This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
But before we do, SAVE THE DATE— May 4-5, 2027. The Buying Sandlot Summit returns to Philly.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🥍 BPG Sports Adds To Roster
The Delaware-based sports management firm has acquired another club platform and entered operating agreements with three others.
BPG will rebrand Coastal Lacrosse Academy as Coastal Elite Lacrosse Club after buying it. The management deals are with the Bagel Bombers and Lady Bombers baseball and softball clubs and Delmarva Rush Soccer Club; the latter will be rebranded as Henlopen Recreational Soccer.
BPG said it now has over 1K lacrosse players on its platform; it also has several club soccer platforms under its umbrella to go along with a slew of facilities.
BPG owns and operates the Chase Fieldhouse — which hosts the Delaware Blue Coats, the 76ers’ G-League affiliate — and Kirkwood Sports Complex.
BPG also has a management agreement with DE Turf, a 15-year operations lease on the Sports at the Beach complex and will be involved with an upcoming indoor track complex.
BPG is connected to the Buccini Pollin Group real estate company and BPGS Construction; it also has ties to MLS' Philadelphia Union.
📆 EventConnect Exists To End Tournament Chaos— For Organizers And Families*
Tournament weekends have become mini supply chains: teams register, rosters change, schedules shift, hotels fill, and parents scramble.
Too many events still run things on spreadsheets, portals, and last-minute calls.
What we do (and why it’s different):
Centralize the weekend workflow: registration, rostering, payments, lodging, and real-time reporting.
Organizers can run end-to-end on EventConnect or integrate the systems they already use— no rip-and-replace required.
Either way, the data lands in one place so operators aren’t stitching together reports from multiple tools.
The “moment that changes outcomes”:
HousingConnect embeds hotel booking directly into checkout— capturing rooms at peak intent instead of sending families to a separate portal later.
Results can be up to 30% more room-night reservations and 24% savings on team hotel costs.
Proof of scale:
EventConnect powers 5,000 events and connects 30,000 hotels across 800 destinations.
Learn more about how EventConnect can help power your tournament right here.
*Sponsor
🏟️ Buying Sandlot Summit 2027: Save The Date
We’re running it back.
Save the date: May 4-5, 2027. Same city. Same location. New date… so save it. More details to come.
🎥 A Bullish Take On Youth Sports Streaming
Weatherford Capital’s Drew Weatherford identified the space as one to watch during a recent interview with Front Office Sports.
“I’m a big believer in youth sports streaming. The reason why I’m really bullish on that is I do believe in the same way that professional sports has commercialized and institutionalized, and college is in the midst of it, that is going to happen at the youth level. And you need streaming in order for media rights, for sponsorship to take place. And we’re thankfully at a place where a lot of the camera systems are becoming more affordable, they’re way more capable. The viewing quality is better. So I believe the youth sports streaming business in the U.S. is going to be pretty robust for quite some time.”
Also of note: Weatherford’s take on youth sports travel, the industry’s focus on tournaments and how it relates to his firm’s investment in Curve Sports.
“Look at the way things are set up today in youth sports. By and large they are set up very inefficiently.
“Professional sports are set up as leagues. College sports are set up as leagues, otherwise known as conferences. Recreational, entry-level sports are set up [as leagues]. But youth travel sports is set up as a tournament system, which is fundamentally about the most inefficient way that you can run a network of anything.
“Kids participate at a local level, practice at a local level. But then to really go play competitive baseball you have to travel to tournaments and pay for travel, lodging, tournaments. When ultimately what I believe will happen is if these youth clubs get to scale, they can run their own tournaments — otherwise known as a league.
“I have a fundamental belief that you don’t need to leave the state of Florida to play good baseball. There are plenty of good baseball players in Florida, plenty of good teams. And you shouldn’t leave until you’re one of the best teams in Florida. And then you’ll play in a regional tournament. If you win that regional tournament, great, you travel once outside of the region to go play in a national tournament.
“I don’t think it’s good for families, I don’t think it’s good for the athletes to have to travel 6-8 times a year, spend all that money. And I believe that Curve, by rolling up all these clubs, creating more value for the athletes, having smarter ownership, overseeing how much they practice, how much they play, making decisions like, ‘Hey, maybe we don’t need to go to that tournament.’ I believe there are a lot of efficiencies and a lot of value that can be created at scale for youth baseball clubs, but that’s for all youth sports.”
The former Florida State quarterback also discussed his involvement with IMG Academy’s #AddMoreAthletes campaign, NIL, private equity in college sports and more.
📰 Youth Sports News Clips
PBS NewsHour dedicated a segment of its broadcast to the industry last night that followed the same formula as almost all recent coverage from major media outlets — rehashing broad strokes talking points while interviewing Project Play’s Tom Farrey.
Morning Brew sent out a special Sunday newsletter on the youth sports business. It mainly aggregated other coverage in the space.
