{"id":15220797,"date":"2026-07-22T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/private-investment-in-youth-sports-draws-state-federal-scrutiny\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:33:45","slug":"private-investment-in-youth-sports-draws-state-federal-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/private-investment-in-youth-sports-draws-state-federal-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Private investment in youth sports draws state, federal scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chris<\/figure>\n

Courtney Hamby and her husband spend close to $6,000 per year for their daughter Ellie\u2019s cheer and tumbling classes, competition fees and uniforms.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t include their travel expenses for multiple out-of-town competitions, including hotel rooms, gas, meals and sometimes even flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be something that everyone gets to play, and it shouldn\u2019t be only the people who can afford it,\u201d said Hamby, who lives in Madison, Alabama. \u201cBut if you don\u2019t have money, you\u2019re not doing competitive cheer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youth sports is now a $40 billion industry. It\u2019s a sprawling, commercialized ecosystem where parents pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year for club teams, elite camps, out-of-state tournaments, private coaching sessions, professional-level uniforms and equipment, recruiting events, and even streaming subscription services to watch their kids play.<\/p>\n

The amount of money involved \u2014 nearly double the annual revenue of the NFL<\/a> \u2014 has made youth sports increasingly attractive to private investors, including private equity firms. State regulators are starting to take notice.<\/p>\n

In April, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, began investigating<\/a> possible anticompetitive practices in youth hockey, with a focus on the privately owned Black Bear Sports Group<\/a>, the largest owner-operator of ice rinks in the United States. The company was the focus of an earlier investigation from USA Today<\/a> for using its control of rinks, teams, leagues and even streaming services to create a youth hockey system that critics say have raised costs and limited choices for families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attorney General is looking into the matter concerning Black Bear Sports Group out of concern for the risk of consumer harm \u2014 including higher prices and reduced service quality \u2014 that can arise from diminished access to community and recreational services,\u201d Danny Wimmer, Nessel\u2019s press secretary, wrote in an email. He declined to offer further comment on the investigation.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Black Bear Sports said the company is committed to growing the sport of hockey, and offers a free youth program for kids who\u2019ve not previously participated in organized hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also saved community rinks that would otherwise have been lost: In Southern Michigan alone, five have closed since 2019, and the only one slated to reopen is a Kalamazoo rink Black Bear saved from closure,\u201d the spokesperson wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office opened its own investigation<\/a> into anticompetitive business practices in youth hockey last November. It centered on the privately owned Dallas Stars, a National Hockey League team whose board includes private equity executives. Another USA Today investigation detailed how the team used tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to corner the youth hockey market in Texas.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma Watch, a nonprofit news outlet, last year explored<\/a> so-called \u201cstay-to-play\u201d schemes, a common tactic in youth sports in which kids whose teams travel for a tournament must stay in one of the tournament\u2019s partner hotels in order to play.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

This should be something that everyone gets to play, and it shouldn\u2019t be only the people who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Courtney Hamby, a mother whose daughter participates in competitive cheerleading<\/strong><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Consolidating smaller leagues and facilities under one company can lock families into the only game in town. Then those youth sports monopolies can cut deals with related industries, such as tournament-specific hotels or elite sports camps.<\/p>\n

Many cheer competitions like the ones Hamby\u2019s daughter attends are run by Varsity Brands, a sports conglomerate acquired by private equity giant KKR<\/a> for $4.5 billion in 2024<\/a> from investment giant Bain Capital, which acquired it in 2018 from two other private equity firms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Varsity Brands has been mired in antitrust lawsuits for the past several years, including a confidential settlement in May over allegations it was involved in illegal price-fixing and a separate $82.5 million class action settlement in 2024. In that suit, cheer athletes\u2019 families in 35 states said Varsity artificially inflated the costs of cheerleading camps, competitions and apparel. The company did not admit any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Private investment can provide the capital that allows sports companies and youth leagues to respond to market demand for higher-quality coaching and services. And it can stand in the gap where public investment in recreation has fallen in recent decades, said Anthony Delli Paoli, director of the Rutgers University Youth Sports Research Council.<\/p>\n

However, Delli Paoli said, it\u2019s a problem when families \u201chave to take out a second mortgage or max out their credit cards in order to participate in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no good justification for locking in parents and families and driving up the costs,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s clearly an antitrust issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consumed<\/h2>\n

Hamby, like many parents who grew up in the 1980s and 90s, remembers playing on sports teams as a kid in rec center gymnasiums and on neighborhood ballfields, coached by volunteers who often had more enthusiasm than experience.<\/p>\n

Those days are mostly gone.<\/p>\n

The average U.S. sports household spent $1,016 on its child\u2019s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according to The Aspen Institute\u2019s Project Play initiative.<\/p>\n

