This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
There is a debate playing out between tech giants right now: Do powerful AI agents - like Meta’s Muse - get access to other platforms like Amazon? This week, the retail giant blocked Muse from shopping on a user’s behalf. This friction is the central tension standing between the web designed for humans and an AI-powered world. This dynamic represents a potentially fundamental rethink of the way people interact with platforms, and who owns the customer relationship— platforms or AI companies.
I (Kyle) bring this up because there is a very direct youth sports corollary to this broader conversation: the substantial parent demand for more interoperability between the many fragmented apps they need to use to navigate sports schedules and communication, the tools and workflows being created to address it, and the registration platforms themselves.
We’ll tackle this topic in-depth tomorrow. For now, a related survey which should apply to almost everyone reading this: How does your family manage its sports calendars?
Take the Great Youth Sports Calendar Survey right here. It takes 2 minutes.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🐍 Inside The Philadelphia Union’s Playbook
No one is doing youth sports right now like the Union — and a visit to the WSFS Bank Sportsplex tells that story.
The multi-use venue in Chester, Pennsylvania, highlights all aspects of the robust youth-to-pro-pipeline the MLS club has built.
They’re obviously doing something right, because Cavan Sullivan. But it goes far beyond that:
A long-term initiative providing local schools with soccer curriculum, equipment and touchpoints like visits from coaches and the team mascot; the Union have pledged $2M toward the program
A pilot program with MLS Go that puts every participant in a Union jersey; deep ties with other community leagues and programs
A club-agnostic Player Pathway Program for about 700 athletes, bridging the gap between rec competition and YSC Academy
A $100M facility that is in use 48 of 52 weekends each year through a combination of in-house events and rentals, including other sports like flag football
"Our niche in the youth communities is very much the volunteers and mom and pop clubs," Union Youth GM David Pettican said. "The ones that don't have those opportunities to have professional coaching at an affordable cost. The ones that don't have opportunities to have their players attend a professional level camp, not just MLS but a professional run camp. So we provide that. We go to them. We put camps on at their facilities throughout the summer."
BUYING SANDLOT: THE BUSINESS OF YOUTH SPORTS
How the Philadelphia Union Built a $100M Youth Sports Machine
I’m not sure there is another pro sports organization in the United States with such a well-rounded approach from youth to pro as the Union.
They are a leading developer of soccer talent. Four of their academy players were on the US’ World Cup roster, and that didn’t include 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan, who, along with Neil Pierre and Frankie Westfield, were called up from the Union to Team USA for the international window taking place right now.
What’s most unique is the way the Union approach all 5 layers of the sports stack— all covered in the podcast with Youth General Manager David Pettican, which you should absolutely listen to:
Rec: In addition to MLS GO (RCX Sports), the Union run community and school programs to widen the soccer participation funnel and capture fans from a young age (many pro teams serve this layer).
Development: This is where the Union excel. They run camps, paid development programs, and a select Player Pathway Program. They even run the Union Swag team for ages 4-11— a highly competitive philanthropically-funded, no-cost program, which lists current interim Union head coach Ryan Richter as one of its coaches. [The Swag smoked my son’s 8U travel team 12-2 last weekend, for what it’s worth.] In other words, they are addressing elite development at every price point— and their main development pipeline, the academy, is free.
Academy: YSC Academy is the gold standard of soccer academies in the United States. Located on the same campus as their pro team stadium, Subaru Park, and facility, WSFS Sportsplex, YSC is churning out elite prospects - in fact maybe the best in all of US Soccer in Cavan Sullivan, who has agreed to a deal to transfer to Manchester City when he turns 18 - and serves as a blueprint for anyone in the sports academy game.
Facilities: A $100M campus that serves a pro team, academy players, in-house programming and events, and outside rentals. It’s directly adjacent to the pro stadium.
Pro Integration: The Union leverage the physical closeness of the pro team and facilities. “We've had Chelsea train here. We've had Arsenal train here, the women's national team, the men's US national team and Ivory Coast through throughout the World Cup.” It becomes a draw for outside programs that might get to brush shoulders with or watch the Union while they practice. And locally, everything the Union do in the area helps to create fans from a young age.
