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Buckle up. The Youth Sports Industry is about to double in size over the next decade: The global youth sports market, worth $37.5B in 2022, is estimated to hit $69.4B by 2030. Over $1B worth of construction on new and renovated youth sports facilities in the US will be finished this year. Youth sports tourism generated a reported $39.7B in direct spending in 2021, with a total economic impact of $91.8B. https://lnkd.in/dqdu6Mds Sports Events & Tourism Association

I just visited a university putting in a new track and football field. The AD was telling me how exciting it is to improve the sports facilities. He mentioned that they will be able to attract more athletes, and gain a competitive edge on conference titles. With the sports industry getting more and more competitive, the need for upgraded or new facilities are a must. It doesn't matter if you play on a court, field, or track .. Quality Matters. There are a lot of questions when it comes to building a playing surface. It can be overwhelming on all of the products that are on the market, which brand to choose or who to build it. Let me help you guide your way through the process to make it as painless as possible. If you are a pro athlete, semi pro athlete, or college/university, call me for a free consultation on your next sports playing surface investment. https://lnkd.in/g-hp3m4W

Continuing a trend here....and this one, being at that age where the sports calendar is THE calendar, hits home! Private equity is now eyeing this space. Solve the problem of a multitude of different apps for every sport your kid is in, and then I'm in to! #SportsInvesting #PrivateEquity #SportsBusiness

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Did you know the youth sports economy in the US alone is larger than all revenues flowing through the NFL or any other professional league in the world? Parents alone spend north of $30B minimum annually, by our count. Now private equity is entering the space. Excellent piece this week by Ira Boudway of Bloomberg News on how an industry famous for squeezing out value claims it will make the youth sports experience better — and maybe more accessible. We’ll see. My quote in the piece: “Private equity could be the best thing that happened to youth sports. It could also be the worst thing. It’s going to come down to their imagination, intelligence and patience.” What I mean: youth sports today is largely a Wild West, mom-and-pop run space in which the average age at which kids quit is 11. Youth 6-17 playing organized sports has fallen from 58% in 2016 to 54% in 2022, according to federal data. It’s why Aspen Institute Sports & Society #ProjectPlay recently challenged our network to lift that rate to 63% by 2030, starting with the leading organizations at our national roundtable (63X30). Will private equity firms bring professional management, program standards, and safety risk mitigation practices that improve the experience and reduce attrition? Could PE develop more high-quality, locally delivered models to engage more kids at a lower price point? Could PE help replace the PE (phys ed) lost in schools? Or will PE do the easy thing and just try to wring more $$ out of an increasingly smaller pool of families with the income to stay in the youth sports arms race? My sense is greater returns can be achieved via the former option. But it will take leadership and something of a B Corp mentality — a recognition that when business plays with kids, the interests of the kids need to come first. A youth-centered sport ecosystem for all should be the animating vision, and the goal should be helping the supply of quality experiences meet the demand for them (from kids and parents, 85% of whom want their kid involved in sports). One key will be improving coach quality. Again, we’ll see. Stay tuned. #youthsports #privateequity

This is a thoughtful article that looks at “both sides” of private equity moving into youth sports, but I feel like it might be a case of both sidism gone bad. I agree with Linda Flanagan who’s quoted as saying she can’t see how this can be a good thing. What is possible the upside here? All I see is people trying to make a buck off the literal backs of children while simultaneously acknowledging that children are harmed in the process. The children IN the sports systems are harmed by the inappropriate-ness of early specialization and intense competition at increasingly younger ages. And the children left OUT of the system, due to its cost, are harmed by lack of access to sports and ways to be active. So I see this as investment in a desire to increase harm to children. Good times. The article posits the potential upside to be bringing more money to the sector to pay for the kids who can’t afford it. I only know a little bit about private equity, but why would investors pay for kids to participate in sports whose families don’t have any more money to fuel those investors’ ROI? When did private equity become altruistic? Not to mention the naïveté of believing that money to pay for programming access is the only barrier faced by families left out. Transportation, inflexible work schedules…so much more is needed to get kids playing. There also seems to be an argument in the article that corporate interest will increase quality compared to the “mom and pop” way youth sports is run now. The biggest investment in that vein would likely be coach training and coaching professionalization. As someone who works in that space, it’s hard to get philanthropists to invest in coaches and coach training even though 60 million kids play sports and over 50% of them will experience some form of abuse while playing. Certainly, helping more kids stay in sports for longer because they have amazing coaches who support their holistic well being would be an amazing outcome for private equity AND would produce ROI. But the article doesn’t point in that direction. What private equity will need for ROI - and what I predict will happen from this - is more kids playing in more ways that require more parental investment: more equipment, more tournaments, more travel, more scheduling apps, more game trackers. And given the limited pool of families to draw from, I imagine it also will mean designing more elaborate (and inappropriate) sports programming for younger and younger wealthy children. If someone in private equity or a related field could explain how private equity can spur a decrease in harm and increase in inclusion, I am open to understanding that…I just don’t see it.

