🥎 NFL Teams With White House On Youth Sports

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

Let’s get to it.

The Shield will partner with the Health and Human Services, Education, Labor and Housing and Urban Development Departments on a youth sports initiative for underserved communities.

The league and agency officials signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday at the Indianapolis Colts’ facility — Grand Park Sports Campus is hosting the NFL Flag Championships this weekend.

Two big catches: The MOU is non-binding and lasts only one year, according to Breitbart. And none of the agencies have committed funding yet, according to Axios.

Details about the initiative are also scarce. But officials said they anticipate selecting a limited number of locations (in addition to Indy) and want to partner with community groups.

The initiative is expected to focus on areas with public housing and feature other sports in addition to football.

A youth sports operator can write the strongest policy in the country.

But they end up in a courtroom if no one follows it.

It does not matter how "small" or "under the radar" an operator is. That assumption goes out the window the moment an incident occurs. And with the average judgment in cases that reach trial approaching $5M, one incident can end the program.

Ankored verifies your policy makes it out of the binder — confirming every coach, official and volunteer on the field has actually completed the certifications, checks and training your policy requires. And flagging the ones who haven't.

An unenforced rule is not safety. It is a paper trail that proves an operator knew better.

See how it plays out. Watch Ankored's recent Policy to Protection panel where Steve Smith, a sports law attorney, breaks down what an incident looks like once it reaches trial. Deanna Sheridan of 3Step Sports shows how to put that risk in front of your board before it becomes a claim. Then book a call with Ankored and see how to ensure your policy enforces actual protection.

*Sponsor

There has already been some post-Let Kids Play Act lobbying activity in Washington, according to federal records.

Black Bear Sports Group retained TheGROUP DC in June to lobby in the House on “issues related to youth sports,” according to a Q2 report under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

BBSG paid the firm $30K in the quarter, according to the disclosure. But the government asks for estimates rounded to the nearest $10K, so that is not necessarily an exact figure. Lobbying disclosures do not detail the specific stances parties are taking on issues.

"Black Bear Sports Group welcomes discussions with Congress about youth sports affordability and access, as these are issues that we care deeply about and work every day to improve through our growth of the game initiatives that feature free and low-cost programming," spokesman Evan Nierman said in a statement previously provided to Buying Sandlot.

The NHL paid Cornerstone Government Affairs $20K to lobby both houses of Congress about the LKPA and other sports-related bills; it also used its in-house lobbyists on youth sports issues.

A pro hockey team was also indirectly tied to the LKPA. Seattle Arena Company, which is connected to the Kraken, had Washington2 Advocates “tracking federal legislation limiting private equity firms in youth sports" as part of its $40K of work for the quarter.

FundPlay Foundation — a youth sports nonprofit organization that spun out of LeagueApps — paid $20K to Klein/Johnson Group to “advocate for federal funding in FY27 through community project funding/congressionally directed spending.”

Quick Take: The Seattle Arena Company disclosure is telling because it signals the sports industry sees the LKPA for what it is — a bill that targets capital structure far more than practices.

Ankored and LeagueApps will continue their series on navigating risk in youth sports today with a panel discussion about protecting coaches at 1 p.m. ET.

The scheduled speakers:

Focus On The Field will have a builders roundtable tailored for operators on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.

The scheduled speakers:

The sports operations platform boasts a credential that is pretty unique in the industry — they also work with the NFL, NBA, MLB and MLS.

Fastbreak is leaning into that with its new Tournament Director’s Playbook, a free guide it says outlines the “operational logic” of those leagues and is "translated into a practical, step-by-step guide you can act on before your next event."

Fastbreak says the playbook can help make events more profitable without raising fees.

Quick Take: We’re seeing youth sports platforms and service providers get more creative with lead-gen magnets like this. As youth sports professionalizes, owners and operators are seeking out ways to run better systems (i.e. turning passion into scalable business) and platforms that possess aggregate knowledge of the space are finding ways to drive upfront value as a soft-sell for their services.

A team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was kicked out of the Southwest Regional amid allegations it has ineligible players on its roster.

Three different opponents reportedly lodged complaints with LLI regarding the Tulsa team.

LLI said its decision was “final and binding.”

And considering the regional was a) played in Texas and b) a Texas team won last night to punch its ticket to the Little League Softball World Series, it seems unlikely the Oklahoma team will be able to take this to court with any success.

ESPN will reportedly lay off veteran broadcaster Karl Ravech, who has been with the network for over 30 years.

Making a surprising move even more surprising: It comes just weeks before Ravech was expected to resume his longtime role as the voice of the Little League World Series in Williamsport. He also hosts a podcast targeted at youth sports parents.

It will be interesting to see who ABC/ESPN tabs as his replacement. Mike Monaco has previously called LLWS games, but the package may be prominent enough to add a bigger name like Joe Tessitore, who worked last year’s high school football national title showcase event.

We’ve written often about the overall youth sports sponsorship opportunity. Some are exploring the concept of rec team or even club team naming rights (think: Starbucks 8U, or State Farm Red) vs. borrowing pro or college team names through a patchwork of arrangements.

The idea is that these highly visible naming rights would go beyond just jersey sponsorship, increase revenues to teams and leagues, and drive outsized ROI for sponsors.

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Good game.