A real masterclass in sports participation, development, and elite competitiveness.
🏉 Friday Night Lights, Live At Home*
High school football is religion in Texas.
Clear Life Media brings it into living rooms with the help of Blackmagic Design.
The Lone Star State-based company produces high quality, multi-camera live streams for its “Game of the Week” productions, as well as youth and adult grappling competitions for its “Clear Life Combat” on-demand channel, using Blackmagic’s workflow and suite of affordable solutions including:
… and more
All stakeholders in the youth sports industry expect top-notch live streaming. Blackmagic Design makes it possible using the same products as professional teams, allowing high quality, affordable and easy to learn multi-camera streaming and filming.
For more information, visit Blackmagic Design.
*Sponsor
👥 Buying Sandlot Premium
Join us Thursday at 11 a.m. for our Safety and Compliance webinar, sponsored by Ankored and exclusively for Buying Sandlot premium members and Buying Sandlot Summit attendees. We’ll explore how operators put safety and compliance into practice across clubs, leagues and facilities.
Our panel features Seth Lieberman, CEO of Ankored; Wally Orlov, President of Lower Merion Little League; and Meredith Thompson, Senior Director of Health and Safety at Unrivaled Sports. James Kratch and I will host the conversation.
Premium members may join us live and participate— please check your email for a direct link to register for the webinar.
Upgrade to premium for full access.
Already a member? Log in to read premium reports and access the premium community.
🐙 OTTO Sport AI’s Hot Streak Continues
Otto Event will become AAU Volleyball’s official event management partner beginning with the 2026-27 season.
The multi-year deal provides Otto’s complete suite of tools to all AAU National-owned events, including the AAU Junior National Championships, the AAU Volleyball Classic and the Grand Prix and Super Regionals.
It is the latest major partnership for Otto, which has grabbed a stranglehold on the volleyball industry since formally launching in January. CEO Luke Zaientz previously projected it would have 70-80% market share by this season.
“It's a gigantic accomplishment for us,” Otto Event GM Eugene Tichenor told Buying Sandlot. “It’s something we've been working toward. We knew when we talked in product meetings, we were building stuff for organizations like this, and we were just waiting for the opportunity to get in front of [AAU] and show how powerful our technology is, how great our customer service is. We got the opportunity to do that this summer, and it culminated in formulating this partnership.”
So how wide is Otto’s reach now? Some projected numbers from Tichenor:
175K total teams registered
2.1M athletes competing in at least one Otto event
1.75M tickets processed — up 40% YoY
1.8M parents engaged
The AAU Junior National Championships played a big role in the partnership. The multi-week event, held annually in Orlando across June and July, features a combined 8K boys and girls teams.
“They said, ‘We’ve had issues in the past where registration did not go that smooth on other systems. That cannot happen again,’” Tichenor said.
“That’s the guarantee that we’re proud of, and it’s easy to make, because of all the time we’ve spent on the backend developing the infrastructure that’s going to take these 8,000 teams and fly through everything on Dec. 1 and give everyone an easy registration, an easy checkout.”
📁 Final Word On New Orleans Compliance Issues
Speaking of tomorrow’s webinar …
We wrote in June about a litany of missteps by the New Orleans Recreation Department Commission, including failure to perform proper background checks on youth sports volunteers and poor financial controls.
Those findings were made public in a letter from the city inspector general’s office; the IG has now published its final report, which accused NORDC of “benign neglect” with youth sports:
Among the new findings:
NORDC failed to collect about $150K a year in fees required by city code
95% of parks had no formal team management rules
Poor oversight of booster clubs
Individual teams started charging families; some fees were $150 or more
Some volunteers believed coaches were embezzling funds
No list of authorized, screened coaches; no ID records for volunteers
Inadequate security at events
The IG report also challenged NORDC’s responses to its inquiries, saying the body made “several factual errors” and did not directly address issues.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.