Strategic Alignment: Integrating Youth Sports Infrastructure and Family Office Capital
Youth sports is no longer a fragmented, volunteer-driven niche—it is a professionalizing, repeat-purchase cash-flow category with over $40 billion in annual family spend. For family offices, the durable edge is not minority team exposure but vertical integration: pairing club operations (OpCo) with ownership and control of high-utilization facilities (PropCo). When underwritten correctly, this structure delivers operating leverage and margin expansion while preserving real-asset downside protection. The mistake most investors make is assuming instant yield. In reality, these are 18–30 month stabilization plays where success depends on disciplined underwriting of two often-mispriced inputs: elite coaching talent and long-cycle facility maintenance. Those who control the pitch—and professionalize what happens on it—retain the leverage.