Latest news with #UnrivaledSports
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice.
Like many youth sports fathers, Jon Bash can summon his son's early baseball career on his phone. There are video clips of Jesse as a boy at summer camps and on a road trip to Cooperstown to play in a tournament in the shadow of the Hall of Fame. They show Jesse's towering home runs in high school, as well as his many hours in the batting cage. One of Mr. Bash's most cherished clips is a video of Aaron Judge's swing coach extolling Jesse's work ethic to his own social media followers. His son has averaged 70 games a year over the past decade between school and travel teams. To keep playing, Jesse, 19, took a postgraduate year at a Florida sports academy. The costs of all the training sessions, tournaments and equipment have added up for Mr. Bash, but he has no regrets spending money chasing his son's baseball dreams. 'He's my only child, and like most parents, you want to do anything you can for your kid,' said Mr. Bash, who runs a diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's no wonder that sports dads like Mr. Bash have caught the attention of Wall Street investors. The private equity titans Josh Harris and David Blitzer are among those who see a big opportunity. Over the past three years, Mr. Harris and Mr. Blitzer used money from their family foundations to start Unrivaled Sports, which has been buying baseball camps, flag football fields and youth leagues to assemble one of the largest collections of youth sports properties in the country. One of their acquisitions is a baseball complex in Cooperstown where 12-year old ball players flock every summer, as a sort of rite of passage. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Business Insider
15-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Youth sports have become a hot area of investment — and it's prompted a fresh set of concerns
As a kid, I ran from field to field for soccer tournaments with back-to-back games, and woke up before the sun was up for lacrosse tournaments that were a long drive away. I'm not alone. It feels like nearly everyone in the US has some connection to youth sports, either through their own kids, their childhood experiences, or through siblings and other family members. Over 27 million children in the US — 54.6% — played organized sports, according to the most recent data from the National Children's Health Survey, which covered the 2022 and 2023. And investors ranging from venture capitalists to private equity have increasingly been paying attention to the deep connection Americans have with youth sports. "If you look at wallet share and the statistics around that for parents, how much they will spend on youth sports, it's insane," Aaron Miller, an investor at early-stage VC firm Will Ventures, told Business Insider. "For the first time, institutional investors are realizing that these are really interesting assets to own and maybe even optimize." Miller said the addressable market for youth sports is massive. According to The Aspen Institute's Project Play, the average US sports family spent $1,016 on their child's primary sport in 2024. Miller said the US is really the only country in the world with this level of spending on youth sports, which makes it attractive for investments. He said investments had grown in two areas: experiences and technology. Some of the new technologies in the space are using AI, like GameChanger, a livestreaming and game management software that youth teams use to keep track of stats and film, and put together highlights. Unrivaled Sports is an example of a company pouring money into experiences. Josh Harris, the owner of the Washington Commanders and cofounder of Apollo Global Management, along with Blackstone's David Blitzer, co-invested their own money to launch the company this year. Unrivaled Sports specializes in creating unique experiences for kids who play baseball, soccer, football, and action sports and also recently got a further $120 million investment, led by Dick's Sporting Goods. Miller's firm itself has invested in several youth sports companies, such as Youth Inc., a media and commerce company founded by former NFLer Greg Olsen, and Aktivate, a sports tech platform for K-12 schools. Some notable deals in the space include KKR acquiring Varsity Brands last year, and PlayOn (backed by KKR) buying MaxPreps from CBS Sports. TeamSnap acquired Mojo, a youth sports streaming service, in 2023. Investing in youth sports can also benefit leagues. Initiatives like the Junior NBA or LOVB's youth programs are helping to grow the game at a young level. "If you win over a kid in middle school, they're very influenceable, they could be loyal customers for the next 50-plus years," Miller said. Does the money stop kids from being kids? Concerns about the professionalization of youth sports have been growing in the last few years, with some parents concerned about burnout or overuse injuries happening at younger ages. As part of its Project Play research, the Aspen Institute found that some parents felt pressure to have their children specialize in a sport at an earlier age. The costs have also increased. The Aspen Institute reported a 46% increase in cost for a child's primary sport from 2019 to 2024. The study found that spending on travel and lodging, team registration fees, and camps or private training contributed to the increase. Melissa Jacobs is a journalist and the creator of the Good Game Substack, which focuses on talking about youth sports for parents. She said that destination youth sports tournaments and experiences have been proliferating. She said parents' inboxes can be "flooded with emails saying come to Huntington Beach, come to Omaha, come to Florida for every single sport." "It's making the equity gap humongous, and it's also watering down the experience," she said. Miller said he felt there needed to be a system to ensure that youth sports don't get over-optimized as more money flows into the space. Companies can offer services that can be great for talent development and earn more money. But this professionalization could negatively affect the kids playing who don't want to take things as seriously. "Youth sports are really expensive, and I think a lot of people have talked about, what's the breaking point?" Miller said. "Are a lot of these really expensive camps asking families to spend as much as possible? Yes. At the same time, I feel like there are a lot of really awesome products and solutions that haven't been built yet."
