This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
This is your last opportunity to register to attend the John Wall Street Youth Sports Summit in NY next week (October 8).
The half-day event will feature panels with LeagueApps CEO Brian Litvack, TeamSnap CEO Peter Frintzilas, Youth Athletes Unlimited CEO Adam Geisler, 3Step Sports Founder David Geaslen, and more. We’re partnered with JWS on the event, and look forward to seeing everyone there.
Buying Sandlot Premium Members: I have a couple of gratis spots available— shoot me a DM in our private Slack group if you’re interested in attending.
In the email today:
⚾️ Unrivaled Sports Launches Ripken Nationals
The youth baseball hot stove league is smoking.
Unrivaled Sports will launch the Ripken Nationals next year. The 12U event at Cooperstown All-Star Village is being billed as Ripken Baseball’s first-ever true national championship, running June 30 to July 4.
The event will also undoubtedly be viewed as Unrivaled bidding to challenge the Little League World Series’ standing as the industry’s marquee event after establishing a tournament network partnership with USSSA.
16-team field— teams will compete at no charge
Unrivaled complexes will host qualifier events starting in March
CBS Sports Network will broadcast championship games and select qualifying events
GameChanger — owned by Unrivaled investor Dick’s Sporting Goods — will stream select games
GameChanger will also power scores, stats and highlights
Registration for qualifying events opens Oct. 23
An important note: This is a new event separate from the Cal Ripken events under Babe Ruth League’s banner— the Hall of Famer has a relationship with the organization independent of Ripken Baseball and Unrivaled.
Also: America’s 250th anniversary could have a heavy youth sports presence if the White House’s “Patriot Games” national high school sports competition happens as planned.
That "important note” is probably not obvious to many observers— Ripken The League (RTL) vs. Ripken Baseball The For-Profit Entity Owned By Unrivaled Sports (RBTFPEOBUS, for short).
Ergo, it’s not a surprise that RTL’s “Babe Ruth League 2025 Cal Ripken Major 12/70 World Series” (BRL2025CRM1270WS, for simplicity) - which was streamed by NBC SportsEngine and aired on CNBC - lacked not only a marketable name or useful acronym, but also a quality broadcast. Going up against the Little League World Series in August, RTL’s BRL2025CRM1270WS looked and felt downright anti-climactic compared to the full send broadcast ESPN rolled out in Williamsport.
But given the success of the LLWS and NFL Flag Championships on TV, it was only a matter of time until other premium youth brands found ways to air championship events.
“So if I’m a linear network head or major streaming company exec, I’m thinking about how to air:
more youth-oriented national championships
prime-time Texas high school football
turning IMG Academy into this generation’s Notre Dame
prying the Ripken Baseball Championship [RTL] off of "Region Sports Network”
As we’ve mentioned before, for the vast majority (read: 99.9%) of youth sporting events, the viewer is a parent, family member, or friend, and there are effectively no “broadcast rights” considerations. Sponsorship opportunities for those will require the scale of something like an NFHS Network that combines thousands of events.
But there are limited-yet-substantial one-off events that can drive meaningful ratings and further interest in a given sport, as seen here.”
I still feel that the vast majority of youth sporting events and upstart sports leagues generally won’t drive meaningful ratings. But there are a handful of properties and sports that can.
Unrivaled is one of them. They are well-positioned to turn Ripken’s National Championship and qualifying events into a compelling TV product, with a half-decent acronym: RNCC 2026.
🏟️ The Shopify of Youth Sports Tournaments*
There are only a handful of companies that deserve the moniker: The Shopify of [X].
That’s because it’s rare when one platform can cover all of a business’ needs in a single interface.
EventConnect is the Shopify of sports tournaments.
It’s the leading no-cost platform built specifically for organizers who juggle schedules and hotel blocks in the same breath.
registration
rostering
payments
real-time performance reports
lodging and more
Their proprietary HousingConnect tech bolts room blocking and booking straight onto checkout, delivering the best online group rates while parents still have their credit cards out.
This means up to:
30% more room night reservations
24% savings on team hotel costs
EventConnect already powers 9,000 events, taps 30,000 hotels across 800 destinations, and backs it all with class-leading customer support.
Want to join them?
*Sponsor
📺 The Booming Value of High School Media Rights
Dovetailing quite well with the previous section on Ripken is John Wall Street’s piece on Monday about elite high school sports becoming the next lucrative media category.
