YOUTH SPORTS BUSINESS REPORT: Let Kids Play Act Targets Private Equity Ownership of Youth Sports Teams, Leagues, and Facilities

Key Takeaways

• The bicameral Let Kids Play Act, introduced May 13, 2026, automatically designates any private equity fund invested in youth sports as a “vulture investor” 91 days after enactment unless the firm files a sworn certification of compliance within 60 days.
• Designated firms would have two years to divest. Missing divestiture milestones triggers a monthly 10% revenue escrow that is forfeited to a federal Youth Sports Fund if the deadline is missed.
• The bill creates a private right of action with treble damages, parens patriae authority for state attorneys general, and a $1 million civil penalty plus up to one year of imprisonment for false certifications.
• The legislation defines “youth sports” expansively to include leagues, clubs, facilities, registration and scheduling platforms, scoring systems, tournaments, training camps, biometric and performance data, and both nonprofit and for-profit operators serving anyone under 18.
• Co-sponsors include Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), and Angie Craig (D-Minn.). Endorsers include former FTC Chair Lina Khan, the American Economic Liberties Project, Open Markets Institute, Sports Fans Coalition, Groundwork Action, and Americans for Tax Fairness.
• Let Kids Play Act full bill text (PDF)

How the Automatic Designation Works

At the May 13 press conference, Rep. Deluzio framed the mechanism plainly: “This bill is not just a polite suggestion, it has teeth.”

The bill’s enforcement engine centers on a reverse-burden designation system. Under Section 4, any “covered firm,” defined as a private equity fund or a company owned or controlled by a private equity fund, is presumed to be a “vulture investor” as of the date of enactment. Covered firms have 60 days to submit a sworn certification rebutting that designation, executed under penalty of perjury by each general partner. Without an approved certification, the designation becomes automatic at day 91.

To rebut the designation, a firm must attest that it and all affiliates have never engaged in any vulture practice, that no more than one acquired entity has gone insolvent or filed for bankruptcy within five years of acquisition, and that the firm will not engage in vulture practices going forward. Certifications are deemed denied if not approved within 31 days. False certifications carry a $1 million civil penalty per submission, jointly and severally imposed on the firm and the executing individuals with no right of indemnification, plus up to one year of imprisonment under federal criminal statutes.

For prospective investments, covered firms must submit certification at least 60 days before initiating any new youth sports investment.

What Counts as a Vulture Practice

Section 3(b) enumerates the practices the bill would prohibit. Eight categories are listed. The most relevant for industry operators:

Roll-up consolidation. Acquiring, controlling, managing, financing, or investing in more than one entity that exclusively serves multiple youth sports entities or supplies products or services essential to participation.

Integrated network requirements. Creating ecosystems where participation in one activity, service, tournament, apparel line, or tech platform requires use of others owned or controlled by the firm.

Stay-to-play schemes. Conditioning eligibility to participate on use of a designated travel agent, hotel, or transportation entity.

Junk fees. Mandatory or unavoidable charges not clearly and conspicuously disclosed before registration, fees that penalize families for declining add-on purchases, fees disproportionate to the cost of providing the service, or duplicative bundled fees. Deluzio cited a specific example at the press conference: “One club quoting parents $3,500 for tuition, as they call it, but later requires hundreds of dollars of tournament fees that they didn’t know up front.”

Lock-in contract terms. Exclusivity clauses, non-compete provisions, right-of-first-refusal requirements, multi-year non-cancelable commitments of two or more seasons without early termination rights, bans on competing in non-affiliated tournaments within 150 miles, and bans on using competing scheduling, registration, or analytics tools.

Data and IP capture. Claiming or licensing intellectual property rights to recordings, broadcasts, biometric data (heart rate, GPS tracking, injury history, scouting reports, parental payment records), or technology and algorithms developed in connection with youth sports.

SafeSport violations. Violating provisions of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017.

Catch-all rulemaking. Any other practice the FTC or DOJ Antitrust Division designates as a vulture practice by Federal Register notice.

