This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Before we get to it, a classic youth sports night on the home front here: My son’s 9-10 rec team (which I head coach) won 12-11 on a walk-off in the 5th inning … after blowing an 11-3 lead in the top of the inning last night. My son scored the winning run after getting hit in the foot by a pitch, stealing second, stealing third, and then coming in to score on a swinging bunt.
Meanwhile, my younger son’s coach-pitch team (which I usually assistant coach) won “a lot” to “a little”. However, I’m told the head coach and pitcher is listed as day-to-day after taking a line drive right in the grapefruits.
This is why we do what we do.
In the email today:
🏒 If You Build It, They Will Skate
Utah is, by all objective measures, a winter sports hub. Salt Lake City will host the Winter Olympics for the second time in 2034 for a reason, after all. But no one would confuse the state for a hockey hotbed.
That may change, though.
SLC landed an NHL franchise last year when the Arizona Coyotes relocated. And now Smith Entertainment Group, operated by Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith, is pledging to donate up to $10 million toward new rinks across the state. The team’s new training facility will also be open for public use when it opens later this year.
This situation is worth noting for three big reasons:
Reason 1: The sheer scope of SEG’s pledge — it will donate up to $500,000 each for the construction of up to 20 new rinks.
Reason 2: Utah is the fastest-growing state in the nation.
Reason 3: Smith — the co-founder of experience management company Qualtrics with a reported net worth of $2.6 billion — also owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz and co-owns MLS’ Real Salt Lake with … Unrivaled Sports’ David Blitzer.
There is only one Utahn — Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Lewis — playing in the league right now.
The noted hockey meccas of Florida and Texas have a combined 17 players— though those states have also had NHL teams for 30+ years.
But if investors take SEG up on the offer, it could super-charge hockey’s growth in Utah. And be a long-term coup for the NHL as well.
🏀 The Fyre Festival of AAU Hoops
Several Florida youth basketball teams allege they were scammed out of $750 by a man running a fake AAU tournament.
You can read and watch the full story from WFTV-9 in Orlando here (the network curiously made a YouTube version of its on-air report private after posting it).
Some of the details:
The Seminole Slam AAU program signed up for the event at Oak Ridge High in Orlando using Exposure Events, a third-party scheduling service.
The teams arrived to the school to find no other teams or officials present. The school said no one ever booked its facilities for a tournament.
Most of the conversations between the AAU program and Chris Lawson, the supposed tournament organizer, were via text. Lawson insisted registration money be sent through various third-party payment apps.
Lawson has been blocked by Exposure Events and efforts to contact him — by AAU officials, parents, the service and reporters — have failed.
Police reports have been filed in Orange and Seminole Counties in Florida and North Carolina’s Robeson County, where Lawson supposedly resides.
Oh, and when you thought this story could not get any more wild: Fake game box scores and stats were sent to Seminole Slam after they realized it was a fraud!
🏢 Youth Sports Facilities News
Work is underway on the Holiday Inn Express at Bluhawk -- a 99-room hotel that will be the first lodging spot servicing a massive youth sports complex in a Kansas City suburb.
The 420,000-square-foot, $125 million AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk opened last year in Overland Park, Kansas.
3 hotels with a combined 350 rooms have been approved for the site, with the Holiday Inn Express the first to go up.
The other hotels should open in the spring of 2026— they will accommodate youth sports families, and make both developer Price Brothers Management Company and Overland Park a lot of money.
Price Brothers owes the city $7.25 million annually in payments in lieu of taxes over the next decade.
Overland Park will benefit given its 18.1% lodging tax is one of the nation's highest.
There are some other uses for the hotels as well… they sit 30 minutes away from the Arrowhead Stadium and will be operational when the stadium hosts 6 World Cup games in 2026.
Hotels are big winners in the Youth Sports Facility Arms Race™— last month we told you how Kalamazoo was making nearby hotels pay for a new $40 million indoor facility through a 4% assessment (Kalamazoo officials were very particular that we didn’t refer to it as a tax…) on hotel rooms in the area, since they stand to benefit.
More:
Omaha, Nebraska: Work has begun on the city-owned Levi Carter Park Activity and Sports Complex with a targeted open date in late 2026. The facility will be close to 115,000-square-feet and is backed by $45 million in federal and state funds.
👨💻 More Youth Sports Links
🎽 Spectrum Sponsoring 10 Youth Leagues in New York with TeamSnap
Spectrum announced on April 1 it will sponsor 10 local youth sports leagues through its new, three-year agreement with TeamSnap, the #1 youth sports management platform with 25 million users.
The partnership between TeamSnap and Spectrum began in the fall of 2023 and now supports 240 leagues annually across more than 30 markets within Spectrum’s 41-state footprint. Leveraging TeamSnap’s unique ability to impact youth sport communities.
MY TAKE: I think we’re just getting started with at-scale sponsorships.
I mentioned this notion in a Tweet last year:
Looking at #4 there— historically, youth sports sponsorship has been highly fragmented, often coming by way of asking head coaches to sponsor their team’s jerseys.
I had one local parent sponsor them with the completely trivial name of an LLC holding company for a rental property he owned.
But a big benefit to consolidation in the space and the emergence of centralized platforms, like TeamSnap, is the ability to reach people (and customers) at scale, as Spectrum is doing here.
👨🏻 Parents Behaving Badly
A Nebraska man pleaded no contest to punching a referee during an 8th grade boys basketball game last November.
What happened: The official stopped a game early during the Factory Basketball tournament in Papillon, an Omaha suburb, due to unsportsmanlike conduct. Fans of one of the teams rushed the official, and one of them — 40-year-old Joshua Littrell — assaulted the ref.
Littrell will be sentenced in June. He faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine— a judge ordered an investigation into the incident.
The tournament may be forced to hire additional security — including armed guards — in order to get officials to referee games moving forward, a supervisor said.
📋 Job Alert: Head of Growth, Youth Inc.
Youth Inc., a Greg Olsen-backed youth sports digital media network and commerce marketplace, is seeking a Head of Growth for its e-commerce wing.
From CEO Ryan Blaise’s LinkedIn post: This is a true builder's role for someone who will help shape our growth strategy from the ground up. You'll own the full funnel across paid media, email, and affiliate marketing while working directly with our Commerce GM. Significant e-commerce experience at a brand, marketplace, online retailer, or digital marketing-focused agency is a must.
The full LinkedIn job posting is here.
👥 Welcome To New Members
Welcome to new members of the Buying Sandlot community:
Brock Mikosky: Ink Barrel Printing
Coby Moscowitz: NexGen Archery Foundation
Ramsey Sullivan: Abled Athletes
Fred Mittel
Jonathan
Jonathan Stilley: Balcones Youth Sports
Lu
Haim Ariav: Glossy Finish
Billy Bixon: South City Sporting Goods
Brian Kelly: Geneva Baseball Association
Angel Carroll
Greg Lane
Lance Hawley: Mighty Titans Baseball
Adam Crow
Payton Harris: Ace Pitching & Performance
Dusty Gwinn: Wild Dog Management
Brian Pilarski
Derek Ricketts: Line Drive Athletics
Keely Wachs: Full Potential Football
Dalwin Garci: Blue Anchor Properties
Nicholas Guerra
Jacob Magpiong: Diamond Heist Eyewear
Ian Jones: Baseballinfo LLC
Jake Mack
Along with members from Bolaños Business Investments, SwimSRQ, Miami Springs Little League, DS Green Investments LLC, IBVL, Colorado WILD Softball, and Harrison Funding Solutions LLC.
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Good game.