This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
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In the email today:
🏀 Shoot 360 Focused On Major Expansion
Basketball performance tech franchise Shoot 360 has aggressive plans to grow to 600 locations worldwide by 2030.
Shoot 360 currently has a little over 50 established or planned locations in the U.S., plus a handful in Canada and overseas.
The company is backed by a bevy of NBA and WNBA players. It recently added two C-suite hires — COO Jason Carter, (previously Bandon Fitness) and CMO Jamie Eslinger (previously Crunch Fitness, Massage Envy and European Wax Center).
What it is: Shoot 360 pairs AI-powered analytics with gamified training— almost every NBA team uses its technology. Athletes get real-time feedback on shooting, passing and dribbling.
The brand’s 50 current locations offer group training, personal training, events, and even leagues (shooting competitions).
The investment to run a franchise reportedly runs from $600K to $1.8M, and the company is seeking franchisees in all 50 states.
We spend a lot of time discussing standalone youth sports complexes, but we may need to eventually trademark the Youth Sports Franchise Arms Race tag as well.
They are seemingly popping up everywhere now in all sports. And while they may not be able to host tournaments or fill hotels, they can still tap into many of the revenue streams powering the industry with far less square footage and overhead.
This is definitely worth a deep dive one of these days— we’d love to hear from any readers who have experience in the space. Drop me a line [email protected].
Building on James’ take, the gamified training space is hot right now. Other examples that come to mind:
Valhalla SC Colorado, which we covered in-depth here. They offer gamified soccer training tech and “smart arenas”, so players can improve skills and compete in a tech-forward atmosphere. Their unique twist, which I love, is a beer hall with high-end food and beverage options— Valhalla’s founder Robert Thompson tells us that will make up a significant portion of the revenue.
Batbox, the tech-enabled baseball batting cage simulator, is opening a US location in Austin. They also plan to offer their hitting tunnels for purchase or lease to existing baseball training facilities.
TopGolf is a reasonable comp for these businesses. But where the golf brand has struggled given the costs associated with its large facilities (it needs all the space for the balls to land), these 2.0 variants, including indoor golf establishments, use simulators to do the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Valhalla uses LED training circles, Batbox needs only about 40-45 feet for its tunnels, and Shoot 360 can cut up an existing basketball gym into multiple shooting silos (whatever happened to the corner 3?), so they can maximize revenue per-square-foot, unlike TopGolf.
Where these will succeed, or fail, is in their ability to cater to athletes, experience-seeking adults, and families at different times of the day. And whether they are able to offer consistent experiences across locations.
📈 The Most Important Revenue Stream For Sports Facilities
Building on that last take, our Great Youth Sports Facility Report found that facilities that count “memberships or recurring revenue” as a primary revenue source earn ~25% more per-square-foot than those that don’t.
Memberships as a top-3 revenue source | Median revenue per ft² | Inter‑quartile range |
|---|---|---|
Yes | $40.00 / ft² | $17 → $46 |
No | $31.67 / ft² | $14.50 → $42 |
Get access to the full report here.
🎟️ Duesy is Reimagining the Youth Sports Tournament Experience — One Text Message at a Time*
98% of text messages are read, compared to less than 20% of emails and app notifications.
The typical conversion rate of a text message campaign is 30%, compared to less than 5% for email and app notifications.
The tournament experience starts at the gate. It's time to upgrade your gate experience from a transactional cash or credit card reader to a platform that engages attendees and streamlines your operations.
Duesy is a text-led ticketing platform that simplifies the gate experience.
That means:
Tickets are delivered via text
Attendees receive an automated welcome message once they are inside an event
Tournament operators obtain a verified mobile number for every coach and attendee
At a recent KC Sports World Series youth baseball tournament with over 100 teams participating, Duesy provided the infrastructure for more than 6,300 ticket sales.
Families not only received a tournament bracket via text message once inside the gate, but they also received a 20% off coupon to Academy Sports (a KC Sports sponsor).
This meant:
Families received added value for playing in the tournament
Academy Sports reached a highly-targeted and engaged audience
KC Sports activated a sponsor in an innovative and frictionless way
This is just one way Duesy is reimagining the tournament experience.
You can also watch our podcast interview with Duesy co-founder Tony Caudill right here.
Note: Duesy does not have a direct relationship with Academy Sports. The offer was delivered on behalf of KC Sports, who maintains the sponsor relationship.
*Sponsored
📰 The New York Times Is Not Done With Youth Sports
The Old Gray Lady has followed up its discovery of the youth sports industry with a dispatch about artificial playing surfaces — Plastic Turf Fields Are Taking Over America.
