Weekly News Roundup: The Biggest Headlines in the World of Youth Sports
Anwar Stetson
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On The SportsEngine Beat
The youth sports management and streaming platform is still making deals while parent company Versant explores a sale.
SportsEngine Play has landed a multi-year streaming partnership with Hype Nation Volleyball Network.
The tournament organizer will operate close to 100 events in 50 cities across 24 states in 2026.
SportsEngine said it will stream over 20K matches as part of the deal; it will also handle registration and scheduling at all Hype Nation events.
The tie-up comes out of SportsEngine’s partnership with The Sports Facilities Companies; SFC is also a Hype Nation partner and many of the events will be at venues operated by SFC.
Quick Take: If Versant holds onto SportsEngine, volleyball figures to be a big reason why. The platform is a major player in the youth space and the Comcast cable network spinoff company recently struck a TV deal with LOVB.
U.S. Soccer Launches Billionaire-Backed Platform
The Kang Women’s Institute will operate inside the Soccer Forward Foundation and “establish research-backed best practices to inform the training and wellbeing of women and girls at every level of the sport.”
Tech billionaire Michele Kang, who owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and several other women’s professional teams, seeded the launch. She has donated at least $55M to U.S. Soccer. and systems that do not reflect the realities of the women’s game.
The institute has begun work on a comprehensive national study to assess current and emerging needs at all levels:
- Injury prevention
- Mental health
- Workload management
- Menstrual health
- Transition from youth to elite competition
Girls Flag Football Continues To Grow
Two news items of note:
- New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation will donate $1M to the ECAC to form the nation’s biggest college women’s flag football league. Ten schools in the Northeast, ranging from D1 to D3, will participate in the first season starting in February; an additional five schools are committed for 2027. The format will be 7-on-7.
- Ashlea Kham, who stars for the U.S. women’s national team and Keiser University, has partnered with Unrivaled Sports. She will work with Unrivaled and its Unrivaled Flag vertical to build programming, including future clinics, events and showcases. She will also create social media content to promote the sport’s growth ahead of its inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Latest On Massive Project In Florida
The developers behind a proposed sprawling $1B mixed-use complex said they expect to break ground next month, according to Orlando Business Journal.
The Dynasty is privately-funded and will sit on 155 acres in Ocoee, about 15 minutes outside of Orlando.
- 17 multi-purpose fields
- Over 1K hotel rooms
- 500K square feet of commercial and restaurant space
- Projected annual economic impact of $540M
- Creation of 10K temporary jobs, 5K permanent ones
Montierre Development said it has obtained all permits and a final site plan layout will soon go before the city commission for approval. AECOM is involved in the project.
Parents Behaving Badly, Thanksgiving Edition
A brawl broke out during a youth football game in California on the holiday.
The incident was sparked by a coach/father who threw a punch at another adult and missed, hitting a kid.
Cops said they believe the man who threw the instigating punch was then knocked unconscious.
Parents from both teams allegedly ran onto the field, leading to several altercations. But most had left the field by the time police arrived.
