This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Great send today— NFL Flag ratings, interesting comments from Unrivaled Sports CEO Andy Campion, an awesome interview with Curve Sports CEO Sandy Ogg, partnerships, polls, and more.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
📺 NFL Flag Championships Pop Big Ratings
The three-day event smashed the records it set last year, including the two highest-rated games in history.
Girls HS final on Sunday: 1.12M viewers average, most-watched ever, up 46% YoY
Girls HS quarterfinal on Saturday: 820K viewers average, second-most watched ever
Boys 14U final on Sunday: 631K viewers average, up 35% YoY
Sunday championship window (4-6 p.m. ET): 882K viewers average, up 43% YoY
Saturday games: Viewership up 89% YoY
Sunday games: Viewership up 37% YoY
Overall average viewership: Up 50% YoY
ESPN said there were 14.3M unique viewers for the entire weekend across all Disney-owned linear platforms — almost double last year’s 7.7M total.
Two key notes there: There were 30 linear broadcasts this year compared to 22 in 2025; there was also no NFL Network coverage this year following ESPN’s acquisition.
Something everyone involved — Brand Velocity Group, RCX Sports and Disney — have to be thrilled about:
NFL Flag’s ratings now compare favorably with the premier youth sports media property — the Little League World Series.
All LL coverage last year averaged 812K viewers with LLWS coverage averaging 1M and regionals averaging 520K; the U.S. and world title games popped big audiences at 2.8M and 2.4M, respectively.
Last year’s Little League Softball World Series final had a 1.44M audience; the full LLSWS coverage averaged 347K viewers.
👩⚖️ The Latest On Stay-To-Play Lawsuit
An amended class action suit against Team Travel Source was filed earlier this week in Kentucky federal court.
TTS had recently filed a motion to dismiss, but Judge Claria Horn Boom denied it as moot due to the new filing.
The most notable change: The lawsuit was largely reframed around allegations of coercion of youth sports parents and “vulture practices” — a strategy shift echoing the Let Kids Play Act, which was introduced two days before the initial filing and is now referenced in the amended version.
Four new plaintiffs were added to the lawsuit; it now bids to establish a nationwide class and seven state-level subclasses — California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Virginia.
The new filing also includes new allegations surrounding TTS fees and practices and more documentation of plaintiff claims.
TTS now has 14 days to respond.
🧢 Unrivaled Sports CEO Talks Sponsorship And Affordability
Unrivaled’s Andy Campion said his company and others in the industry “need to be focused on how we can manage that cost down” during an appearance on Bloomberg’s “The Deal” podcast.
"The pressure on kids in terms of cost to participate is a challenge, and it's a challenge that we should try to beat," he told hosts Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. "Because the more kids playing sports the better."
Unrivaled's approach to the challenge: Partnering with sponsors endemic to sports that share its philosophy -- like Dick's Sporting Goods, which is an investor -- plus leveraging amenities, food and beverage and lodging to "allow people to opt into things that fund the economics of youth sports."
"And then our job is not to be greedy about it," Campion said. "If we think about it dynamically, we can create a business model where all the weight is not on cost to participate."
The most interesting part to me came at the 15:00 mark of the interview when Campion talked about sponsorship not only as a great business, but also it’s role in reducing participation costs:
“You guys are in media now. Broadcast TV. Nobody pays for it. Everyone gets to watch this amazing content for free because the sponsors and the advertisers go you have an audience and I’d like to connect with that audience. And what we’re focused on at Unrivaled is get those sponsors who are endemic to sport… and our job is to look at those economics and say, can we put them back into the fields like we've got these amazing turf fields, can we put an athletes’ lounge together? We are actually working with CBS Sports because they are broadcasting the Ripken Nationals. That's a joint venture with us. We're putting economics and skin into the game for that. If we think about it dynamically, you can create a business model where all the weight isn't on cost to participate.”
Music to my ears! I talked about this exact topic on the podcast a couple of months ago— youth sports as a media business. Not only in the literal sense of broadcasting or streaming games - though that’s certainly a piece of it, and Campion points out that Unrivaled is a major player in that part of it - but in the sense of aggregating attention and selling sponsorships against it:
“The newspaper only cost 50 cents because you had all these sponsors in it. And so when you take that analogy and you apply it to youth sports, if you're beginning to put eyeballs on things and monetize outside of directly charging people to participate, you can lower the cost.”
