This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
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In the email today:
🗣️ IMG Academy’s #AddMoreAthletes Aims To Spark Dialogue
We have written many times how the House vs. NCAA settlement effectively created another professional sports league overnight. And it has.
But an overwhelming majority of college revenue share funds — and all athletics-related money, for that matter — flow to football and men’s basketball athletes.
That means OIympic and non-revenue sports are increasingly susceptible to a host of bad outcomes, including program eliminations.
IMG Academy wants to push the industry in an entirely different direction. It has launched the #AddMoreAthletes campaign, calling for colleges to add more athletes and sports based on demand and financial sense.
IMG estimates there are 8M youth athletes vying for college spots
But there are only about 500K college roster spots
52% of youth sports families would pay full tuition to play a college sport
57% would be interested in JV or varsity-light competition models with tuition
“I empathize with many of these universities, because this is such a dramatic paradigm shift from what they’ve been used to. They’re trying to figure it out,” IMG Academy Chief Commercial Officer Chris Ciaccio told Buying Sandlot.
“We want to bring light to and drive the conversation, be a catalyst to consider that maybe the structure and model that currently exists, there may be other ways. … We believe more athletes and more opportunities to play a sport is a good thing for everyone.”
IMG wants all athletes to use their hashtag to further that conversation.
IMG Academy CEO Brent Richard, a former college soccer player, co-authored a white paper — A Tipping Point in College Sports is Here — with Drew Weatherford, the co-founder Weatherford Capital and Collegiate Athletic Solutions and a former Florida State QB.
Among the potential concepts presented:
Launching JV or varsity-light second team pilot programs for tuition-paying athletes
The teams would not be NCAA sanctioned, but would have some access to NCAA-level resources and be more intense than club teams
Repealing roster limits
Allowing schools to field teams at multiple NCAA levels — i.e. Notre Dame could have football teams competing at the D1, D2 and D3 levels
Keeping Title IX compliance
As Ciaccio pointed out: When demand (interested athletes) is greater than supply (roster spots), most youth sports organizations just form additional teams that naturally find their suitable competition level. IMG does the same with multiple teams across its sports.
Why not do it at the college level?
“It doesn’t mean it is the solution,” Ciaccio said. “It is really the start of the conversation. We just want to have the conversation, get people talking about it and start for individuals to add to it, ideate, build on it. That’s the role we choose to play.”
I could talk about this issue all day.
1) IMG Academy has skin in the game. A significant reduction in college roster spots would be bad for its business and an increase would be beneficial.
But that is OK!
As a youth sports organization head recently told me: Making a profit often allows for better experiences. There is no shame in IMG working for the common good while also working in its best interest.
2) Richard, Weatherford and IMG are making two very important, often-overlooked points:
Point 1: College athletics are also academic endeavors, as they grow enrollment, enhance experiences and develop individuals both on and off the field.
Point 2: The vast majority of college athletes pay tuition and athletic departments are rarely, if ever, given credit for those revenues.
3) I think the JV/varsity light model could work at the upper levels of the Power Four leagues but I am skeptical it would be worth a school’s time and effort to do it right. The same goes for fielding teams across multiple NCAA classifications.
Also: Most schools no longer play in a conference, they play in a television contract. Travel is a big issue that needs to be addressed.
4) Loosen the rules to allow for more cases like Johns Hopkins, where the lacrosse teams are D1 but everyone else is D3. That protects existing teams/roster spots and likely creates new opportunities as well.
5) I think it is inevitable the federal government/U.S. Olympic Committee/other bodies/leagues begin subsidizing non-revenue college sports.
This could be as obvious as MLB underwriting wood bats for major D1 conferences. It could be as outside-the-box as UFC and WWE funding college wrestling programs, or the Pentagon covering scholarships for elite swimmers.
6) I think the Supreme Court will eventually agree to hear a House challenge and could rule the settlement violates Title IX due to uneven revenue sharing, at which point this all starts over.
🏟️ 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
⚽️ Soccer Coaching Platform Launches
Yes, Coach! launched this week. The US Soccer Federation and The Stand Together Foundation are founding partners. The initiative wants to train 100,000 Coach-Mentors by 2030, “equipping them with the tools to transform lives on and off the field.”
MetLife and Comcast are sponsors, with FIFA World Cup host committees serving as programmatic partners.
Yes, Coach! aims to capitalize on the interest in the upcoming World Cup to grow the game and improve coaching and mentoring, specifically in underserved areas. The platform serves as a resource, training, and storytelling hub for coach-mentors and prospective mentors nationwide.
