This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Welcome to our many new subscribers. You join an elite team of 7,950 youth sports professionals who read 3X per week.
And please welcome our new sponsor, EventConnect.
In the email today:
🥵 Extreme Weather’s Youth Sports Impact
Concerns about weather extremes and youth sports are not new.
A youth softball umpire died of heat stroke earlier this year in South Carolina after parents questioned whether it was safe to keep playing.
And researchers in Japan recently concluded outdoor youth sports could become too dangerous during summer months in the country by 2060.
But The Aspen Institute’s Project Play re-ignited the conversation this week when it examined findings from its 2025 survey — timely publishing as a heat wave hit the East Coast and Canadian wildfires again impact air quality around the nation.
The headline: Parents estimate their kids lose one week of sports per year due to climate reasons.
2.4 days due to extreme temperatures
2 days due to changing winters
1.3 days due to flooding
1.3 days due to wildfires/wildfire smoke
Note: I (James) checked in with Aspen Community Impact Director Jon Solomon and he said the wildfire figures are nationwide and not just driven by parents who live in areas prone to fires. Which makes sense — the air quality has been horrible where I live in New Jersey this week, for example.
The survey had enough data to break down four large states — California, Florida, New York and Texas. It found California kids lose 13 days a year on average and New York actually loses more than Texas and Florida (9-8-7, respectively).
Some other notes that stood out:
Southeastern areas hit by flooding and hurricanes sometimes never recover to provide the same level of youth sports opportunities
Cross-country skiing is threatened in the upper Midwest due to high temperatures and low snowfall
Facilities “are not prepared at all” according to one official quoted in the story
48% of parents are amenable to changing their kids’ seasons for climate reasons; 35% are against it and 17% are undecided
The portion about facilities being ill-prepared mirror what our Great Youth Sports Facility Report (read it here) found. Respondents cited infrastructure concerns, which included temperature control and weather extremes, as the leading challenge in operating their businesses.
🏟️ The Shopify of Youth Sports Tournaments*
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That’s because it’s rare when one platform can cover all of a business’ needs in a single interface.
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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 4,000 tournaments, taps 20,000 hotels across 800 destinations, and backs it all with class-leading customer support.
Want to join them?
*Sponsor
🏒 More Scrutiny For Dallas Stars’ Youth Hockey Empire
A new USA Today investigative report dropped this morning — ‘They control everything’: How the Dallas Stars monopolized Texas youth hockey.
Among the claims made by coaches and parents in the latest report:
The Stars have almost total control of amateur hockey — youth to adult — in North Texas
Team officials have interfered in clubs’ personnel moves, revoked clubs’ autonomy and threatened to withhold ice access
Retaliation against people who speak out is regular, including bans
Clubs, teams and facilities not affiliated with the Stars are often excluded from events and leagues
Participation costs continually rise while quality of services decline — one parent said it cost $30K last year for her high school-aged son to play for a competitive travel team and his school team
The team stopped honoring a lease contract with a city in at least one instance
The USA Hockey regional board — which has significant influence on the sport in Texas and Oklahoma — has been stacked with team officials
The Stars control 10 rinks in the region, according to the report — three by direct ownership and the others through long-term lease deals where cities build the facilities and the Stars pay back the investment over time while keeping profits.
Those lease deals could make the Stars’ youth hockey operation an illegal monopoly, according to an attorney interviewed in the report.
The report is a more in-depth follow-up to the outlet’s reporting in March alleging three now-former team employees enriched themselves through stay-to-play policies for Stars-run tournaments (two of those ex-employees now face USA Hockey ethics probes, according to the report).
The report did find Stars-related pricing is not out of step with what youth hockey costs in other warm-weather states where ice — and ice management — is limited. And rising energy costs have had an impact — albeit one the team seems to pass on to clients.
The last paragraph of the report may be the most fascinating one: The Stars reportedly plan to become involved in youth volleyball.
Complaints will naturally be louder and receive more media coverage when a professional franchise backs a youth sports effort— rising costs and cutthroat practices in youth sports are certainly not unique to hockey in Dallas.
But.
BIG BUTT.
It’s hard to imagine the Stars’ involvement in youth hockey going worse from a PR perspective than it has this year.
Professional sports teams should be held to a higher standard as stewards of the game. Parents and players rightfully expect a better experience playing at a Stars-backed rink or in their program. And there is certainly enough smoke to this fire, indicating that the Stars employed some predatory practices and torpedoed any goodwill their youth efforts aimed to engender.
📊 Poll
Whether you’re a facility owner, event operator, club admin, or school AD, surely you have some thoughts here. Make a selection to see responses.
Which one of the following product or service categories has the most room for improvement in youth sports?
- 🧢 Custom team uniforms and apparel
- 🏋️ Training or fitness equipment (machines, nets, balls, tech)
- 📅 Tournament and event-management software
- 💳 Registration and payment-processing tools
- 📈 Performance-tracking and analytics platforms
- 🛠️ Facility build-out or maintenance (turf, flooring, lighting)
- 🏨 Team travel and lodging coordination
- 🎥 Video streaming or content-creation tools
- 📣 Marketing and branding services
- ✍️ Other
⚾️ ESPN, Little League International Ramp Up For Williamsport
The worldwide leader dropped a trailer for its upcoming documentary film, Big Dreams: Little League World Series 2024.
The film debuts Aug. 12 at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Cookie Jar & A Dream Studios produced the doc along with Imagine Documentaries and MLB Studios.
LLI has also begun airing new PSAs on ESPN platforms for its disaster relief program and Beyond the Diamond initiative for girls playing softball.
🧱 NFL Teams Involved In Youth Sports Projects
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders are behind a combined $30M for a pair of proposed facilities.
The Commanders — owned by Unrivaled Sports co-founder Joshua Harris — have pledged $20M toward a city-owned youth sports complex.
It is one of several sweeteners the team is offering in order to gain City Council approval for a new stadium on the old RFK Stadium site. The facility would be part of a multi-use district surrounding the venue.
The Steelers’ plans to build a $10M complex in the city’s Hazelwood neighborhood were recently approved by the Pittsburgh Planning Commission.
It will sit along the Monongahela River and be funded by a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Plans call for a multi-purpose field with bleachers seating 3K people. A company will be contracted to operate the facility.
💸 Our Q3 Sponsorship Opportunities Are Filling Fast
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Our Q3 sponsorships are filling fast— but there are still limited opportunities to sponsor our flagship newsletter, along with co-branded report, podcast, and upcoming event opportunities.
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🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.