🥎 Youth Baseball 'Super Club' Platform Expands

This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.

We are officially sold out for the Buying Sandlot Summit. Sold out like a stadium is sold out when its attendance is way over the official max capacity number because it’s filled it with standing room only and VIP nooks and crannies.

More speaker announcements included today, too. And we’ve recently added Nike and Goldman Sachs to the list of attending companies.

If you are unable to join them, we will offer videos of all panels and sessions to premium members following the event, and will have lots of interviews and clips from the TeamSnap ONE Livestream Stage on our YouTube channel during and after the event.

Let’s get to it.

The club baseball platform has partnered with Pitch 2 Pitch, a Minnesota-based developmental organization.

The addition follows the blueprint laid out by Curve CEO Sandy Ogg in an interview with Buying Sandlot back in February — P2P will continue to operate under its existing brand and leadership, but will gain access to Curve’s developmental systems, infrastructure and tech.

It also sheds further light on Ogg’s vision to establish a network of about 30 “super clubs” nationwide.

P2P will expand its footprint significantly in the next 12-18 months, founder and CEO CJ Woodrow told Buying Sandlot — moving into other parts of Minnesota as well as North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Curve and P2P also plan to build a 180-acre campus in Victoria that will have 20 youth baseball and softball fields, five full-sized baseball fields and a 150K-square-foot indoor facility. The fields will be turf; Woodrow said the complex will make quality competition more accessible and affordable for the region.

"The idea is to create the supply chain and the network across the area so that people are driving 3-4 hours, not 10," he said. "It's going to be the epicenter of our region for everyone to come to and have accessibility options."

Woodrow said USA Softball has already signed on to host events 10 weeks a year; a major soccer club may also partner with the facility.

Curve launched earlier this year, unifying Diamond Allegiance — a club partnership network — and the Curve Test Centers data and metrics assessment platform. The venture is backed by Weatherford Capital.

Ogg, a former Blackstone operating partner, plans to acquire about 100 clubs in total while leaving local culture and leadership untouched, shifting focus back to local competition. Academics are also part of the long-term vision, he said.

Ogg will be speaking on Tuesday at the summit.

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Unrivaled Sports announced new partnerships with Dick’s Sporting Goods and Under Armour — largely focused on original content and the youth sports platform’s baseball programming.

Dick’s made a strategic investment in Unrivaled last year and is on its board.

A quick rundown:

The companies will also collaborate on activations, Unrivaled said.

Hudl’s Matt Mueller announced he is now the streaming and tech platform’s President after previously serving as COO.

Courtney Rodgers is now Hudl's COO; Greg Nelson and Sam Lloyd were also promoted to presidents of youth, club and high school and college and professional, respectively.

The moves come as Hudl could reportedly go public in the coming months, according to The Information. The company is said to have tabbed JP Morgan Chase to lead its IPO.

(Matt will be a speaker on our kickoff panel on Tuesday in Philly.)

Unrivaled Sports co-founder David Blitzer’s private investment firm has acquired Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, which bills itself as the nation’s largest multi-day junior circuit.

Bolt executive Josh Press was named HJGT’s new CEO; founder and executive director Mario Conte will exit after a transition period.

Press will also helm Bolt’s golf vertical, which includes investments in Golf Source Network, KemperSports and L.A.B Golf.

Press said Bolt will "aim to elevate HJGT tournaments by leveraging our resources across sports operations, brand building, innovation, and technology to connect more youth to the game of golf."

Quick Take: It seems like there is news about an initiative to expand youth golf access almost every day — here's one from Bank of America — and Bolt indicated it plans to follow suit in its announcement. But as we’ve written in the past: There is room for growth when it comes to elite junior competition. It will be interesting to see what Bolt does to grow HJGT on that front.

A developer wants to turn a vacant Philadelphia-area mall into a youth sports complex that also features a Margaritaville water park.

Adler & Co. CEO Dean Adler told Philadelphia Business Journal he wants to convert the former Franklin Mills Mall into a mixed-use development that also features a hotel, affordable housing and restaurants.

He compared the project to Unrivaled Sports’ Ripken Experience complex in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Adler is also in the process of turning the still-active Plymouth Meeting Mall into a mixed-use development that would including housing, retail and youth sports facilities.

The lights never turn off on Kansas City’s youth sports complex empire.

City Council has given the city manager 90 days to line up financing and a location for a new facility that would have ice and also be able to host basketball, volleyball and other sports.

If you’ve lost count: This proposed venue would, by our math, be the 12th (!) major youth sports venue of note in the metropolitan area on both the Kansas and Missouri sides.

The project is being pitched as a public-private partnership.

Kansas City Public Schools and Hickman Mills School District students would get priority access to help solve facility availability issues. But the councilwoman behind the push is also talking about building it near hotels and parking garages to generate sports tourism revenue.

The youth baseball and softball development giant will unify its commerce and ticketing operations across tournaments by partnering with the live entertainment platform.

PG said it sells $1.6M tickets each year across close to 10K events in over 40 states; it also has a significant social media footprint and continues to expand globally.

The youth sports operations solutions firm has partnered with Sports Profile Network (SPiN), a new platform aiming to address youth sports’ tech fragmentation issue.

SPiN allows users to access tools in one place like Onsides and Orgo, but also serves as a social network for athletes and families.

FOTF CEO Tyler Kreitz and SPiN CEO Michael Hutner will both join us in Philly next week.

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Good game.