🥎 4 Big Ideas From LeagueApps NextUp 2025 (Part 1)

This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.

Last week, four of us from the Buying Sandlot team attended LeagueApps’ NextUp event in NY. Special thanks to CEO Brian Litvack and his team for accommodating us with some space to conduct on (and off!) the record interviews.

Based on those conversations and some of the ideas shared on panels, here are BIG IDEAS from the event.

To keep things short, I’m breaking this into two parts. You can read Part 2 here.

Before we get started: LeagueApps has posted its panels on YouTube, which you can view right here.

1) 💸 Capital Has Arrived (Duh)

I spoke to one investment banker who told me that this was his first NextUp event (mine too). He relayed that he bumped into another investment banker - with whom he had previously done an unrelated deal - who was also attending their first youth sports conference.

Coincidence? I think not.

I find that anecdote illustrative of the general vibe at the event and in youth sports overall— you have this mix of 20+ year operators (usually in some sort of athletic wear) and newer entrants, like tech founders, investors… and lanky media types.

A prevailing sentiment: Given the large concentration of on-the-ground operators in attendance, messaging during keynotes and panels consisted primarily of friendly guidance for SMBs who now have to know and love terms like “EBITDA,” “valuation,” “run rate” and “LTV” as investors and potential acquirers circle the space. This is new to many in the industry!

I’ve been in this boat. I sold my previous sports media company. For years, it ran as a lifestyle business covering pro sports. Fun! Paid decent. But then a 2018 Supreme Court decision cleared the way for legalized sports betting at the state level, and money started flooding into sports media properties with audiences full of potential bettors.

Literally within 6 months of that decision I was being asked about my EBITDA and run rate, and entertaining 7-figure offers. None of these were things I ever considered before then.

What’s hilarious is that some of the very same people who thrust themselves into the “sports betting” industry are the same people who are now popping up in youth sports circles. Myself included, to be fair.

It’s a hot sports vertical.

Two pieces of advice for facility, league and club operators who find themselves entertaining offers:

1) Consider working with an investment banker

My partner and I turned down multiple offers before selling. We handled all of the negotiations ourselves. We did OK, but probably left about 20-25% on the table— something we realized after seeing the outrageous deals that lesser competitors got 6-12 months after we sold. Never mind how much of our time during insane growth years (from low 6-figure revenue to mid 7-figure revenue and an 8-figure “run rate”) was taken up by negotiating said deals.

2) Think about what things look like after acquisition

I see many similarities between sports media entrepreneurs (bloggers, podcasters, reporters) in the betting boom, and youth sports operators today.

Generally, these are businesses people got into because they’re passionate about the respective space. 50% of the job is running the business, but 50% is a calling— working in sports somehow.

What happens after an investment to scale or acquisition? Think about what you’ll do with your time if you’re not running a baseball facility. And don’t discount how much of your identity might be wrapped up in what you do.

I could go on and on about this topic, but we’ll stop there. If you’re interested in more, hit “yes” and we’ll put out some more content on the topic going forward.

Would you be interested in a podcast, webinar, or dedicated article about first-hand experiences selling a lifestyle business?

2) 🚪 Door #2: Professional Services Can Help Operators Be More Effective

One of my favorite companies in the space right now is Focus On The Field. They offer back-office and administrative services so operators can professionalize and focus on, you’re not going to believe this, the field.

Here’s founder Tyler Kreitz on what Focus On The Field offers its customers:

“We are a professional services firm providing, like essentially, outsourced business services for youth and amateur sports organizations. So if you and I need an admin, because we're running a soccer club, we can do it ourselves, we could hire somebody, or call Focus on the Field. You have an admin now. And we deliver general admin services, registration, communications, and managing the website and tech stack. That little quadrant of services is what makes up running the business of sports.”

In a world of AI everything, Focus On The Field is offering a more human approach.

Another anecdote: I sat through the social media marketing panel and, to be blunt, heard lots of rudimentary questions.

Consolidated operators backed by private equity capital will employ centralized professional marketing teams. But the vast majority of independent operators seem to be taking a very ad hoc approach to marketing.

What I heard on the panel was lots of trial and error. This can be great as it’s often the best way to learn in the constantly-shifting world of social algorithms (we need help here too, and we’re a media business!), but it shows that there are huge opportunities in providing marketing services to the operators who remain independent.

3) ↔ There’s a Gap Between Expectation and Reality in Youth Sports

What becomes clear at an event like NextUp is how operationally intensive youth sports can be.

Nearly every experienced person in the industry will tell you how none of the BIG PICTURE, high-growth stuff is possible without a strong ground game to deploy the product, service or tech at-scale.

For example: You can’t build 9-figure AI streaming tech without stellar business development and partnerships.

This is where I’m learning there’s a huge delta between the 30k-foot-view LinkedIn influencers who speak frothingly about what a great time it is to invest in youth sports, and those who actually understand what it takes to be successful in the space.

I’ve had conversations with the full range of money folks entering the space— from PE, to VC, to angel investors and investment bankers. The smart ones understand - and take seriously - the social ramifications of professionalizing children’s games, and they embrace the operational challenges of scaling effectively in the space.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t massive tech plays. There are. LeagueApps itself, which secured “significant equity investment” from Accel-KKR last year, is a great example.

But that investment may be best summed up by Accel-KKR’s co-managing partner, Rob Palumbo, a minority owner of the Buffalo Bills, who described LeagueApps as mission critical software. Hudl was also described this way by Bain Capital. Ergo, it’s worth asking which 100x tech opportunities will be considered “mission critical” to operators. And which won’t.

4) 🧢 Club Consolidation Is Real, And It’s Spectacular?

I think it’s fair to say that Joshua Harris’ and David Blitzer’s arrival to the space through Unrivaled is what thrust youth sports investment into the mainstream over the last couple of years.

Their strategy largely - but not exclusively, as evidenced by their recent acquisition of Drew Brees’ FNA flag football league - has centered around events.

But I’ve had numerous conversations in recent weeks with operators, investors, and even business school students looking to roundup well-run clubs.

The thesis is simple: when a club nails its playbook - operations, culture, brand - that model can be cloned in other markets or sports to build something much bigger.

True Lacrosse is doing this with capital from TZP Group to form True Sports Group, which will get into volleyball.

And so is New York Empire Baseball with Shore Capital Partners to form RISE Partners, which will look to expand in baseball and softball and into other sports.

Empire and now RISE CEO Jordan Baltimore (highly impressive!) explained the philosophy:

“When we think about the world, we think about it in terms of the future of our world. In terms of breadth, depth, and geography. Breadth, how do we take our culture, our values, our approach to other sports? Look, we spent 15 years not going into other sports because we felt that our organization was built partially on what we say culture, content, and coaching. If we don't have the proper content and we don't feel strongly about our ability to teach that content, we don't just move into another sport because we have the relationship with a family. So the opportunity to build or buy and move into other sports with our platform, with our culture, with our values, was meaningful and I think the opportunity is there for that.”

🥩 Bonus Big Idea: This Steak From Hawksmoor

I see a lot of people waxing poetic about their corporate culture on LinkedIn. That’s cool. We’re all remote at Buying Sandlot, so culture is harder to define. But I do know it now revolves around precisely-salted porterhouse from Hawksmoor, just down the street from where NextUp is held.