Bloomberg
09-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg Business of Sports: Kohler CEO on PGA Works
Join hosts Michael Barr, Scarlet Fu and Vanessa Perdomo for a look at some of the latest headlines and stories in the business of sports. Kim Bhasin, Bloomberg News reporter covering athletes and celebrities, details plans from youth sports property and events manager Unrivaled Sports to raise $120 million in a funding round led by the venture arm of retailer Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. Then, Shawn Quill, the Sports Industry Leader at KPMG US, examines the rise of institutional capital in both professional and college sports, the business case for it, as well as how these investments are changing the consumer and fan experience. Plus, Kohler Chair and CEO David Kohler details his family-owned company's involvement in the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship, formerly known as the National Minority College Championship. Kohler, the maker of household fixtures and furniture, owns Whistling Straits golf course in Wisconsin, where the tournament is being held.
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
DICK's Sporting Goods Leads $120 Million Investment In Unrivaled Sports
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 29: Owner Josh Harris of the Washington Commanders during the NFL game ... More at State Farm Stadium on September 29, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. The Commanders defeated the Cardinals 42-14. (Photo by) Getty Images Unrivaled Sports, a youth athletics holding company co-founded by billionaires and professional team owners David Blitzer and Josh Harris, has raised $120 million to expand its presence in venues, leagues and competitions in baseball, flag football and other sports. DICK's Sporting Goods led the latest round, investing in Unrivaled through DSG Ventures, the company's venture capital fund that it formed in 2022. Unrivaled CEO Andy Campion would not disclose the company's valuation following the $120 million round, but he noted that it represents a minority stake in the firm. As such, Unrivaled is valued at more than $240 million. Blitzer and Harris retained a majority stake and controlling interest in Unrivaled Sports. The Chernin Group, which invested in Unrivaled last year, remains a shareholder, as well. Unrivaled owns 15 youth sports venues and properties across the U.S., including the Cooperstown All-Star Village near the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the ForeverLawn sports complex near the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and Under the Lights Flag Football, a national youth flag football league. Blitzer and Harris invest in Unrivaled via their family offices, so it is separate from their professional sports holdings. They each own stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League and Washington Commanders of the National Football League, while Blitzer has also invested in Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians. Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, has a net worth of $9.9 billion, according to Forbes, while Blitzer, a longtime senior executive at Blackstone Inc., has a net worth of $3.6 billion. The other new investors in Unrivaled are Dynasty Equity, a sports investment firm founded by Jonathan Nelson, the co-founder of Providence Equity Partners who has a net worth of $3.4 billion, and K. Don Cornwell, a longtime investment banker; LionTree, an investment and merchant bank; and Miller Sports & Entertainment, a sports investment company that owns the Salt Lake Bees Minor League Baseball franchise, the Real Salt Lake Major League Soccer team Campion said the $120 million 'does give us quite a bit of fuel for investing' and added that Unrivaled aspires 'to create a sustainable, growing and profitable business that can keep building on what we're investing in and acquiring, and we have that.' 'That's been one of the more challenging aspects of the world of youth sports is that the strength of businesses in youth sports and the sustainability of those businesses has been uneven,' said Campion, a former Nike chief operating officer who joined Unrivaled last year. 'We're aspiring to do both — not just raise capital, but also be a sustainable business and keep delivering from consumers' perspectives, so they keep coming back.' Unrivaled plans on using the additional capital to acquire other venues and sports assets and upgrade its existing properties, including the fields and amenities such as lodging, food, beverages and retail offerings. The company's recent deals include purchasing Big League Dreams sports facilities complexes in Las Vegas and Manteca, Calif., as well as Rocker B Ranch, a 325-acre ranch in Texas that has four baseball fields, other sports courts and lodging. Unrivaled this summer will also host the first girls national championship for flag football as well as the NFL Flag Championships, both at the ForeverLawn complex During Campion's tenure at Nike, he worked closely with DICK's Sporting Goods. He said Unrivaled and DICK's have a 'shared mission' and that 'serving youth athletes is at the center of everything that they do.' Campion noted that DICK's could promote Unrivaled venues and leagues at the company's more than 700 stores across the U.S., while Unrivaled could sell DICK's gear at its properties. He also mentioned GameChanger, a youth sports mobile platform that DICK's owns that is popular for live-streaming games, scheduling and scorekeeping. GameChanger generated more than $100 million revenue last year and had about 9 million active users, according to DICK's most recent 10-K filing. 'The reality is we as a business were not in need of capital to do what we're doing today,' Campion said. 'Our view was that what we were in the greatest need of was other mission-driven, like-minded, strategic partners who wanted to go after providing that opportunity (in youth sports) on a much bigger scale….First and foremost, this process started with who are the strategic partners that we believe would align with that vision that we have about the more kids playing sports the better and the diversity of experiences. And top of that list for us was DICK's Sporting Goods.'
