Another major brand has entered the youth sports space.
Uber has been named US Sports Camps’ official rideshare partner for the upcoming summer season — the tech platform’s first youth sports activation across North America.
USSC is the nation’s largest sports camp network and has been licensed to run Nike Sports Camps for over 30 years.
Uber Teen, Uber Eats offers available to all families with registered USSC campers
Initiative runs May through August
Branding, on-site activations at over 20 camps in U.S., Canada
Uber Teen allows kids ages 13-17 to request rides and order food with parental supervision and safety features like trip tracking and drivers who have passed a multi-step screening process.
The partnership will include USSC camps in major metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
We mentioned coordinated rideshare services with background checks as a potential growth area in our The Sports Parent Economy report, which is available to premium community members.
Transportation has since begun to be cited as a participation barrier more frequently.
Project Play’s recent report on youth soccer in New York City and northern New Jersey dedicated a significant amount of time to the issue.
The situation in that region is also exacerbated by field inventory, but the point remains. So it’s not surprising that the Uber/USSC partnership will have a heavy presence in major metros.
The transportation angle is also another plus for the argument NFHS recently made about school sports — your practices are (for the most part) right after classes end and you get to take what my favorite high school history teacher affectionately called “the big yellow taxi” everywhere else.
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