Several parents who spoke with Stateline across multiple youth sports reported spending far more than that, from $2,000 to nearly $20,000 annually.<\/p>\n

Multiple parents told Stateline they knew other families who had taken on extra work to pay their kids\u2019 team fees, or had to make a choice between paying the fees or paying a household bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to get lost in the travel (sports) world and make it your whole life. I see so many people do it,\u201d said Hillary Harris, another Madison mom whose 14-year-old son plays travel baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get consumed with it because you\u2019re thinking, \u2018My kid\u2019s going to go to (a Division 1 school) and play baseball, and this is how they\u2019re going to get there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Many parents are willing, or feel compelled, to spend thousands to help their kid be successful in a sport they love, to keep them from lagging behind their peers, or as an investment in a potential college or professional sports career.<\/p>\n

That captive customer base is increasingly attractive to private investors.<\/p>\n

In 2024, two of the world\u2019s most prominent private equity investors rolled up their youth sports properties under a new parent company, Unrivaled Sports, which manages facilities and tournaments for baseball, softball, flag football and other sports, including partnerships with MLB Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. and Olympic skateboarder Shaun White.<\/p>\n

Former NFL quarterback Eli Manning\u2019s private equity firm Brand Velocity Group acquired RCX Sports in June; RCX manages the licenses of the official youth sports programs of all the major professional sports leagues including the NFL, MLB and the NBA.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, a Chicago-based private equity firm acquired LiveBarn, a subscription-based service that lets family and friends stream amateur hockey and other sports from thousands of venues across the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

And 3STEP Sports, one of the nation\u2019s largest youth sports club organizations, controlling more than 5,000 clubs across all 50 states, has been backed by a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm called Juggernaut Capital since 2019.<\/p>\n

In June, congressional lawmakers held a hearing on private equity\u2019s growing role in the commercialization of youth sports, an event they titled \u201cField of Fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, have cosponsored a bill that would ban private equity firms from investing in youth sports unless they can prove they don\u2019t use predatory practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouth sports should not be a luxury good,\u201d Deluzio told constituents in April at a community hearing he held in Allegheny County.<\/p>\n

Deluzio said kids get left behind their peers when their parents can\u2019t keep up with the rising costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big reason for that is that youth sports are getting swallowed up by private equity vulture investors that are seeing dollar signs instead of community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bryan Finnerty, founder and CEO of a 220,000-square-foot sports center in Canton, Michigan, and founder of a Michigan venture capital firm, said in written testimony submitted to Congress that his sports center wouldn\u2019t exist without private investment.<\/p>\n

Done right, Finnerty said, such investment can strengthen communities, expand access and create more sports opportunities for children.<\/p>\n

But \u201cwhen short-term financial goals become more important than the children and families those organizations exist to serve, it is appropriate to ask difficult questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Well worth it\u2019<\/h2>\n

Tiffany Whitlow\u2019s son David found the kind of success many sports parents dream of for their kids.<\/p>\n

He started playing sports at age 3, eventually specializing in soccer and playing on travel teams. Whitlow estimates the family spent a few thousand dollars a year on sports when he was younger, a number that surpassed $10,000 per year as he grew older and approached $20,000 shortly before he graduated.<\/p>\n

During David\u2019s senior year of high school, the school\u2019s football coach came to a soccer practice looking for a kicker. David volunteered. His family invested in extra coaching, gym memberships and training to get him ready to play.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s a kicker on the football team for Alabama A&M University, a Division I school.<\/p>\n

Whitlow said her family\u2019s investment was \u201cwell worth it.\u201d She plans to do the same for her younger son, who is 3 and just started tee ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my husband both believe you learn the core competencies for life through sports,\u201d she said. \u201cYou learn how to be on time, you learn how to work on a team. Those kinds of things really prepare you to be the best kind of human and adult you can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamby said her daughter loves cheer \u2014 and she\u2019s good at it. Participating has given her confidence and helped her make close friends, gifts that are hard to measure in dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s finding something that they can be proud of and I love that for her,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cI want her to feel like she\u2019s exceptionally good at something.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, those are good things that you don\u2019t see, but I\u2019m paying for that, too. It comes with the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at <\/em>avollers@stateline.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stateline<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Private investment in youth sports draws state, federal scrutiny<\/a> appeared first on Pittsburgh's Public Source<\/a>. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.<\/p>\n

Source: News \u2013 World \u2013 Pittsburgh \u2013 rss.app1 \u2192 manual entry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, of Pennsylvania, cosponsored a bill that would ban private equity firms from investing in youth sports unless they can prove they don\u2019t use predatory practices.
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