A group of youth sports parents filed a class action lawsuit against Team Travel Source on May 15, 2026 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.”
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