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:
⚖️ Stay-To-Play Hits The Courts
A group of youth sports parents filed a class action lawsuit against Team Travel Source last week in Kentucky federal court.
TTS is a Louisville-based tournament housing firm that says it books over 1.4M hotel room nights annually and paid out over $17M in rebates to operators in 2025.
The complaint — obtained by Buying Sandlot — alleges:
TTS unlawfully forces parents to book hotels through its platform as a condition of tournament participation when events did not have the policy
Deceptive, mandatory junk fees added to all bookings
Misrepresentation of stay-to-play policies, e.g. they are needed to measure local economic impact
False advertisements about guaranteeing lowest rates
Refusal to honor lower rates found by parents; induced hotels to raise public rates
Over a dozen Better Business Bureau complaints against TTS
"Tens of thousands, if not millions, of parents each year are harmed by TTS’s deceptive, unfair, and unconscionable practices," the complaint says.
TTS provided this statement to Buying Sandlot:
At Team Travel Source, we work hard to provide exceptional service to everyone we work with on a day-to-day basis. We deny participation in any alleged violation of the law in connection with the allegations in the proposed class action lawsuit or otherwise and we will address these allegations at the appropriate time, and in the appropriate forum, through legal counsel, should the need arise. We have always run our company in an ethical way and truly appreciate everyone in the space.
Karen Dahlberg O’Connell — a partner at Almeida Law Group and one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs — told Buying Sandlot she has been working toward the filing for over a year. Her kids play travel soccer and participated at a tournament where TTS handled housing.
“Between the league fees we play, the ref fees, the cost of permits and everything else — youth sports, especially at a competitive level, has become so incredibly expensive,” she said. “And then to on top of that squeeze parents with additional fees and remove the choice of where they can stay for these tournaments is just an abusive practice from my standpoint.”
The five plaintiffs reside in three states — two in California, two in Kentucky, one in New York — and are represented by a trio of law firms.
Four of the parents have kids participating in competitive cheerleading — a sport that is particularly impacted by stay-to-play practices, Dahlberg O’Connell said.
The lawsuit does not include a figure for total damages, but the complaint says it falls under federal jurisdiction because aggregate claims will exceed $5M.
The lawsuit seeks to certify a nationwide class (dating back five years) as well as subclasses in California (four years and New York (three).
Dahlberg O’Connell said she has heard from over 400 families since filing the lawsuit.
Going deeper on a few angles:
1) Some of the alleged practices fit the bill for potential antitrust implications, but the lawsuit is built on consumer protection grounds.
“Yes, there are clear antitrust issues at play, but what I’m really going at here is the deception,” Dahlberg O’Connell said. “The issues in terms of the collusion between the various industries, the kickbacks that are happening and all of that — none of that would be possible if the parents were not lied to in the first place and told, ‘You must abide by this policy, otherwise your children will not be able to compete.’”
2) Along those lines — the tournament operators who contract with TTS and then benefit financially are not also being sued.
“Team Travel Source could bring these parties in as co-defendants if they so choose to do that,” Dahlberg O’Connell said. “But because I am taking the consumer fraud approach, I am looking at who is making these representations to the consumers and who is collecting their money.”
3) It was no coincidence the lawsuit was filed two days after the Let Kids Play Act was introduced. But while the complaint addresses some of the practices targeted by congressional Democrats, it also shines further light on the bill’s limitations.
TTS is, by all accounts, a founder-owned private company. Which means it would not fit the all-important covered firm criteria outlined in the LKPA — the test on which the entire bill hinges on.
The complaint also details TTS partnerships with both major competition platforms — 3Step Sports, EDP Soccer, Varsity Spirit — and NGBs like USA Volleyball and USA Field Hockey.
But even partners that fit the private equity/covered firm criteria could still find wiggle room if the long-shot bill passes by arguing the violations are on third parties and they bear no direct responsibility.
(I also wonder if NGBs being tied to the LKPA-targeted practices could be a political curveball that Capitol Hill did not necessarily see coming.)
4) Dahlberg O’Connell, who spent over a decade at the FTC, said she thinks “consumer protection is the way to go” when it comes to the youth sports industry.
She said there are three ways to make change — the legislative process, class actions that force change and “the court of public opinion,” which echoed comments made by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“Parents have been up in arms for a very long time,” she said. “The consumer protection angle is something everybody can understand.”
