots on the ground” layer as they seek venture-like returns. And frankly because it’s easier. But there are real businesses to be built around professionalizing services like health and safety, or tech-enabled physical products.
These businesses often have a natural moat by virtue of the fact that they are less likely to get competition.
Ironically, they’re now getting benefits ostensibly reserved for software tech plays. Go4 is experiencing two-sided marketplace effects, and GoRout could achieve some level of lock-in thanks to its product + subscription model.
To be fair, not all software businesses ignore the hard part. Platforms like LeagueApps and TeamSnap interact deeply with operators, and streamers in particular rely on the same hardware + software model. But those are the exceptions. Meanwhile, many newer entrants are still trying to code or spend their way around the messiness of youth sports rather than leaning into it.**
*My personal goal is to introduce the space bar to the youth sports industry.
**Perhaps I should take my own advice and send physical space bars to every founder, CEO and CMO in the space. Do_hard_things.
2) Improving The Rec Experience Should Be Big Business
[Love this video]
I don’t have a big long take here. This quote from LeagueApps CEO Brian Litvack (upcoming podcast!) does most of the work:
“Two things I think of often is business models that are more compelling that aren't going to the elite levels. If you're dead set on building a youth sports business right now, oftentimes you're going more to club, travel and elite as quickly as you can because that's kind of the business model that allows you to do this full-time. But are there ways where you can have mass participation models that have cheaper price points and more kids? We had someone at our conference, Lance Smith, from Next Level Sports, that does a flag football program once a week at affordable levels, calls it “competitive rec”, and has mass participation, I think, has 90,000 kids. So I think there's different business models is one way. And then look, the more and more compelling your youth sports experience is, the more kids will play.”
“Kids should be able to play sports for as long as they want in some type of environment that's appropriate.”
Professionalizing rec can be a thing, too.
Again, this is where I would note franchise programs like i9 Sports and Youth Athletes United (Soccer Stars) are good examples, but there’s so much more that could be done here at “travel age” for kids who don’t want or need the commitment of travel.
3) The Glaring Differences Between Sports
There was a panel on Day 2 with Kyle Albrecht (MLS Next General Manager), Adam Harper (NBA VP Youth Basketball), Tony Zasowski (Black Bear hockey VP), Scott Hillier (Premier League Lacrosse VP Youth Growth). As if there isn’t enough disagreement between operators within a single sport, there’s an even a wider delta between how leaders in different sports view youth development.
The video isn’t posted and I didn’t transcribe the session, so I don’t want to assign specific views to any individual panelist. But I walked away thinking the following:
MLS has put the most thought into youth development
They want to prioritize playing time over winning, even at competitive levels, until early teenage years, so to create a maximum surface area for athlete development
There is clear daylight between the more rigid development process favored by leagues and governing bodies vs. operators like Black Bear Sports, who favor more game and scrimmage time
Zasowski was particularly blunt about these differences
In short, it is all but impossible for anyone to agree on the best way to develop youth athletes. And the reality is, there’s probably not a one-size-fits-all answer.
But there is need to balance playing and game time, so as to keep participation rates high (that’s good for business, too), with skills-based training and specialization to prepare elite players for the next level.
Everyone is trying to find that line.
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Good game.