This is the most sophisticated, big-picture, forward-leaning critique I have read in response to the Bloomberg piece and my supplementary thoughts on whether private equity entering the $30B+ youth sports industry will be good or bad for children. I tend to keep an open mind to things and press hard against cynicism, recognizing the future is what we make of it and human beings generally want to do good. But also appreciate that structure drives culture, and Damon makes a great point about the need for NGBs to show the leadership to shape incentives in grassroots sport delivery. Spot on insight.

PE "could" be a good thing in youth sports, but given our community focus, what evidence do we have to suggest it will? Not healthcare. Or housing. Why would that be any different here? As the head of a youth sports club, we need to be in it both for the short-term goal of getting kids on the field AND the long-term goals of creating healthy people and growing our sport. I'm not convinced PE will care about those longer, arguably more important goals. And why should they? They serve investors, while we - as nonprofits - serve our community. It's obvious why PE senses an opportunity here. Youth sports clubs are businesses AND nonprofits-those aren't mutually exclusive-and being volunteer-run lack the professionalism and organizational effectiveness that would allow them to maximize "returns." That's where PE theoretically could make a difference… if only we had adequate leadership and governance to rein it in. Take soccer as an example. If US Soccer actually took full responsibility for organizing and regulating all of the sport-rather than focusing heavily on the professional game, while leaving youth soccer up to a patchwork of overlapping national and state governing bodies-we could have the type of licensing and governance system that could leverage PE for the clear benefit of children. But we don't. Instead, US Soccer's dereliction of this duty, made worse by an environment that rewards individualistic capitalism rather than collective solidarity, has made youth soccer the “Wild West.” And until that is fixed, there will be little to no accountability for PE, and consequently little to no reason to believe PE will serve anyone other than investors. That's fine in pro sports and sports-related industries, but not in youth sports.

“Parents are all just working with a system that is dysfunctional at best and broken at worst” - Tom Farrey, The Aspen Institute Youth sports industry...we need to do better. Aside from the discussion of private equity's influence, the current state of the youth sports industry as shared by Bloomberg is grim. 💸 Sports are too expensive for families, with parents spending approximately $900 per child per season. ⚽ Kids specializing in a single sport is occurring at younger ages, despite research showing that playing multiple sports is better for athletic success and mental health ❌ Children from low-income and single-parent homes are being excluded. ⏰ The time commitment for kids and families on nights and weekends for practices and tournaments is unmanageable. Inclyousion Sports is a sports business built by parents, for parents. Everything we do, we consider the impact on families, because we have three kids of our own. We are you. At Inclyousion Sports... ✅ Our programs are significantly cheaper than many competitive programs, and we offer scholarships for families who are experiencing financial hardship. ✅ We provide multi-sport programming so children learn a variety of skills and can explore their interests across multiple sports. ✅ We intentionally remove barriers so that children of all abilities, backgrounds, and financial situations can participate equitably. We don't just say "all are welcome", we walk the walk. ✅ Our programs are typically one sports class per week so that families can enjoy full lives outside of sports. Learn more about Inclyousion Sports as we change the game so that all kids have access to high quality sports. https://lnkd.in/egaPAV9z

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