♨️ SPIRE Academy Tabs New Chairman
Drew Green — the founder and CEO of menswear brand Indochino — has joined the Cleveland-area elite sports boarding school’s ownership group and will take over the chair role.
Spire said the move is part of its focus on “expanding its global profile, commercial partnerships and long-term athlete development model."
"Drew's appointment reflects the ambition we have for SPIRE. We are building a national platform at the intersection of elite sport, education, performance, and long-term development. Drew brings the relationships and operating perspective to help us grow while staying focused on the students and families we serve." -- Jonathan Ehrenfeld, SPIRE managing partner
Green is a co-owner of a team in the Canadian Elite Basketball League; one of his sons play hoops at Spire and another played for Spire coach Kevin Boyle at Florida’s Montverde Academy.
Spire also announced current and former professional athletes have now invested over $5M in the school to date; current Bengals backup QB Joe Flacco, former Eagles star Brian Westbrook and Hall of Famer Ray Lewis are among the group.
🏛️ One More Potential LKPA Loophole
Axios published a rundown of the bill yesterday that did not cover much new ground, but had two interesting nuggets:
1) An unnamed Democratic aide said correlation is not necessarily causation when it comes to private equity and rising youth sports costs; the aide also acknowledged banning PE does not solve all of the industry’s challenges.
2) While the bill remains a long-shot to become law, the piece suggests that covered firms "could possibly sidestep it by bringing their youth sports companies public."
There is only one major industry player — GameChanger — that is public or part of a public traded company at the moment after Versant sold SportsEngine to PlayMetrics.
But Hudl is widely expected to go public at some point and you could see a few other big dogs — PlayOn Sports, 3Step Sports, PlayMetrics, Varsity Brands — being in the IPO mix eventually, with the latter three checking the PE box.
🏐 Rematch Teams With LOVB
The youth sports highlights platform that allows users to rewind footage shot through its app has scored another big partnership.
Rematch will team with LOVB on summerLOVB, which is being billed as a “nationwide celebration of volleyball, connection, and everything that makes this sport so special."
The event will be held annually on the first Saturday in June — so June 6 this year — and is designed to promote the sport, calling on clubs to celebrate in their own ways.
🧢 Youth Sports Safety Program To Grow
CoachSafely — an Alabama-based nonprofit led by former UAB football coach Bill Clark — is about to have its program move across state lines again.
Louisiana’s legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Jeff Landry that mandates all volunteer coaches who work with kids 14 and under must undergo online training on recognizing and responding to serious medical emergencies during sports activities.
Landry is expected to sign the bill. Arkansas also previously passed legislation after the program was established in Alabama.
📝 Youth Sports News + Notes
PlayMetrics CEO Michael Doernberg wrote about the recent SportsEngine acquisition on his LinkedIn page yesterday. "The way clubs, leagues and governing bodies interact is foundational – and unique – to youth sports," he wrote in part. "This acquisition gives us the capacity and resources to invest more deeply in the ecosystem – and ultimately deliver more for the organizations and families who choose us."
Women’s flag football was formally recommended to become an NCAA sport yesterday. If all goes as expected there will be a national vote next January that requires all three divisions to approve the move, setting the stage for the first championship events in 2028.
St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale was named the nation’s top high school for athletes by Niche. St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Mass., was No. 2; Miami’s Christopher Columbus High was the top-ranked public school at No. 3.
The Sports Facilities Companies has been inducted into the U.S. Indoor Sports Association Hall of Fame, which honors "organizations that transform communities through sports and recreation."
💼 Youth Sports Transactions Wire
Joseph Jablonski has been named AIM Group’s EVP, Volleyball Properties.
The industry veteran will lead the organization’s volleyball division; he was most recently AAU’s volleyball director and has coached as well as served in leadership.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly, Cheesehead Edition
Something must be in the water in Wisconsin.
A former youth baseball organization treasurer in Madison faces charges of embezzling about $49K; he allegedly made a slew of Amazon purchases with the ill-gotten funds.
And a woman in Cadott was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years probation after being convicted of stealing thousands of dollars from a youth basketball organization as well as Boy Scouts of America.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
🤳 Follow Buying Sandlot on Social
We’re new— help us build up our social media accounts by following along:
Good game.