This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
I (Kyle) plan to attend 2 events in NY next month (and maybe a 3rd private dinner):
The John Wall Street Youth Sports Summit on October 8 (register your interest here), where I’ll be moderating some panels.
The LeagueApps NextUp event on October 15-16, where we plan to try to conduct a handful of podcast interviews.
If you are attending either event, or if you’ll be in NY on or around those dates and would like to say hello, please drop me a line at [email protected]. Always good to connect with the audience in person.
Our team will also be present— James will be at NextUp, and our partnerships manager, Paul, will be at both events.
If you will be at NextUp and think you are a good in-person podcast interview candidate, let us know. We have limited capacity for those.
Feel free to include James and Paul on any email as well— [email protected] and [email protected].
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🚗 New Stats On Rise Of Club, Travel Sports
Researchers at Ohio State and Vassar College have teamed up for another youth sports study, this one focused on club and travel sports participation.
Kids born in the 1990s were over 3x more likely to participate in club/travel than kids born in the 1950s
Participation was also higher for highly-educated/higher social class families
11% of overall adults said they played club/travel
8% competed in leagues for elite teen athletes
16% of 1990s kids with college-educated parent played club/travel
6% of 1990s kids whose parents did not go to college played club/travel
The researchers previously released a report on the “intensification” of youth sports parents— the headline takeaways there were overall youth sports investment has steadily grown over the decades, but the disparity between families based on socioeconomic status began to widen in the 1980s and has rapidly grown since.
The methodology is a bit unique — close to 4K adults born in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s were surveyed about their recollections of their youth sports experiences.
You don’t need an endowment to intuit that travel sports were more popular for millennials than baby boomers.
What’s more interesting here is that according to Project Play data, somewhere around a high teens % of all kids in America play travel sports today. That’s a sizable increase from the 1990s, to be sure, but within an order of magnitude.
I’d argue that the intensity of that participation has increased, however— more time and money required to participate.
[This study seems to say 11% of all kids played travel in the 1990s. Project Play data is generally based on the subset of kids playing. They found 17% spend most of their time playing travel, and 29% overall play travel. So we have to do some math as ~55% of kids overall play sports. That’s how we get to “high teens”.]
I have 2 points:
1) Lots of people argue that this is BAD. Maybe it is. But consider the alternative to organized sports: screen time, dwell time, and lots of other unproductive uses of time that lead to bad outcomes. Most kids aren’t roaming the neighborhood to play pickup games the way they were in the 1950s. That element gets lost in the hand-wringing about competitive sports.
2) All of this means the majority of kids don’t play travel. In fact, “youth sports parents identified community-based teams (43%), free play (41%) and interscholastic teams (40%) as the most common settings where their child plays their primary sport”. I think too much attention in youth sports, especially among newer investors, is going toward the sexy tech-AI-analytics-prepare-you-to-be-pro side. But there’s still plenty of money in entertainment— providing safe and fun experiences for families and kids.
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📰 NY Times: The Registration Fees Are Too Damn High
We mentioned last week The Old Gray Lady was asking students to weigh in on whether they feel youth sports are too expensive as part of its Learning Network free classroom resource program.
The responses are in — and what you would have expected:
[Students] told us, in overwhelming numbers, that the answer is yes. They shared personal stories of staggering costs, the emotional burden of feeling like a financial investment, and their concerns that the system now favors wealth over passion. Some worried about what would be lost as prices rise, but others said the cost was worth it.
The Times published almost 20 responses. Only two from the “the cost was worth it” group, though.
Quick Take: Statistically representative, or biased? YOU DECIDE!
💳 A Youth Sports Fundraising Platform Deal
RaiseRight has acquired FlipGive, a Canadian youth sports-focused cash back app.
The Michigan-based white label fundraising solutions company said it will integrate FlipGive into its platforms while maintaining FlipGive’s current team for operations north of the border.
FlipGive said it has raised $50M on over $400M in sales since it launched in 2016. The platform has 900K members and has raised funds for over 50K youth sports teams.
I. Love. Financial. Products. That. Serve. Youth. Sports. Families.
Such a huge space and opportunity. BULLISH.
🤖 Youth Sports Tech Update
We reported on SportsVisio in June after the AI-powered stats and highlights platform closed out a $3.2M seed round.
The basketball-focused app (it also has volleyball and 3×3 hoops) just released a major update.
The headline upgrade: AI-generated 90-second reels that compile a game’s biggest moments — like the old SportsCenter highlights when we didn’t know who won the game yet.
Also of note: Tech that allows users to filter plays in a game by category — i.e. every 3-pointer, every block.
⛳️ A Good Start To The Weekend
The U.S. won the Junior Ryder Cup back yesterday, defeating Europe by a 17 ½ to 12 ½ margin at Nassau Country Club in New York.
The competition is U18 with co-ed teams. The U.S. now leads the all-time series, 8-4-1.
The actual Ryder Cup though … it’s not looking good so far.
🧱 Youth Sports Facilities News
Courtesy of FuturePlay Sports
Happy Valley, Oregon: Startup FuturePlay Sports is planning a 144K-square-foot complex in the Portland area. The facility will have 20 indoor volleyball courts, four sand volleyball courts and eight basketball courts; a 3K-seat championship arena is also planned.
South Fulton, Georgia: The U.S. Soccer Foundation and Genesis launched their fourth hardcourt Musco Mini-Pitch in the Atlanta suburb. The campaign previously opened facilities in Hollywood, Florida, Compton, California and Staten Island. USSF has opened over 800 mini-pitches nationwide and aims to have 1K by the start of the World Cup next year.
Knoxville, Tennessee: Emerald Youth Foundation has revised its proposed contract as it bids to buy part of a city-owned park for a $20M facility. The new proposal guarantees sports fields will be for recreational uses in perpetuity, among other promises. A city council vote is scheduled for Sept. 30.
Pinellas Park, Florida: The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning invested $100K to re-open an outdoor hockey rink at the upcoming Sprowls Horizon Sports Park. The facility will also have six turf baseball/softball diamonds and batting cages.
Grand Forks, North Dakota: The first construction phase of the $110M Altru Sports Complex will begin soon. City officials signed off on plans to put four basketball courts in the facility — passing up a multi-million surplus for the phase’s budget — in an effort to generate more tournament business.
Moseley, Virginia: The 360 Field House — a 22K-square-foot indoor facility with two basketball courts and a turf field — is expected to open next year. It will be tied to Local Legends, a youth sports organization, and built next to a brewery. The projected cost is $3M.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
We’re new— help us build up our social media accounts by following along:
Good game.