This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Thanks to everyone at LeagueApps for another excellent NextUp event on Wednesday in Manhattan. Look out next week for a special send and podcast with interviews, news and takeaways from the conference.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🏢 SFC Keeps Making Moves
The Sports Facilities Companies has secured management deals with a pair of Midwest venues set to open next year — the Boyd County (Ky.) Sportsplex and the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Indoor Sports Facility.
(Side note: Kalamazoo was the subject of the first-ever Buying Sandlot newsletter, which Kyle emailed to himself.)
Local officials have big expectations in Kalamazoo. They believe the project, which is funded by an assessment on hotels, can drive $50M in annual economic impact once fully established. SFC said close to 20M people live within three hours of the venue.
8 basketball courts/16 volleyball courts
About 17K square feet of turf
Training and flex areas
The Boyd County Sportsplex will be located at Camp Landing in Ashland, which sits on the Ohio River near the Ohio and West Virginia borders.
The venue aims to attract regional and national events while also serving local residents. Cincinnati, Columbus, Lexington and Louisville are all within a three-hour radius.
110K-square-foot air-supported dome
Court space for basketball, volleyball, pickleball
Turf for baseball, soccer
Adult, youth sports programming, community events
Plans for competitive archery center
Jonathan Clemins — the former head coach of the U.S. Paralympic archery team — has been named the Sportsplex’s general manager.
📋 Club Management Is Not One Size Fits All*
Youth sports software is rapidly consolidating. Many clubs now find themselves being moved to new platforms they did not choose as a result.
But they do not need to sacrifice their operational independence. Byga, which is purpose-built for competitive soccer and volleyball organizations, can give them their say back.
Registration, payments
Evaluations
Scheduling
Parent communications
Platforms should be built around how the club runs, not the other way around. There are three questions every youth sports club owner should ask:
Who is it built for? Who owns our data and payment economics? Will the roadmap follow clubs like ours?
Byga has the answers.
*Sponsor
⚾️ Perfect Game Continues Media Focus
The baseball and softball development giant has extended its partnership with speaker company Turtlebox, including an expansion into original content.
PG will produce and distribute “Turtlebox Cages Sessions,” a series of 12 short-form episodes that “feature players, coaches and influencers taking fans inside their cage work, from drills and approach to the routines and playlists that set the tone for their best swings.”
Turtlebox will remain PG’s official bluetooth speaker and audio provider and also have an expanded presence at the platform’s marquee events.
Giveaways, organic social posts
On-site activations
Player walk-up song graphics
The speaker maker will also sponsor the “Clubhouse Guy” award at the All-America Classic and give a speaker to each participant.
🧮 Club Capital Partners With PRD Baseball
Club Capital, an accounting and CFO advisory firm for youth sports organizations, is now PRD’s recommended financial services partner.
PRD has 86 organizations and over 13K athletes in its network.
Monthly accounting
Bookkeeping
Tax support
CFO advisory
Club Capital has typically worked with youth soccer clubs; this is its first baseball partnership.
🧱 Youth Sports Facilities News
Clearwater, Florida: City Council voted to proceed with talks to turn a public golf course into a $180M public-private sports and entertainment complex. Plans include 13 multi-purpose fields and pickleball and sand volleyball courts. Residents have voiced concerns over the project.
Venice, Florida: Sarasota County officials unanimously approved plans to overhaul a park into a regional sports complex. But the $40M project will likely depend upon the results of state tax ballot questions next month. A slew of new or renovated youth sports fields are part of the proposal.
St. George, Louisiana: A development district has been established to build an indoor complex and surrounding multi-use development. The district will be able to levy up top $5M in business taxes and up to a 2% hotel occupancy tax within the district. The city has also proposed overhauling a nearby park into an outdoor fields complex.
🤢 Youth Sports’ Under-The-Radar Challenge
Kids were over three times more likely to miss a game due to the flu rather than a sports injury, according to a youth sports parents survey published by Walgreens.
70% of sick kids missed two or more games due to flu
35% missed three or more
59% of parents said a game was canceled due to flu in last year
All that said: 72% of parents said they are still more concerned about injuries than the flu.
🎣 The Next Big Thing?
Move over, flag football.
“Need Help Paying For College? Try Bass Fishing,” according to The New York Times.
The sport’s sanctioning body, BASS Nation, short for Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, has about 12,000 anglers in 1,100 high school and youth clubs in 35 states, up from 600 clubs and about 6,000 anglers in a dozen states a decade ago. Bass fishing is sanctioned as a high school sport in at least eight states, with clubs in many other schools.
And you thought ice hockey was expensive!
New bass boats can cost $100K; parents often have to move, captain boats
Digital fish finders are $2K or more; fishingrods cost several hundreds
Parents also incur other typical youth sports expenses — travel, lodging, equipment, entry fees, etc.
Most schools do not want to insure anglers, boats for liability reasons
The top youth levels are basically “travel league fishing,” according to one of the officials interviewed in the report.
About 600 colleges currently have some sort of fishing program — a total that has double in the last decade, according to the report. Some offer scholarships and there is even a bass fishing showcase for recruiting purposes.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly
This recent tale from Florida checks a lot of boxes.
A parent punched a coach during an 8U football game in Winter Haven, sparking a brawl.
The field was conveniently located next to a police substation, though, so law enforcement had a quick trip to break things up.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is sorting out who will face criminal charges, as well as investigating allegations the incident was driven by parents wagering on the game.
Undercover cops will reportedly attend games in the future to probe the gambling claims.
Elsewhere in the Southeast: Three coaches have received lifetime bans from a youth football league in Arkansas after a brawl broke out during the post-game handshake line. Coaches, players and fans were involved in the melee, which was caught on film in Cabot, which is near Little Rock.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.