6 Ways to Grow Youth Sports Revenue Beyond Registration

If you run a youth sports organization, you probably think of registration fees as your main source of money. For most programs, though, those fees don’t come close to covering the real cost of running things.

Nick Naso, Chief Revenue Officer at LeagueApps, knows this firsthand. He’s the treasurer of his son’s high school basketball program in Alpharetta, Georgia, which costs about $125,000 a year to run. Team fees cover only about a third of that, so the rest has to come from sponsorships, fundraising, and apparel.

At NextUp 2026, Nick sat down with a panel of operators and partners to talk about where that extra money can come from:

• Kelci Tyson, CEO of Willow Reserve Capital in Dallas, which invests in youth sports and facilities
• Mike Juels, founder and CEO of Game Breaker, which started in safety gear and now makes apparel and uniforms
• Frank Decembrino, co-founder and CEO of Clubhouse Partners, which runs two baseball clubs, a strength and conditioning business, and a 15,000-square-foot indoor facility near Philadelphia
• Durward Williams of Sports Endeavors, home of Soccer.com and 431 Sports, which supplies uniforms to youth travel clubs nationwide
• Jace Robinson of Elkhorn Athletics Association, which serves 8,000 athletes across 10 sports outside Omaha, Nebraska

Here’s what they shared, and how you can put it to work.

1. Turn uniforms from a cost into a revenue stream

Durward’s company works with about 2,000 youth clubs, ranging from 25 players to 35,000. Roughly 85% of them add a fee on top of their uniform package, and this year that adds up to about $10 million flowing back to clubs. It’s one of the easiest ways to raise money without asking families for a separate donation.

Most travel clubs add at least a 10% rebate, and some of the bigger ones go higher. High school programs tend to use pop-up team stores that stay open for about three weeks, usually with 10% to 20% going back to the booster club or school. If the logo is already on file, a store like that can be live within a week.

The smartest setups are layered. Players see a required package at checkout, then recommended items based on their team level, and finally fan wear for parents and relatives. Orders ship straight to each family’s home, which takes the work off your staff.

Events are another opportunity. Durward’s team runs on-site retail at about 175 events a year and brings in brand partners like Nike and Adidas, who have deeper pockets than most clubs. Those partners sell event-branded gear, and part of the proceeds goes back to the organizer.

What to do:

• Ask your uniform supplier what rebate options they offer, and build a 10% to 20% fee into your package.
• Set up an online team store with required, recommended, and fan wear tiers.
• If you host events, talk to your apparel partner about on-site retail with a share of the sales.

2. Listen to families, then partner for what they’re missing

Every year, Frank’s clubs survey families about what they like, what they don’t, and what they’d want added. One request showed up in the top five of every single survey: strength and conditioning. Clubhouse didn’t offer it, so families were going elsewhere to get it.

When Frank dug in, he found that about half of his players were training with the same local strength coach, a former player who’d built a successful business of his own. Families didn’t talk much about the workouts. They talked about the impact he’d had on their kids.

So Frank invited him to coffee. The coach had hit a ceiling and needed help with the business side, which happened to be Clubhouse’s strength. That led to a joint venture. Clubhouse built out space for him inside its facility and helped him grow his original location, too.

Frank was clear that the money and equipment were the easy part. The hard part was finding an operator whose values matched theirs. He also kept the pricing the same as the coach’s original location.

To get families on board, Clubhouse introduced the service at its fall orientation without leading with cost, and offered free evaluations so parents could see how it tied into player development. Frank follows what he calls a rule of 40%: if you stick with something, expect about 40% growth each cycle, and give it 12 to 18 months before you decide if it’s working.

What to do:

• Survey families once a year and look for requests that keep coming back.
• Find out where your players spend money outside your program.
• Before building something new, look for a trusted local operator you could partner with.
• Launch new services with free evaluations or trials, and give them at least a year to prove themselves.

3. Simplify your registration pricing

When Jace joined Elkhorn Athletics Association about two years ago, he saw a pricing structure that he called an absolute mess. Each of its 10 sports had its own director and its own prices. Registration windows ran anywhere from two to five months, and prices changed with every age group. The only thing every sport had in common was an early bird price, a standard price, and a late fee.

From a parent’s point of view, especially one with kids in several sports, it was impossible to predict costs. As Jace told his board, it made the organization look like it didn’t know what it was doing.

