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:
🤳 Onsides Exits Beta, Announces Partnerships
The logistics app for youth sports parents is now live on iOS and Android and currently connects to seven major platforms, founder and CEO Dave Yoo told Buying Sandlot.
Onsides offers:
Schedules consolidated into a single view, sync in real time
RSVPs and other updates that flow back to main platform
More platform connections expected to come
Free to use; no ads or subscriptions
Onsides has also begun to layer in non-scheduling functions, starting with partnerships with Athletes Untapped and EventPipe.
AU has over 3K vetted private coaches on its platform. Parents will be able to identify training opportunities that mesh to their schedules.
EventPipe will connect hotel bookings to family schedules, simplifying logistics.
Yoo said Onsides plans to add camps and clinic listings and booking in the future.
"We call it the all-in-one youth sports app for parents,” he said. “This sort of model has a ton of legs to provide tremendous value to not only the consumer, but the parties who specialize in their own verticals. Our thinking is there are tons of fragments out there. Let’s not built another fragment and fight that battle. Let’s just unify it all and present the most relevant, frictionless and rewarding experience for parents.”
Scheduling was the obvious on-ramp for aggregating the user experience, but it’s just the tip of the spear. Fragmentation in the industry goes well beyond the registration platforms (though that’s a big piece). Onsides aims to be the parent everything app (my words) for the industry— a unifying experience that sits atop the main platforms. Done right, a consumer-centric app like this one can achieve extraordinary scale. The challenge is integration and interoperability with existing platforms, something that Onsides’ parent-focused-app peer Orgo is aiming to solve (next section in this email).
[Full disclosure: I’m an advisor to Onsides.]
📆 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
🟠 Orgo Launches API Infrastructure
Another youth sports scheduling startup is taking a decidedly different route.
Orgo has announced Orgo Sync, an API that expands the uses for the tech powering its own app for parents. It serves 3 parties:
1) Platforms: They get complete control over who accesses data, and usage fees from API users.
2) Builders and Developers: They get single integration to adopting platforms on a pay-per-usage basis, with real-time data and permissioned access.
3) Operators: A single source of truth for scheduling across multiple platforms.
“SportsTech truly is in a Renaissance era and I want everyone to win - the operators, the platforms, and the builders," Orgo co-founder and CEO Zoya Lehrer told Buying Sandlot. "Orgo Sync can provide the intermediary plumbing to help standardize scheduling data and let the ecosystem continue to flourish."
Interestingly, Orgo, which to-date has focused primarily on being the logistics calendar for youth sports parents, is zigging where Onsides is zagging.
We’ve written often about the unifying API layer needed for the industry — ie the Plaid for youth sports which platforms and consumer apps can plug into — and that seems to be exactly what Orgo is aiming to build here. It won’t be easy, as platform buy-in is essential. But, usage fees to platforms from apps built on top of the API and platform control over which data gets shared to these apps represents the most compelling case for said buy-in that I’ve seen so far.
Both Dave from Onsides and Zoya from Orgo will be on our startup panel at the Summit. That will be one to watch.
🏟️ More Buying Sandlot Summit Sponsors Announced
We’re excited to announce upstart staffing, compliance, and management platform The Good Game as a Hall of Fame Level sponsor for the Summit. They will own the naming rights on both main speaking halls, brilliantly named: The Good Game Speaking Hall 1 and The Good Game Speaking Hall 2. CEO Zarif Haque will also join our Tech 2.0 panel alongside Fastbreak AI CEO John Stewart and Otto Sport AI CEO Luke Zaientz.
In addition: Guardian Sports, Picture Pros, and Trading Card Memories will join as sponsors— with some fun perks for attendees and VIPs included.
Tickets are going fast, and we actually may sell-out soon, so get them while you can.
Attendees can download our official event app, which includes a full directory of attendees. Details in our last send right here.
🗣️ USMNT Legend Blasts Youth Soccer Culture
Landon Donovan — arguably the best American male player ever — torched the U.S. youth soccer industry last week during an interview with broadcaster Rich Eisen.