Excerpt machine:
Elite high school sports “is going to be one of the more valuable media rights [categories] and nationally monetized [broadcast] products in the next 10-20 years,” Michael Schreiber (founder and executive chairman, Playfly Sports) said.
A Playfly commissioned study estimated that annual TV and streaming media rights fees could range from $70 million to $135 million, with multimedia sponsorship revenues projected to be an additional $64 million and $84 million.
Some reasons for the explosion, per Schreiber:
Consolidation of talent into premium academies (ie more talent, better competition, more watchable)
NIL opportunities pushing players to said academies, and many of the players coming with built-in fan bases
International players coming to the US to complete high school
Quick Take: There is a clear distinction between these elite schools and everyone else, but at what point do regular high schools want a commensurate piece of this expanding pie, or do the players start asking about their cut? Sound familiar?
🏀 Shoot 360 Partners With US Sports Camps
Nike Basketball Camps will be going high-tech after the hoops performance tech franchise struck a deal with USSC, the swoosh’s longtime licensed camps operator.
There will be seven Nike Basketball Camps with Shoot 360 held this year at Shoot 360 locations starting in October. Additional expansion is planned for 2026.
The camps will "combine expert coaching with cutting-edge technology, including AI-driven analytics, interactive drills and live gameplay to provide a next-level training experience for athletes of all ages and skill levels.”
“We received feedback from families saying they want more — additional training opportunities and more feedback,” USSC VP of Basketball Seth Roberts told Buying Sandlot. “Especially the kids that are really engaged and want to be able to take their game to the next level. … It’s an additive to the traditional training and skill development that is out there.”
The 2025 camp locations:
Naperville, Illinois
Des Moines, Iowa
Fenton, Missouri (St. Louis)
Las Vegas, Nevada
Beaverton, Oregon
Leander, Texas (Austin)
Vancouver, Washington
Shoot 360 pairs AI-powered analytics with gamified training; its offerings are used by almost every NBA team. Athletes get real-time feedback on shooting, passing and dribbling.
There are currently around 50 established or planned locations nationwide, plus a handful in Canada and overseas. But the company is aiming to have 600 locations worldwide by 2030.
💰 Apollo Stands Up Sports Investment Business
The asset management giant has launched Apollo Sports Capital, which "will invest predominantly in credit and hybrid opportunities in the sports landscape, spanning franchises, leagues, venues, media, events and more."
Bloomberg previously reported the strategy included a $5B budget.
There has been no explicit mention of youth sports by Apollo or in media reporting, but it seems inevitable given the size of the operation.
🧢 Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation’s New Initiative
The charitable wing’s Sports Matter Program announced a multi-year partnership supporting organizations in nine U.S. markets.
The organizations will receive tiered grants as part of the initiative — $100K this year, $50K next year and $25K in 2027.
Atlanta: L.E.A.D. Center for Youth
Boston: Shooting Touch
Chicago: Beat the Streets Chicago
Durham: Bridge II Sports
Houston: Houston reVision
Los Angeles: Sloane Stephens Foundation
Miami: Boys & Girls Club of Miami-Dade
New York: Play Rugby
Pittsburgh: Steel City Squash
The foundation has also renewed partnerships with DonorsChoose Every Kid Sports, Good Sport and LISC.
🏈 No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
A Pittsburgh-area high school football game caused controversy last week before it started.
Pine-Richland, the top-ranked team in Pennsylvania’s 5A classification, posted a 71-0 victory over Fox Chapel last season.
The conference counterparts agreed to a pre-arranged “mercy” setup prior to kickoff this year — a normal 12-minute first quarter and then three eight-minute quarters with a running clock in the second half.
Fox Chapel parents were not happy.
"Shortening this game is equivalent to stealing 12 minutes of football away from these kids," one parent told KDKA-TV. Another claimed the move made the team look “weak” and “scared.”
The plan was later changed to normal timing rules in the first half after Fox Chapel’s players appealed to their coach. Pine-Richland led 42-3 at halftime — triggering a running clock regardless — and won, 63-3.
I understand why the players would push back against shortening the game.
They are kids.
But the parents are adults and should know better.
The only thing the coaches and administrators were “stealing” by shortening the game was the risk of significant injuries — and future forfeits — due to Fox Chapel being overmatched.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.