Private Equity Targets Youth Sports
Kids’ sports have become an expensive, high-pressure affair. An industry famous for squeezing out value claims it will make the experience better.
Cooperstown All Star Village is located on a southwest-facing slope in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in Oneonta, New York, about 20 miles south of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Like many local businesses, the All Star Village uses the Cooperstown name, which is closely associated with the Hall of Fame, despite not being in the town itself. On a humid Wednesday morning in July, Rick Abbott, the CEO of CASV, stops his golf cart to show me the view from the top of the hill. “Our topography is unbelievable,” Abbott remarks as we overlook 12 baseball fields surrounded by the woods of the nearby Oneonta Country Club golf course.
Throughout the summer, thousands of kids from across the United States come to play baseball on this hillside. CASV hosts 14 consecutive tournaments, with around 70 teams, primarily consisting of 12-year-old boys, arriving every six days. Last year, the village hosted a record 12,000 players from 763 teams, a number expected to be surpassed this summer.