CNN published an interactive feature that projects the odds of a high school athlete moving on to play sports in college.
🤔 A Thought-Provoking Op-Ed
A recent Boston Globe piece calls for the NFL to build a “well-regulated” national youth football club system. Author Stephen Lane argues this shift would allow schools to gradually drop the sport and its brain injury risks.
For players and coaches, a club system would create more flexibility. Athletes could choose their club, instead of being stuck with their high school offerings; coaches could build programs with athletes from multiple towns. And athletes and coaches could choose their level: Some clubs might operate essentially as feeder programs for the pros ... while other clubs might play on a more recreational level.
(...)
The sport would be better off: A nationwide, NFL-run club system could offer a wider range of opportunities for players of all ages, genders, and abilities. The league prints money, and could ensure that every athlete has access to a high-quality club program, no matter their economic circumstances. The NFL would also benefit: The league could use the youth system to promote its brand to the next generation of fans.
Lane acknowledges the ongoing pay-to-play debate with club sports, as well as the challenges of governance and regulation. But, he contends, "schools, which are supposed to protect children, are better off without [football]."
This is never going to happen for myriad reasons. And it should not happen for myriad reasons.
But it is a thought-provoking take. And football is the only sport where a system like this could be established and then actually work.
All the European soccer systems people yearn for exist in large part because soccer is the national sport for those countries.
Football is effectively our national sport. And the NFL is the only American institution with the cultural and financial might to make such a system viable.
🪪 New State Law Strengthens Background Checks
Youth sports organizations in Maryland will be able to access some non-criminal child welfare records starting next month, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, will not give orgs access to documented allegations or knowledge of open investigations. But it will make available any abuse or neglect findings that did not result in prosecution — a current blind spot in screening protocols.
A Baltimore-area youth soccer coach was arrested last month and accused of sexual misconduct involving two teenage boys. Charging documents indicate the coach was the subject of several child welfare referrals in other states, but the newspaper said it is not clear if any of those incidents would have met the threshold for the law.
🏛️ Washington’s New Youth Sports Angle
Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA) has asked the Justice and Treasury Departments to probe youth sports betting, according to USA Today.
Kiley is the chairman of a House Education and Workforce subcommittee that has held two hearings on the youth sports industry in the last 10 months.
Kiley told the newspaper he wants DOJ and Treasury to determine if any U.S. laws were broken by offshore sportsbooks taking action on the Little League World Series. And if none were, he is interested in working with the agencies to “explore statutory changes that could bring an end to his reprehensible business."
Quick Take: Kiley — who left the Republican Party in March — faces a tough re-election bid in November due to California’s redistricting. So this could be a short-lived focus on Capitol Hill.
🐘 Facilities Arms Race, Part 1: Roll Tide
A major youth sports complex and a pair of accompanying hotels have been proposed near the University of Alabama campus.
The city of Northport — next to Tuscaloosa — plans to sell a pair of public lots to a developer for the project.
100K-square-foot complex
Extended stay hotel geared toward families, sports tourism
Luxury hotel
Officials said more details on the project should emerge in the coming weeks.
🔒 Facilities Arms Race, Part 2: Sudden Shuttering
The closure of a successful indoor complex in Kansas has sent many scrambling.
Wichita Edge is no more after its owner — a Florida-based real estate company — examined its financial and “determined they were not sustainable and decided to repurpose the space,” according to The Wichita Eagle.
The 104K-square-foot venue had space for 12 basketball courts, 14 volleyball courts and three futsal courts. It also regularly hosted events and tournaments, including July’s USA Badminton’s Junior National Championships, and was a popular club sports venue.
⚽️ European Nation Considers Youth Soccer Quotas
Scotland’s football association wants to mandate minimum playing time for national-team eligible U21 athletes at domestic professional clubs — and use financial incentives/penalties to enforce the system.
The main proposed quota, according to BBC: Clubs would need to give U21 athletes an average of 60 combined minutes in each league game.
Under the league recommendation, clubs failing to reach the target of 60 minutes per game would be deducted 10% of their final-placing prize money, with those funds redistributed among those who achieve it.
The proposals come as figures show a dramatic dip in Scottish-born players being fielded by top-flight clubs and suggestions of a fear by managers and owners to take a chance on academy players.
Statistics also reflect a huge increase in young players being tempted south to club academies in England, prompting concerns they could be lost in a vast youth system rather than breaking into first teams north of the border.
A consulting group said Scottish clubs are leaving an estimated £40m in revenue on the table by not developing young players and selling them to other clubs.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly
New Cumberland, West Virginia: A man allegedly stole at least $11K from a youth baseball and softball organization over at least three years. The ill-gotten funds appear to have gone toward personal payments and purchases.
Spearfish, South Dakota: A woman is accused of embezzling several thousand dollars from a youth football organization. It is the second time in eight years the org has dealt with an official stealing money.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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