“We’re not developing players like the rest of the world does. … Our youth soccer in this country is a disaster. And so you have all these youth clubs charge you crazy fees, it’s all about winning, the kids get left behind because the clubs want to make money, the coaches want to make money, they want to win and then the kids don’t develop. And now we’re seeing sort of the fruits of that.”
Donovan — who has been making media rounds after releasing his memoir ahead of the World Cup — said “my next passion in life” is fixing the system to “give the game back to kids.”
This rant came after a discussion about how the U.S. men have only won a single World Cup knockout game — a round of 16 victory over Mexico in 2002.
Donovan pointed to coaching. He reflected on his time at Bayer Leverkusen as a teenager. The German club had one of its best coaches working with its U16 club so the veteran could develop the younger players.
“We do it opposite here,” Donovan said. “The worst, worst coaches are coaching our eight- and nine-year-olds. They’re not learning anything and they’re not loving the game. So it’s just totally backwards.”
⛸️ Flagging A Growing Industry Topic
A recent Los Angeles Times report is a good microcosm of an issue we are seeing and hearing more about lately — the economics of ice facilities.
The story: A decades-old rink will demolish its full-sized ice sheet, lobby and pro shop this summer. The space will become a medical center for seniors. A smaller practice rink will remain in place.
Local families have launched a petition trying to stop the plan. But the owner says he has no choice, citing increased lease and utility costs.
A club with about 200 athletes across a dozen teams will be displaced if the overhaul goes through. The Los Angeles Kings also host youth programing at the rink as part of a branding agreement.
A new rink is set to open in the area, but club officials are not confident it will give them enough ice availability to avoid downsizing.
The obvious angle here: Hockey is already among the most expensive youth sports and costs will only rise if there are fewer ice rinks and the ones that do stay open are forced to raise their costs.
But two things I’d expect to see in the coming weeks, months and years:
1) More moves along the lines of the Bond Sports/Sub-Zero Software partnership. There is just too much at stake for ice venues to not be operating at maximum efficiency and capitalizing on all potential revenue streams. And ice operations are often too unique to rely on broad management platforms.
2) More consolidation. The ice portfolios of major operators like Black Bear Sports Group (a previous Buying Sandlot sponsor) and The Sports Facilities Companies figure to keep gradually expanding. Efficiencies and synergies are one consideration, but resources are likely a bigger one. Many rinks were built in the 80s and 90s (or earlier) and need significant upgrades to keep going. There are only so many players who can afford the investments.
We’ve used the BBSG/Kalamazoo example before, but it is relevant again here — when the refrigeration system fries and the fix is going to cost millions, it’s usually a situation where either a platform like BBSG buys it or the place closes and the community loses the ice.
⚽️ Chobani’s Youth Soccer Splash
The yogurt giant and U.S. Soccer partner will donate $5M to sponsor 500 teams nationwide.
Coaches can enter register their teams to be eligible to win $10K packages — winners will be selected through a voting process. Voters are also entered into a sweepstakes for prizes.
Chobani will also have activations at events and launch an ad and product campaign featuring USMNT and USWNT stars, as well as offer an online nutrition guide for coaches designed with the Soccer Forward Foundation.
Also: Car maker Hyundai will host a handful of youth soccer camps featuring appearances by national team legends Mia Hamm and Tim Howard. The first one was in Atlanta last week; dates in Miami, New Jersey and Los Angeles remain.
✍️ White House Tries To Regulate College Sports
A quick rundown of President Trump’s executive order:
Athletes get maximum of five years to compete
Only one free transfer; one-year sit-out for a second
NCAA must create national agent registry
NCAA must protect women’s and Olympic sports
Schools can lose federal funding due to non-compliance
Effective date of Aug. 1
The EO itself is almost assuredly unconstitutional and unenforceable for myriad reasons. But could it help spur Congress to actually pass legislation?
Probably not. But stranger things have happened!
Quick Take: Government oversight (or overreach, depending on your view) will almost certainly be coming down the stack to youth sports in the coming year(s). Something worth keeping an eye on for all in the industry.
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