So they tested a new approach with fall tackle football:

• They dropped late fees. Most late registrations came with a complaint, like a family who’d been on a cruise, and staff ended up waiving the fee most of the time anyway.
• They shifted the prices up a level. The old standard price became the new early price, and the old late fee price became the new standard price.
• They shortened the window to two months: one month of early registration, then one month at the standard price.
• They tied the discount to email. Families needed a code from the email list to get the early price, which also fixed a problem with low email engagement.

It worked better than expected. Early registrations jumped, and even though they lost a few sign-ups in the second month, they still came out ahead. Jace said that under the old pricing, the drop in registrations would have cost them about $16,000. Instead, they ended up roughly $22,000 up, largely because they were no longer losing money on deep early bird discounts.

What to do:

• Use one pricing structure across all your sports so families can predict costs.
• Replace late fees with a simple early price and standard price.
• Keep registration windows short and clear.
• Make your early discount a reason to join your email list.

4. Bring parents in as partners

Nick made a point that’s easy to overlook. Keeping families you already have is a revenue stream too, because finding new ones usually costs more than holding on to the ones you’ve got.

Kelci learned that while stepping in to run a Dallas soccer club after an ownership change. She forecast about 200 kids for the first year. Within three months, they had about 550. She credits much of that to how they talked to parents. Instead of selling the badge or the pathway, she asked every coach to talk about player development, and parents bought in.

Kelci believes most clubs overlook how much parents want to help. It’s easy to see them as a nuisance, but she sees people who care deeply about their kids and are ready to pitch in. She pointed to her kids’ elementary school, where the PTA raises about $60,000 a year from donations, one color run, and a couple of fundraisers. Her advice: bring that same PTA model into your club.

Her club is already doing it, with a color run, a silent auction, and a tournament that parents help plan and run. She suggests one-year terms for parent volunteers so the group stays fresh and nobody gets too settled.

She also had a surprising tip about difficult parents. Your loudest, most frustrating parents often care the most. Sit down with them, figure out why they’re frustrated, and then give them a role. Once they feel heard, they can become your biggest champions. As Kelci put it, one mom can bring you 100 families faster than any social media campaign.

What to do:

• Start a club PTA or parent committee with one-year terms.
• Plan one or two family-friendly fundraisers, like a color run or silent auction.
• Meet one-on-one with your most frustrated parents and find them a role.
• Train coaches to talk about player development when they talk to parents.

5. Sell what families are already buying

Mike’s company started in head safety gear, and his core belief is simple: you’re not selling stuff, you’re selling what it does. For Game Breaker, safety drives participation. When parents feel their kids are safe, they sign up and stay. And to Mike, safety goes beyond equipment to include mental health, training, recovery, and nutrition.

His biggest point was about timing. When a 10,000-kid league fills up in 30 days, parents already have their wallets out. If you don’t offer what they need, they’ll drive to Dick’s or Academy and spend it there.

He sees this all the time with flag football leagues that require mouthpieces but don’t sell them. As he put it, that’s low-hanging fruit. You’ve built the trust and the relationship, so you should be the one capturing that spending.

Nick added the parent’s side of it. Families are busier than ever, so anything they can buy right in the registration flow or straight from your email is one less errand. Making it easy saves them time, and that’s real value to them.

What to do:

• List every item your program requires or recommends, and check whether you sell it.
• Add those items to your registration checkout.
• Promote gear and add-ons in your registration confirmation emails.
• Talk to your partners about fulfillment that ships straight to families’ homes.

6. None of it works if families don’t know about it

Nick closed with the theme that ran through every story. You can put a lot of time, money, and staff into a team store, a new training program, or a parent fundraiser. But if you aren’t communicating with families clearly and often, the chances it pays off are small.

You can already see this in the panel’s stories. Frank’s strength program sends families regular reports and evaluations, so nobody is left wondering what happens inside the gym. Jace tied his early pricing to the email list. Kelci grew her club by changing how coaches talked to parents.

And when families stay informed and involved, they stick around. That means less of your bucket to refill each season, and more room to grow into new sports, programs, and places.

What to do:

• Map out when and how you’ll tell families about each offering during the year.
• Use moments you already have, like orientation, registration, and confirmation emails.
• Report back on what kids are getting from paid services.

Your revenue checklist

Pick two or three of these to start with this season.

• Add a 10% to 20% rebate to your uniform package
• Launch an online team store with required, recommended, and fan wear tiers
• Survey families about what they want added
• Find a local partner for your most-requested service
• Use one pricing structure across all sports
• Replace late fees with early and standard pricing
• Start a parent committee with one-year terms
• Sell required gear during registration
• Build a communication calendar for families