It’s game on for the youth sports industry

Back in our day, “youth sports” meant a deflated kickball in a middle school field.

But today’s kids aren’t messing around with their athletic careers — and neither are their parents, who are paying for expensive camps and competitions.

The frenzy of interest has created a booming market:

• 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.

Cooperstown All Star Village — a youth baseball tournament and resort in New York — added $95m alone to the local economy, per Bloomberg.

And it’s not just the surrounding towns that prosper: CASV makes $15m+ in revenue each season, with registration fees at ~$1.3k per player.

Home run

With that much cash, private equity firms have come swarming. CASV, for one, sold an 80% share to PE billionaires David Blitzer and Josh Harris for $116m.

Youth sports aren’t the only ones catching investors’ eyes:

• The NFL approved a measure last week that will allow PE firms to take partial ownership of its teams.
• US PE firm Arctos Partners bought a stake in the Aston Martin Formula One team at a $1.24B valuation in 2023.
• The world’s largest bowling operator, Bowlero, went public in 2021 and has raised ~$450m in funding

With the NFL joining the NBA, NHL, and MLB, most major leagues now allow PE funding in return for team stake.

Sports-focused PE firms like Arctos Partners, RedBird Capital, and Silver Lake have invested billions of dollars into teams and leagues like the UFC and WWE.

So, there might not be any crying in baseball — but there’s definitely cash.