This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
We unveil details about our revamped Buying Sandlot Premium Community in the newsletter today. Keep reading, and join the only community where youth sports operators, service providers, and investors connect and get access to first-party data and custom research reports you won’t find anywhere else.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
📣 NFHS Enters The Affordability Chat
The national high school sports rules organization published an op-ed yesterday arguing participation in school sports is the antidote for the rising cost of youth sports.
While the plan for reducing expenses for families to involve their kids in youth sports is laudable,– beginning in sixth grade at the middle school level – where, by the way, costs are minimal, not prohibitive; opportunities to participate are open to everyone in most sports, not just those who have the financial means to do so; and winning is kept in perspective with an education-based model.
The piece acknowledges there will be cases where very gifted youth athletes should seek higher levels of pre-college competition, but argues the vast majority of kids are served adequately by schools and experience benefits not found in club sports:
Community, school spirit
Focus on education, relationships, team unity, fun
Personal confidence, pride
More media coverage, fan interest
Free of “outside interest groups”
‘When it comes to youth ages 12-18, there is no better place to participate in sports than our nation’s schools,” the op-ed says in closing.
The piece is a little rah-rah and obviously NFHS is talking its book, but that does not mean it is wrong.
Middle and high school sports are not going to fix everything, but they can fix a lot of things. They are education-based, they are not year-round, they provide immense benefits and they level the playing field in myriad ways.
If your kid is good enough to play in high school, they are going to play regardless of what they do outside their school program. And if they are good enough to play in college, they are going to be ID’d “just playing” for the school team.
But here’s what NFHS did not say: Middle and high school sports need capital, too — and their capital comes from federal and state governments.
As I wrote when the Let Kids Play Act was introduced — if politicians like Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) want to argue youth sports are a national security matter, why isn’t Congress setting aside a portion of the Defense Appropriations Act? Or addressing situations like the one in New Jersey, where thousands of Sen. Cory Booker’s constituents are dealing with cuts to middle and high school sports because of the state budget?
There are other considerations, but funding and investment is the big one. And if politicians want to create real change, they need to use the power of the purse.
I agree with everything James said here, and will call special attention to the line about the benefits of school sports.
We talked numerous times on the podcast about how the idealized version of youth sports - multi-sport programming, a balance between rec and competitive, with educational tie-ins - begins to sound a lot like… school.
Schools are, of course, academically-led with sports (and other extracurriculars) as a byproduct. But in a world where AI compresses learning - either through direct teaching or learning plans custom-tailored to each student - what we’re seeing more of is athletic-led academies with academics. Examples include not only IMG Academy, but also The Bennett School and what Sandy Ogg talks about with Curve Sports.
Regardless how you feel about this shift, it is beginning to happen and it’s worth keeping an eye on— “school sports” to “sports school.”
📆 EventConnect Exists To End Tournament Chaos— For Organizers And Families*
Tournament weekends have become mini supply chains: teams register, rosters change, schedules shift, hotels fill, and parents scramble.
Too many events still run things on spreadsheets, portals, and last-minute calls.
What we do (and why it’s different):
Centralize the weekend workflow: registration, rostering, payments, lodging, and real-time reporting.
Organizers can run end-to-end on EventConnect or integrate the systems they already use— no rip-and-replace required.
Either way, the data lands in one place so operators aren’t stitching together reports from multiple tools.
The “moment that changes outcomes”:
HousingConnect embeds hotel booking directly into checkout— capturing rooms at peak intent instead of sending families to a separate portal later.
Results can be up to 30% more room-night reservations and 24% savings on team hotel costs.
Proof of scale:
EventConnect powers 5,000 events and connects 30,000 hotels across 800 destinations.
Learn more about how EventConnect can help power your tournament right here.
*Sponsor
👥 Buying Sandlot Premium Community Unveil
Beginning today, all existing Buying Sandlot Community members and operators who applied by filling out our survey will start to see invites for our new community platform on Circle (super user-friendly, designed for modern professional networking).
Large operators, service providers, and investors and advisors can join starting next week. Existing investor members will need to upgrade to get access to investor features.
The revamped Buying Sandlot community will offer:
Peer Networking: Networking areas so youth sports operators and service providers of all sizes can connect, share best practices, and partner
Investment Opportunities: A true peer-to-peer platform so youth sports founders and operators can connect with interested capital
Data and Reports: Segment-specific benchmarking reports, industry pulse data, and detailed investment lists
Initial reports include:
Youth Sports Funding and Platform Consolidation Report (May, 2026)
Youth Sports Transactions Database (May, 2026)
Youth Sports Facilities - Planned and Under Development (May, 2026)
The Raise: Intel On Why Operators Need Capital (May, 2026)
Great Youth Sports Facility Benchmarking Report (July, 2025)
Vetted Directory of Service Providers: Pre-vetted platforms and tools when you need them, without unsolicited sales pitches (Q3)
Other Benefits (Investor Pro and customer tiers only): Private webinars, warm introductions, Deal Drop market intel reports, quarterly calls, custom reports, and later this year, access to raw intelligence, real-time dashboard
Independently-owned operators gain access at no cost and can apply simply by filling out our operator intake survey.
