Be warned: Private equity is about to increase the ruining of youth sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:they are buying the dance competitions too....

And dance studios. District Dance is owned by PE. It was a quiet sale and is slowly morphing. . It is really important to enroll your kids in locally owned and operated small businesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we invent PE that buys up other PE and rips them a new one by driving their useless firms into the ground? Fire all of their staff and replace PE dorks with AI.

This was awesome. I'd empty out my Coinstar jar to be your first angel investor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the gymnastics world:

PE has started buying gymnastics gyms, eliminating competitive programs, squeezing as much money as possible out of recreational classes and ninja classes, and closing them. There are elite/national-level athletes who have had to change gyms or even move states because of these closures.

My daughter trains at a facility owned by a venture capitalist. They seem very invested in it for personal reasons but there’s a cloud hanging over things because who knows how long this investment will keep his interest.

I heard the other day that Bull City in Durham is moving the vast majority of their team practices to daytime hours and forcing the girls to homeschool. All presumably to add more rec and ninja classes. Families are leaving for other gyms. It's the exact same playbook as what they did at First in Flight near Charlotte. Eventually the teams were cut completely, and then FiF later closed. Interestingly enough, not only were FiF and Bull City owned by the same PE group, FiF's upper level coach went to Bull City and some of their top gymnasts followed. The families who followed must be having deja vu.

Yes. It’s the talk of our gym because they have some overlap with some elites who were caught up in the FIF closure originally. Such a mess.

Anyone not in gymnastics should google Powers gymnastics to see the kind of cheery song and dance PE gives just before they slash programs and bleed children’s sports dry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we invent PE that buys up other PE and rips them a new one by driving their useless firms into the ground? Fire all of their staff and replace PE dorks with AI.

This was awesome. I'd empty out my Coinstar jar to be your first angel investor.

[phone]
Anything to stop the vicious PE disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youth sports are already ruined. Too many adults too invested, literally and figuratively. Too much specialization too early. Too much pressure on kids. Too much money.

[phone]

Every parent we know who has a kid in travel sports is way to over involved, takes it way too seriously and will get extremely defensive about the amount of time and money involved. I yearn for the days of kids doing rec league and then playing for their school team. This current model seems unsustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the gymnastics world:

PE has started buying gymnastics gyms, eliminating competitive programs, squeezing as much money as possible out of recreational classes and ninja classes, and closing them. There are elite/national-level athletes who have had to change gyms or even move states because of these closures.

My daughter trains at a facility owned by a venture capitalist. They seem very invested in it for personal reasons but there’s a cloud hanging over things because who knows how long this investment will keep his interest.

I heard the other day that Bull City in Durham is moving the vast majority of their team practices to daytime hours and forcing the girls to homeschool. All presumably to add more rec and ninja classes. Families are leaving for other gyms. It's the exact same playbook as what they did at First in Flight near Charlotte. Eventually the teams were cut completely, and then FiF later closed. Interestingly enough, not only were FiF and Bull City owned by the same PE group, FiF's upper level coach went to Bull City and some of their top gymnasts followed. The families who followed must be having deja vu.

Yes. It’s the talk of our gym because they have some overlap with some elites who were caught up in the FIF closure originally. Such a mess.

Anyone not in gymnastics should google Powers gymnastics to see the kind of cheery song and dance PE gives just before they slash programs and bleed children’s sports dry.

I was told earlier today that they've eliminated elite and development program teams at Bull City. What a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This video gives insight into how private investors are viewing sports purely as a means to ensure returns on investment and not a mechanism to develop American youth

There are so many issues with youth sports that will worsen over the next decade..

https://youtu.be/pNrYZ0wOcSQ?si=UtL1IN_wgG0lHson&t=246

"This is not a social impact fund. This is about commercial returns for our investors."

So? What’s wrong with that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youth sports are already ruined. Too many adults too invested, literally and figuratively. Too much specialization too early. Too much pressure on kids. Too much money.

[phone]

Every parent we know who has a kid in travel sports is way to over involved, takes it way too seriously and will get extremely defensive about the amount of time and money involved. I yearn for the days of kids doing rec league and then playing for their school team. This current model seems unsustainable.

I don’t view it any differently than the overly involved tiger parents who have their kid in every STEM camp and academic enrichment class available starting in pre-k.