Aug 30, 2024 - Business

Private equity takes on youth sports

Dan Primack

Illustration of a letterman jacket with a dollar sign on it — Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Private equity's sporting ambitions aren't limited to the pro ranks, such as its new deal with the NFL. It's also coming for the kids.

The big picture: U.S. families spend more than $30 billion annually on youth sports, which now operate year-round with a phalanx of professional facilities and staff.

Private equity is helping to enable the shift, and is hoping to profit from it.

Zoom in: One of the largest players is Unrivaled Sports, which was launched earlier this year by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, a pair of veteran private equity investors who began buying up pro sports teams over a decade ago.

Unrivaled, which is chaired by former Nike exec Andy Campion, operates 15 brands that serve over 635,000 youth athletes per year with everything from ballfield complexes to flag football leagues to mountain biking camps.
Other private equity-owned youth sports businesses include 3Step Sports, which owns 1,800 club teams with over 1.1 million athletes, uniform maker Score Sports, scheduling app TeamSnap, and media group PlayOn Sports.

The bottom line: The youth sports industrial complex has been great for some kids, providing them with better coaching and facilities.

But it's also priced out others, denying them the chance to play and improve alongside more affluent peers.

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Private equity takes on youth sports

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