🧠 Players Health Expands MaxU Partnership
The youth sports insurance and risk management firm announced it will continue its relationship with MaxU, a mental performance platform designed for young athletes.
The rollout comes at the end of Mental Health Awareness Month and as summer club sports tryouts begin.
For soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, and beyond, tryouts demand that kids prove their worth not once, but annually. In a generation shaped by accelerating expectations, compressed schedules, and diminishing unstructured play, the psychological toll of that recurring pressure is measurable and growing.
Players Health members and network orgs will receive preferred access to MaxU’s platform through the PH marketplace. There will also be joint marketing initiatives and content collaborations.
🥎 Unrivaled Sports Makes Softball Move
The youth sports platform has launched the Unrivaled Fastpitch Network to “create more connected and consistent experiences for athletes and families across the sport."
The announcement comes eight months after the Unrivaled Baseball Network was established; the softball network will have a heavy USSSA presence similar to the baseball network.
USSSA National Fastpitch Director Ryan Highfill will lead the network (USSSA Baseball Director Kevin Hassett helms the UBN).
Unrivaled said USSSA state directors and tournament operators in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas will join existing operators in Iowa and Kansas to form the network. Unrivaled already had Softball Factory and All Ripken Softball under its umbrella.
⌚️ PlayerData Raises $12M
The performance tech company announced it has closed its Series A investment round.
David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures was among the lead investors, according to SBJ: other investors included Darco Ventures, Pentland Ventures, Tennis Australia and NBA star Kevin Durant’s 35V.
PlayerData launched GPS-enabled soccer balls with Mitre and Puma earlier and was named a preferred player tracking platform by FIFA. The firm is also working on an AI-enabled camera and has relationships with IMG Academy and several MLB teams.
🧱 Facilities Arms Race: Plenty To Go Around
Fort Wayne, Indiana, plans to open a 160K-square-foot youth sports fieldhouse.
Next door neighbor New Haven is working on a 140K-square-foot fieldhouse of its own.
And both cities’ mayors insist their facility will a) coexist with the other and b) still deliver sports tourism windfalls, even though others were taking a different tone a little over a year ago.
Their logic: New Haven’s venue will have turf and Fort Wayne’s will not, so there will be enough differentiation in the sports hosted to attract different events. But both will understandably make plays for basketball and volleyball tournaments.
Quick Take: Fort Wayne has about 275K residents; New Haven has 15K. And the area is relatively remote — Indianapolis is two hours away and any other major metro is about 3 or more away. So this still feels like a much bigger gamble on New Haven’s part.
📝 Youth Sports News + Notes
Varsity Brands has partially settled a third antitrust lawsuit in Texas federal court, avoiding a jury trial. The development was first reported by Sportico; the plaintiffs — a trio of cheerleading operators — were seeking at least $10M in damages. Mediation will continue; Varsity Brands has already paid out over $120M to settle two other cases.
3Step Sports is partnering with the UFC on a new BJJ competition platform that will include youth divisions. 3Step — which is currently pursuing a sale — also announced it is launching its own event production division.
NJ.com — James’ alma mater — published a report on exorbitant spending by youth sports parents in the Garden State. Among the anecdotes: A high school football coach who bartends at night to pay for his kids’ various teams and training.
TrendWatch? The owner of a massage therapy center in Worcester, Massachusetts, says 60% of her clients are youth athletes and some are as young as 9.
USSSA dropped the hammer on a youth baseball coach from Oklahoma after he allegedly told his 11-year-old son to throw a pitch into the opposing dugout during an 11U tournament in Kansas City last weekend.
The coach received a lifetime ban, according to USA Today. His son has been suspended for five years.
I'll reiterate my take from a few months ago: Whenever a parent engages in confirmed violent behavior at a youth sporting event, local pro teams should ban them from games. Or if the matter goes through the courts, the judge should slap a ban onto sentencing or a plea deal.
🤦♂️ More Parents Behaving Badly
Elk Grove, California: A former youth football organization president and treasurer was arrested on embezzlement charges. Police said a two-year investigation found the woman stole over $100K over a six-year period. The ill-gotten gains allegedly went toward mortgage payments, trips to Disneyland and other purchases.
Norman, Oklahoma: Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins was involved in a verbal altercation at his son’s AAU game over the weekend. He naturally took to social media and The Pat McAfee Show to discuss it.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.