🥎 The Nuance Of Stay To Play

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

Let’s get to it.

STP could be the most polarizing thing in youth sports at the moment.

The practice has drawn the ire of politicians and some parents, and many are watching the federal class-action lawsuit against Team Travel Source with interest and/or concern.

But STP can also provide benefits for myriad stakeholders — economic impact data for local officials and venues, smooth logistics for operators and hoteliers, access and rates for families.

“I think when people start thinking about it, we all have this framework in our head as like, ‘Good or bad, evil or not,’” Otto Sport AI CEO Luke Zaientz told Buying Sandlot.

“But I would just say don't frame it that way to start. I think stay to play is actually extremely useful for all parties. It's helpful for the city. It's helpful for the hotels, it's helpful for the tournaments, it’s helpful for most families.”

Otto recently announced a partnership with Integrated Tournament Solutions, a new volleyball-focused housing firm. The pact will include integration into Otto’s SportWrench platform.

“I think stay to play works very well when there is a lot of clarity,” Zaientz said. “You're coming to this tournament, your team needs to have this many rooms as part of it. We need to do that because we're trying to protect your rates and because the tournament has already put up guaranteed money to these hotels to reserve them.

“Here's all of the transparencies about it. We don't hide anything. We don't have junk fees in there. There’s no misrepresentation of the rules. We're not going to have booking or change fees. We're not just going to articulate we have a lowest rate guarantee; we’re going to go out there and be an advocate and try to fight the hotels to get the lowest rates. We're going to set our policies as flexible and travel-friendly. Hotels that are in walking distance and not 70 miles away.”

The other factor: Ending STP might end up being a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul for youth sports families. Or a “waterbed effect,” as Zaientz called it — when a problem is identified and the response ends up elevating another issue.

Most major operators receive rebates from partnerships with housing firms. Those rebates can then subsidize other costs related to the event.

“It's not like the tournaments would just say, ‘OK, we'll just take all of that money we were making from hotel rebates and just lose it,’” Zaientz said.

“They'd say, ‘OK, now we're going to have to raise the rates for the tournaments for the player.’ The families would end up paying for it anyway, it would just be on a different fee. … I think it's all about how to create an honest business with transparency.”

Zaientz said ITS will be integrated into Otto’s SportsWrench volleyball management platform, but Otto will not require partners to use it.

“The way we think about it is that if you run a volleyball tournament, we want to be there to support you,” he said. “If you say to us, ‘Hey, we have a housing partner that's X,’ we say great. We’re going to work with you on whatever helps you win. That's our attitude.”

Tropical 7s, held annually in Tampa, bills itself as the largest youth rugby event in North America.

Every kick, phase, scrum and try at this year’s edition was streamed thanks to Blackmagic Design.

Youth sports production company Game On Live Studio uses BMD products in all its work, including its role broadcasting Tropical 7s — 250+ teams and 750+ matches across 15 fields (and 1.2 million square feet) over four days of frenetic action, streamed live in its entirety at a level not previously seen in the sport.

Everyone who watches youth sports — athletes, parents and grandparents, coaches, college recruiters — has come to expect streaming that looks and sounds professional.

Blackmagic Design can deliver just that for your club, event, facility of school. Our suite of affordable products are the same high quality as those used by professional sports teams and in Hollywood, delivering easy-to-learn multi-cam streaming that open new revenue streams.

For more information, visit Blackmagic Design.

*Sponsor

They have built it, and they believe people will come.

The nonprofit that owns the FOD movie site is banking on youth sports to ensure its future, according to a report in The Des Moines Register last week to coincide with the MLB game at the complex.

Four youth baseball/softball fields are expected to be completed next spring in the first phase of what is expected to be a seven-field complex. Officials have raised $31M so far toward the project and believe tournaments will be able to drive $3-4M in annual revenue once the venue is complete.

The nonprofit also hopes to host Iowa high school state tournament games at the now-permanent stadium on site.

NJ.com — James’ alma mater — is hiring a youth sports reporter.

NJ.com has been on a youth sports kick of late with viral pieces on costs, elite travel soccer and reclassification; it also recently sent reporters on assignment to America’s Favorite Youth Sports Nation, Norway.

While we’re on the streaming subject … PlayOn’s NFHS Network announced a new 10-year deal with California’s high school sports governing body.

NFHS Network says it streams over 600K live and on-demand events annually for over 8.5K schools nationwide.

The Klutch Sports CEO — best known for being LeBron James’ agent and Adele’s fiancé — was the subject of a puffy feature in Newsweek.

He told the outlet -- which has become more of a content farm than the hard-hitting news magazine it once was -- that youth sports is "something that’s my next big thing in terms of really investing."

Paul offered no specifics, but did talk about financial education for young athletes re: NIL in the piece.

FGS Global — a consulting firm — recently dropped a scouting report on the entire sports industry.

The youth sports section was not terribly in-depth, but still had some interesting notes:

The survey also found that pretty much every prominent youth sports issue — costs, injuries, pressure, abusive coaches, mental health — generates roughly the same level of concern among parents and non-parents.

Quick Take: Another data point that suggests many of the narratives surrounding the industry are likely driven by people who are not actually involved in the industry.

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Good game.