Trend Watch™: Many sports federations are focusing on this area. The growth of youth sports in general often comes with inconsistent and, at times, detrimental coaching— especially in underserved areas. Governing bodies are aware of this and aiming to address with coaching resources.
🏃♂️ ETS Performance’s Major Expansion
The privately-owned, non-franchise youth sports training chain has opened 11 new locations in six states.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Batavia, Illinois
Glenbard, Illinois
Glenview, Illinois
Waukegan, Illinois
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Novi, Michigan
Clarksville, Tennessee
Cordova, Tennessee
Spokane, Washington
ETS now has over 50 locations nationwide in 14 states. The chain is predominantly in the Midwest, but has a location as far east as New York state.
ETS provides customized programs for athletes ages 8-18 with a focus on agility, speed, strength, injury prevention and mental performance.
The chain launched in 2010 and says it has developed over 2K college athletes and 200 professional athletes in that span. ETS said it has experienced 206% growth over the last three years.
⚾️ Ripken Baseball Staying Put In Pigeon Forge
The Unrivaled Sports-owned property signed a 10-year extension through 2035 with the Tennessee city to keep operating Ripken Experience Pigeon Forge.
The complex has had an estimated economic impact of $320M for the city in nine years.
10K baseball and softball teams
30K games played
Over 750K unique visitors
480K room nights
Amanda Shank, Executive Vice President of Unrivaled Sports, which owns Ripken Baseball, said of the partnership on LinkedIn:
“When I speak with municipalities about youth sports venue development, The Ripken Experience Pigeon Forge is one of the first case studies I share.”
The complex opened in 2016 and expanded to 10 turf fields — all modeled after Major and Minor League ballparks — in 2023.
👟 Adidas Partners With Miami Schools
The sneaker giant has signed a five-year, $13.5M deal with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide equipment and uniforms for 40 high schools in the region.
Adidas also received naming rights to the field at Traz Powell Stadium, a 10K-seat facility that hosts several of the area’s top football teams and other programs.
What makes the deal unique: Adidas will cover the cost of the gear in full in return for collecting most of the profits from a new online store that will sell Adidas-branded apparel specific to each school in the area.
This is an impressively large deal. While there are other apparel partnerships at the high school level with similar terms, I can’t seem to find one with publicly reported numbers this large.
The carve out that Adidas will receive “most of the profits” from online sales may be structurally similar to other deals (including relationships BSN has with teams) where the leagues and clubs only get a small rebate— but calling out the profit angle shows how brands are thinking about the commerce opportunity in team stores. Think Fanatics for everything.
The Greg Olsen-backed Youth Inc. is doing something similar with team shops.
Highly-fragmented space, huge opportunity.
We’ll keep an eye on this one.
📝 Youth Sports News + Notes
The New York Times remains on the youth sports beat with a thoroughly reported piece on youth baseball pitchers throwing at high velocities — How Fast Should Your 12-Year-Old Throw?
Another deal for Rematch: The AI-powered sports highlights platform has renewed its partnership with Americas Futbol Club, a youth soccer organization in Fort Worth, Texas.
Perfect Game and KemperSports agreed to a multi-year deal to bring 35 baseball events a year to Fields at Station 63 in Mansfield, Texas.
Lenz Sports Group strikes partnership deal with Rawlings and Easton. The tournament operator offers an apparel and equipment service for leagues and clubs. They recently struck a deal with New Balance to offer their apparel.
Riverside, California, unanimously approved a $200M sports complex featuring a soccer stadium that will also host youth sports tournaments.
Fastbreak AI struck a deal with Dollar Shave Club. The brand will activate through Fastbreak Connect, the sports platform’s on-site marketing arm. Fastbreak CEO John Stewart wrote on LinkedIn: “In today's attention economy, there is no better opportunity to build brand equity than activating at youth sporting events. Cut through the Digital Noise! Have authentic, real-world engagement!”
📋 Job Alert: Director, Championships (U.S. Amateur) — USGA
The USGA is hiring a director focused on the U.S. Amateur Championships. The position is based at its headquarters in Pinehurst, North Carolina, and the salary range is $120K to $130K.
The Director, Championships will serve as the staff member in charge of the “outside the ropes” aspects of the U.S. Amateur Championship and will support the Senior Director, Championships in the planning and execution of the general administrative elements of the Walker Cup Match.
A full job posting can be found on LinkedIn.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.