The report was co-bylined again by sports business reporter Ken Belson, this time with environmental reporter Hiroko Tabuchi.
It is similar in tone to the NYT’s last report, examining major trends in the space in Timesian fashion — by chronicling the turf-related controversies engulfing Ridgewood, an affluent town in the exotic land of northern New Jersey.
The supply/demand for year-round field space
The multi-billion turf industry (and its lobbyists)
Maintenance pros and cons compared to grass
Concerns about athlete safety and health re: chemicals and plastics
The piece plays it straight throughout and makes no news. But The Times is clearly paying attention to the industry.
More of these stories figure to be coming down the road — a deep-dive on badly-behaved parents and/or officiating shortages would make sense.
And, like last time, expect some piggy-back content from other outlets about turf fields.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the turf field debate is the first major issue the mainstream media runs with.
And perhaps for good reason.
Some studies have found… that there needs to be more studies on the impact of playing on synthetic fields.
An EPA study found that while surfaces contain trace chemicals, the exposure levels are low.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has keyed in on this topic with horrific tales of individual cases, including an expose on why so many former Phillies who played at Veterans Stadium keep dying of brain cancer.
There are limited observations about newer, more eco-friendly cork-filled fields.
Quoted in many of the articles is the Syntethic Turf Council, an industry lobbying group made up of turf manufacturers.
In short, there is limited data because, much like measuring the long-term impacts of moderate alcohol consumption, it’s effectively impossible to create long-term peer reviewed studies on a topic where there are so many variables at play (how many times an athlete plays on turf fields, at what age, in what temperatures, with or without open wounds while playing, and so on). Therefore, limited findings - such as there being no evidence of toxicity in mice who ingest a crumb of rubber - and one-off accounts alike are trumpeted as binary reasons for or against turf fields.
📹 New Youth Sports Streaming Tech Emerges
BallerTV has launched BallerCam, a wide-angle device that affixes to an iPhone and delivers AI-powered archiving, recording and live streaming.
The tech starts at $299. It does not include BallerTV access. BallerCam is a DTC product separate from BallerTV’s business with youth sports complexes and venues.
The camera is not AI-powered— it just harnesses the phone’s AI capabilities.
Former U.S. Women’s National Team star Alex Morgan has joined the company as a brand ambassador and strategic investor in conjunction with the rollout.
BallerTV said it has live streamed over 2M youth sports events in its history.
🛂 Little League’s Looming Political Headache
This would be a bit more than a bat-flip.
The State Department denied visa requests for a Venezuelan team that qualified for the Little League Senior Baseball World Series.
Venezuela is among the countries impacted by travel restrictions instituted by President Donald Trump last month. A team from Mexico replaced the Venezuelan team in the ages 13-16 event, which began this past weekend in Easley, South Carolina.
Little League officials called the situation “extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes.”
The issue now: A Venezuelan team has already qualified for next month’s Little League World Series (ages 10-12) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania — and it is unclear whether it will be allowed into the country.
Athletes, their families and team officials are supposed to be exempt from the travel ban, but that carve-out is intended for elite professionals, not Little Leaguers. And government officials still retain discretion to reject sports-related visa applications — it has already happened several times.
Officials in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, accidentally published personal information for hundreds of children on the city website.
All of the impacted kids are connected to a local youth sports non-profit organization.
The District 7 Dad’s Club submitted the data as part of a process to receive seasonal city funding
Names, addresses and birthdays were then published as part of a city meeting agenda
The information remained online for 24 hours before being removed
The city clerk, city council and mayor’s office are all blaming each other for the miscue
The news comes after LiveBarn camera were found to be accidentally live-streaming kids participating in summer camp activities at several venues in Canada.
🏢 More Youth Sports Facilities News
Williamsport, Pennsylvania: The $22M Williamsport Lumber Yards baseball and softball complex is expected to open next spring. It will have seven fields and looks to build on the city’s name recognition; it will also be equipped to host collegiate games.
Cape Girardeau, Missouri: A groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s new youth sports complex was held last Friday. The facility will have five baseball and softball fields and two football and soccer fields. It is expected to open in 2026 and host recreational and travel leagues as well as tournaments.
Lakewood Ranch, Florida: The Premier Sports Campus was awarded hosting rights to the Premier SuperCopa and SuperCopa+ youth soccer events in 2026, ‘28 and ‘30; the invitational tournaments run from U9 to U17.
Laredo, Texas: The 200-acre Buena Vista Sports Complex is expected to open this fall. The city will manage the facility, which will have 10 baseball and softball fields and other offerings.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.