Few players in the industry have been as active — or are as intriguing — as Capacity Sports Group.
The company launched in January when Bullpen Tournaments and Prep Baseball finalized a merger.
That deal alone created a formidable portfolio. BT operates diamond sports at Grand Park Sports Campus and its parent is involved in the Indiana super complex’s overall management while PB had over 1.6K events last year and utilizes LakePoint Sports in Georgia as its flagship campus.
But CSG has made a slew of acquisitions since — and it is not done.
“We have an appetite to be in anything and everything that makes sense, is profitable and can be scaled nationwide,” CEO Ken Kocher told Buying Sandlot.
CSG recent bought a pair of facilities outside of Philadelphia — United Sports and YSC Sports — and operates about 10 facilities year-round.
But Kocher said complex acquisition is not the main goal— CSG sees itself as a partner with venues, whether it be management or as an operator.
“We’ll be opportunistic on that, but our mission is to go and partner with complexes and be able to bring content — tournaments, events, leagues — to those complexes to fill them,” he said. “The ultimate winners behind it all will be the cities, the counties, the developer that’s trying to develop property around it by bringing in a lot of people.”
CSC’s other acquisitions fit that content strategy — baseball/softball tournament operator Play9 Sports, soccer platform Sideline Sports Solutions (S3), Flag Football Life and West Chester Flag Football.
CSG expects to run over 300 tournaments across over at least 150 fields nationwide by the end of this year, drawing 20M in attendance to its events.
Kocher said baseball/softball, flag, lacrosse and soccer are CSG’s main sports currently; the Philly area facilities bring field hockey into the fold and he envisions volleyball will become a focus once it begins to add more indoor venues to its portfolio.
CSG’s current presences leans heavily toward the Midwest and Northeast, but its ambitions are not confined to that footprint.
“We feel like our specialty is players, tournaments, events and running complexes,” he said. “We’re excited about where we’re going.”
Two other quick things:
1) CSG also owns Top Tier, a club baseball program with over 250 teams across 10 states. But CSG is not taking the super club approach like Curve Sports or True Lacrosse. Kocher did not rule out acquiring more clubs, but said it is not a big growth vehicle and he envisions CSG partnering with club roll-ups instead.
2) There is going to be a demand for serious flag recruiting coverage very soon as more D1 schools launch women’s teams. Don’t be surprised if CSG emerges as a real player in the space alongside with the usual suspects like On3 and Rivals.
Prep Baseball is a major brand — it has offers robust media coverage with boots on the ground in almost every state and Canada and it bills itself as the largest scouting infrastructure in amateur baseball. Kocher said CSG is working to upgrade its software to be able to replicate the blueprint in other sports. But it also realizes authenticity will be critical.
“The trick is having experts in those sports that provide the proper coverage,” he said.
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