This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🧱 Facilities Arms Race: Big Projects In Southwest
A pair of planned youth sports complexes lean on two very American industries — casinos and oil.
The former comes in Henderson, Nevada. City officials are working to turn the former Fiesta Henderson site into a $108M youth sports complex.
The defunct casino (save its parking garage) was demolished in 2022. The city now plans to sell the 35-acre lot to Agora Realty & Management for $30M; the firm will then handle the project.
150K-square-foot fieldhouse
10 basketball courts, 20 volleyball courts
Outdoor field
Dining, retail
On-site hotel
Office space
Garage improvements
The proposal comes amid a youth sports facilities boom on the other side of the state in Reno with a focus on hockey and soccer venues.
Shifting to Baytown, Texas: The city is moving forward with a youth sports-focused project backed by one the world’s most lucrative companies.
Ground is scheduled to break on the ExxonMobil Baytown Events Center next year.
100K+ square feet
8-12 basketball courts; converts to 16 volletball courts/24 pickleball courts
Potential championship arena seating 3-5K
Plans to revitalize library on project site
ExxonMobil previously agreed to commit $75M toward an events center for the Houston suburb — the gas and oil giant has a massive refinery in the city.
The Baytown facility is not a straight sponsorship move by ExxonMobil, as the funds are a result of a deal where the city agreed not to annex any of EM’s property.
But I do wonder if we could see youth sports facilities (and non-youth sports facilities, like firehouses, libraries, schools, etc.) become part of data center builds or other major infrastructure projects to support the communities that are adding the jobs and, presumably, families.
Also: When do we have the first Buying Sandlot section about a former data center becoming an indoor complex? 2028?
📆 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.
🏢 More Youth Sports Facilities News
Portage, Michigan: The city still wants in the game after losing its bid for the new indoor complex in Kalamazoo. Officials recently received a consulting firm pitch focused on a $20-30M baseball/softball complex or a $40M ice venue. But financing remains undetermined.
Port Huron, Michigan: Black Bear Sports Group recently announced its acquisition of Glacier Pointe Ice Complex. The company said all programming will continue as scheduled for the 2026-27 season.
South Middleton Township, Pennsylvania: A youth soccer club plans to build a $10.5M complex. Keystone FC has bought over 63 acres with plans for 10 fields -- seven grass, three turf -- a stadium setup and a building for club operations.
🏈 New Girls Flag Football Showcase Kicks Off
PlayOn Sports-owned MaxPreps and iFlag held the inaugural MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown over the weekend in California.
The two-day high school girls flag event — won by top-ranked JSerra Catholic (Calif.) — had 18 teams representing Alabama, California and Montana and over 350 athletes.
Teams were selected based on "national rankings, season performance and competitive resumes," according to MaxPreps. iFlag handled tournaments operations and MaxPreps and NFHS Network carried free streams of games.
The event was announced in April as aiming to "establish the first rankings-backed, media-scaled championship stage for high school flag football,” with a follow-up event on the East Coast next year — the Spring East Coast Flag Football Showdown, which is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 26-27 in Tampa. MaxPreps previously said it planned to beef up its girls flag content and coverage.
ALSO: Sportico recently published a deep look at the NFL’s embrace of flag. An interesting nugget — the league says it has 100K registered flag players in the United Kingdom.
🎥 Behind The Scenes With Perfect Game
Last month, we were granted unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Perfect Game’s broadcast of its Dick’s All-American Classic at Citizens Bank Park.
PG is elite when it comes to content distribution— there may be none better in youth sports. From a pro-style live stream broadcast to social distribution, PG incurs significant cost to produce and distribute content in a way that pro leagues would be jealous of. Worth watching for any operator or rights holder. Watch it right here.
📝 Youth Sports News + Notes
The Atlanta Federal Reserve recently held a conference discussing how youth sports can boost economic mobility — the latest sign policymakers and politicians are taking an interest in the industry. The summit focused on eliminating participation barriers and community solutions.
Central Indiana is all-in on youth sports. The Indianapolis Star published a thorough report looking at the region’s facilities boom and examining its impacts.
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting look at upstart football helmet maker Light Helmets. The company has made waves by aggressively marketing its products — something that traditionally does not happen in that industry. Youth football athletes and families have been part of that push.
⚽️ New Idea To Stop Parents From Behaving Badly
Romania’s governing body for soccer has introduced the “black” card to combat abusive behavior by parents at youth games.
The Romanian Football Federation said referees will be able to issue the card and immediately abandon a game if they "observe inappropriate behavior from spectators or parents," according to The Athletic. The FRF is the first national federation to institute this policy, according to the report.
Refs cannot go straight to a black card; they must first try to de-escalate the situation by asking coaches to speak with parents while temporarily stopping play — a brief pause at first, then a 10-minute break where the pitch is cleared.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.