How Broadly the Bill Defines Youth Sports

The scope of “youth sports” under Section 2(14) is expansive. The definition covers:

• All leagues, clubs, associations, and teams at recreational, travel, and elite levels
• All youth sports facilities and physical infrastructure
• Registration platforms, scheduling software, scoring systems, proprietary training methods, performance metric technology, and related data collection and algorithms
• Training camps, tournaments, and showcases
• All nonprofit and for-profit entities providing or facilitating any of the above

The applicable age is anyone under 18. The breadth matters because it sweeps in tech platforms (LeagueApps, TeamSnap, SportsEngine), tournament operators, facility operators, apparel suppliers, and the data layer underneath all of them. Strategic and family-office investors that are not structured as private equity funds fall outside the definition of “covered firm.” Pro sports team owners that operate youth facilities through private (non-PE) ownership structures, such as the Dallas Stars under Tom Gaglardi’s ownership, would not be captured by the PE-specific provisions, though they would still face other antitrust and consumer protection scrutiny.

Enforcement Teeth: Treble Damages, State AGs, and Voided Arbitration Clauses

Section 6 establishes a multi-layered enforcement structure:

The FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division share primary federal enforcement. Violations of the Act also constitute violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act covering unfair methods of competition.

State attorneys general can bring civil actions in federal court as parens patriae on behalf of state residents. The bill explicitly preserves state-level investigatory powers.

Private plaintiffs, including class actions, can sue for treble actual damages (or more for willful violations), restitution, attorney’s fees, and any remedy available to the FTC or DOJ. Either party can demand a jury trial.

Pre-dispute arbitration agreements and pre-dispute joint-action waivers are invalid for disputes arising under the Act. Whether the provision applies is a question for a court, not an arbitrator.

Joint and several liability under Section 7 makes a vulture investor and its control persons personally liable for the youth sports entity’s debt obligations, legal judgments, pension obligations, and any safety, labor, or facility code violations during the period of control.

Section 5’s divestiture process gives the FTC Chair 30 days to issue divestiture milestones. Firms missing those milestones lose 10% of monthly revenue to escrow, returned only if divestiture completes on time. The FTC or DOJ can also appoint a divestiture trustee, paid by the firm, if the two-year window passes without compliance.

Section 10 preserves stronger state laws as a floor, not a ceiling. Section 11 includes broad anti-evasion language allowing regulators to disregard transaction form in favor of substance.

Sponsor Coalition, Endorsers, and Reactions

The bill is co-led by Senators Murphy and Booker and four members of the House Monopoly Busters Caucus: Reps. Deluzio, Jayapal, Ryan, and Craig.

Rep. Chris Deluzio opened the press conference grounded in his western Pennsylvania district: “I’m from western Pennsylvania and we are sports crazy like a lot of the parts of the country. We bleed Black and Gold. Friday Night Lights are a big deal. Sports matter in this country of ours. Being on a team, learning how to win and lose, learning hard work and discipline. It has real value. But something has gone terribly wrong. We see big money vultures that have turned youth sports into a luxury item.”

Deluzio’s official statement: “Sports should be a sacred part of childhood. Instead, big money vultures have turned sports into a luxury item. That must end.”

Sen. Chris Murphy: “As a hockey dad, I’ve seen how viciously these private equity companies rip families off. Sports are one of the increasingly few places kids can find real community and learn core values, like teamwork and discipline, that last a lifetime. It is shameful to deny that opportunity to millions of kids just so some greedy Wall Street executives can boost their bottom line.”

In a separate statement reported by USA TODAY, Murphy, whose son plays in a Black Bear-run league, said: “Black Bear ownership’s roots are in private equity. They see my son’s hockey experience as a chance to make a massive amount of money. They are using youth sports to get rich.”

Sen. Cory Booker: “The cost of youth sports has gotten out of control. Parents are getting squeezed, kids are being shut out, and big businesses are cashing in. Playing sports as a kid changed the trajectory of my life, and I know it’s done the same for millions of others.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal: “Wealthy investors have found a way to take the fun out of kids’ sports. The Let Kids Play Act puts a stop to this nickel-and-diming.”

Rep. Angie Craig: “Limiting kids’ access to activities that help them stay active and build lifelong skills, while putting the squeeze on working parents who are already struggling with the sky-high cost of supporting a family is unacceptable and wrong.”

Rep. Pat Ryan: “It’s outrageous. Parents are already getting crushed by costs everywhere they turn, and now corporate investors are coming after one of the most important parts of childhood, too.”

The bill is endorsed by the American Economic Liberties Project, Groundwork Action, Sports Fans Coalition, Open Markets Institute, and Americans for Tax Fairness.

Lina Khan, former FTC Chair: “No kid should have to quit a sport because private equity has made it too expensive. It’s great to see this bill take on the vulture investors preying on families.”

Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at AELP: “Private equity has transformed youth sports from a public good into a profit center, with children and families paying the price. The Let Kids Play Act goes after their vulture practices with conviction, banning the consolidation, debt loading, and asset stripping that have hollowed out local clubs.”

Brian Hess, Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition: “Buying up local leagues, forcing families into pay-to-play schemes, preventing kids from playing in other tournaments, and harvesting children’s biometric data for profit doesn’t just drain working families’ bank accounts, it sucks the soul out of youth sports.”

Brendan Ballou, author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America: “Private equity firms threaten to destroy kids’ sports the way they are destroying so many other industries. This is a problem that will get worse unless Congress steps in.”

Alex Jacquez, Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Action: “Firms are piling on junk fees, locking families into predatory contracts, and mandating expensive travel programs, all so Wall Street investors can squeeze more profits out of kids and parents.”

On the operator side, Black Bear Sports Group, the company singled out by name in USA TODAY’s reporting and Sen. Murphy’s public remarks, was the only named operator to publicly respond to the bill announcement. Spokesperson Evan Nierman said in an emailed statement: “We look forward to engaging with lawmakers and sharing all the ways we are growing youth hockey at four times the national rate, providing free and low-cost programs and letting more kids play by saving and revitalizing ice rinks.”

A counterpoint came from Tom Farrey, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society program, who said on LinkedIn that the practices the bill targets “merit scrutiny” but argued the bill has “fundamental flaws.” Farrey wrote that many of the practices predated private equity’s entry into the sector and called for ecosystem-wide guardrails, mandatory provider registration with the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and a Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports framework that would apply to both for-profit and nonprofit operators.

What This Means for the Industry

The economic backdrop the sponsors cite includes a $40 billion industry, roughly twice the National Football League’s annual revenue. Participation costs have risen 46% since 2019. Average club sport costs exceed $5,000 per year per child, with the upper end reaching $25,000 a year for some families. Lower-income families participate at roughly half the rate of wealthier families.

PE-backed platforms in youth sports include:

• KKR / Varsity Brands: $4.75 billion acquisition covering cheerleading apparel, uniforms, and sports equipment
• BPEA EQT / IMG Academy: $1.25 billion purchase of the Bradenton training and boarding academy
• Juggernaut Capital / 3STEP Sports: Backing the platform that reports 1,800-plus club teams across nine sports
• Unrivaled Sports: Co-founded by Apollo co-founder Josh Harris (Forbes-reported net worth $8.5 billion) and Blackstone senior executive David Blitzer ($3.1 billion), secured a $120 million investment led by Dick’s Sporting Goods. The Unrivaled brand family includes Cooperstown All Star Village, Ripken Baseball Experiences, Rocker B Ranch, Diamond Nation, We Are Camp, and Unrivaled Flag. Harris and Blitzer’s pro sports holdings (Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, Washington Commanders) are separate from Unrivaled.
• Black Bear Sports Group: An operating company of Blackstreet Capital Holdings, operates 47 rinks across 11 states. The company at the center of USA TODAY’s investigation and Sen. Murphy’s personal experience.

As of filing, none of the PE-backed platforms named above other than Black Bear has publicly responded to the bill.

Strategy, Politics, and What’s Next

The sponsors acknowledged that near-term passage is unlikely under Republican control of both chambers and the Trump White House, but framed the introduction as serving multiple purposes.

Asked directly about the political math, Deluzio pointed to common ground: “I know that Republican constituents all over the country also care about sports and want their kids to have a shot to compete. Kids should not be the collateral damage in this private equity takeover of sports.”

Murphy was more candid about the strategy: “Until we can get private equity out of sports, we want to do whatever is necessary to curb the most abusive practices. So, we’re going to fight to get this bill done, but the public relations effect here may have a shaming impact on the industry, which will help kids and families.”

Three things to watch in the coming months. First, whether the bill picks up Republican co-sponsors from sports-heavy districts. Second, the Michigan Attorney General’s investigation into Black Bear, which operates under existing state authority regardless of whether the federal bill advances. Third, how PE-backed operators respond to the public-policy spotlight. Even without passage, the introduction puts pricing transparency, fee disclosure, multi-year contract structures, stay-to-play arrangements, exclusivity clauses, and youth athlete data practices on the public-policy agenda for the remainder of 2026.

For nonprofit operators, the bill is not directly restrictive (only PE-controlled entities trigger the designation), but the broad definition of “youth sports” means any nonprofit that partners with, licenses to, or is acquired by a PE-backed platform would find its counterparty subject to divestiture and certification rules.