That paradigm simply isn’t possible without some level consolidation or partnership that detractors and outsiders often bemoan in youth sports. Dick’s has an omni-banner-presence at fields through local store support of rec leagues, but virtually no other major corporation does simply because there’s been such a long-tail of fragmented attention.
…
One more thing: Unrivaled has a great story to tell— they create premium sports experiences akin to Disney World. In a world of connected devices and screens, these sort of businesses should be celebrated, not nitpicked. I hate that the current environment - even on an outlet like Bloomberg talking to Alex Freaking Rodriguez - refocuses every conversation around the problems of accessibility in youth sports. Yes, it’s something to grapple with, but it’s backing every enterprising youth sports operator into a corner through the endless moralizing about why sports participation should be free. That then forces the larger operators to explain why technically they’re not private equity (see point 3 by James), rather than speaking proudly about what their businesses do really well.
A few other soundbites of note:
1) Campion said Unrivaled strives to be "premium at every price point," comparing a week at Cooperstown All-Star Village to a week at Disney World or sending a kid to camp.
2) Unrivaled entering the youth basketball space is "inevitable," Campion said.
3) Campion said this when discussing Unrivaled co-founders David Blitzer and Josh Harris: "This isn't private equity. This is their personal investment and passion, is sports. So it's in their family offices."
🔉 New Podcast: Curve Sports CEO Sandy Ogg
“Youth sports needs capital.”
Speaking of the good private capital can do in youth sports, our latest podcast is with Curve Sports CEO Sandy Ogg.
This is one of my (Kyle) favorite interviews to-date. We’ll likely feature 5 takeaways on it next week, but highly recommended weekend listening for you here as Sandy is deeply passionate about building a network of 30 baseball and softball super clubs and the intersection of sports and academics (this from a guy who chairs the board of a $14.5B private school network).
BUYING SANDLOT: THE BUSINESS OF YOUTH SPORTS
Inside CURVE Sports' Vision to Build 30 Youth Baseball Super Clubs Across America
You can listen and subscribe to the Buying Sandlot podcast with the following links:
🎥 LiveBarn Launches Analytics Platform
The Canadian hockey-focused streamer has made its first big move after selling for a reported $400M to GTCR earlier this year.
LiveBarn Analytics is a collaboration with Sportloqic, a hockey tech firm acquired by Teamworks earlier this year. The platform combines LB's video with centralized advanced game and player insights and builds on the existing partnership between the companies — Sportloqic has powered LB’s Player Analysis tool since 2023.
Team-level analytics
Post-game reporting
Shift tracking
Advanced player cards
Video-connected performance metrics
Video reviews, playlist creation
LiveBarn said the platform is now available for teams that play in its venues across North America. The platform will have a tiered subscription structure.
GTCR acquired LB in January after launching Ascent Sports Group with former Match Group COO Gary Swidler.
This also seems to be a good time to point out that Buying Sandlot podcast guest and Summit panelist, and more notably TeamSnap CTO, Reed Shaffner, is now CTO of Teamworks, a role he started in April according to his LinkedIn:
⚾️ Student Athlete Score Teams With Perfect Game
The brand-building, data and NIL platform has launched a technology partnership with the baseball and softball developmental giant.
The pact will give PG athletes access to the SAS platform:
Athlete profiles
Understanding social media audiences
Brand growth tracking, AI-powered recommendations
Prep for future NIL, recruiting opportunities
SAS will be integrated into PG's digital experiences and showcase communications.
SAS also has partnerships with SPIRE Academy and IMG Academy.
🏔️ Facilities Arms Race Update: Big Bend, Wisconsin
The developers behind the Breck Athletic Complex have submitted new renderings for its second phase, according to the Waukesha County Freeman.
Phase 2 of the project in the small Milwaukee suburb would include six baseball fields with seating, concessions and restrooms.
The mega-complex will be designed to evoke a "Colorado mountain town" and is expected to cost in the $175M to $225M range. More details on the project can be found here.
The project's initial phase was approved in April by city officials, but it has received significant local opposition -- there are currently three lawsuits trying to stop it.
📊 Poll: Youth Sports Sponsorship
Has your youth sports organization benefited from sponsorship revenue?
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