Key Takeaways
- Youth 4 Youth FC reports 294% year-over-year revenue growth with no outside capital, serving more than 1,000 players with roughly 50 coaches and ambassadors.
- Nike began sponsoring the organization’s college showcases in October 2025, keeping player participation free; one boys’ event drew about 1,800 applications for 65 roster spots.
- Scouts, clubs, and colleges pay nothing to attend showcases, and Y4Y sometimes covers their travel, an inversion of standard showcase economics.
- Founder Brando Babini says a future player-representation arm and expanded brand partnerships could fund his goal of serving 10,000 players for free.
Brando Babini started Youth 4 Youth FC at 16 with a $300 high school project budget. Five years later, the New York City organization sits at the center of the pay-to-play youth soccer debate with a structure few operators have attempted: paid, subscription-based player development on one side, and fully free, brand-funded college showcases on the other. Youth Sports Business Report sat down with Babini, now 21 and a part-time student at Brown University, to walk through how the business actually works. He told YSBR the company has grown revenue 294% year over year while remaining entirely bootstrapped, figures provided by the company.
The model is drawing attention beyond the trade press. Forbes and USA TODAY both profiled the organization this summer as the U.S. Men’s National Team’s round-of-16 World Cup exit renewed criticism of the American development system. But neither outlet got into the revenue architecture, the showcase economics, or the long-term monetization plan. That was the focus of our conversation.
Two Buckets: Paid Development, Free Exposure
Babini describes the revenue architecture in two parts. “We think about the model in two primary buckets: development and exposure,” he told YSBR. Development includes subscription-based individualized training and mentorship, supported by what the company calls a need-blind scholarship model for players who demonstrate ability and financial need. Exposure, meaning showcases in front of college and professional scouts, is sponsorship-backed and free to every participant.
“The goal is to build a sustainable business where the revenue-generating parts of the organization help us protect the part of the model we believe should always remain accessible: opportunity,” Babini said.
The exposure side got its anchor sponsor in October 2025, when Nike came aboard, per Forbes. The partnership extends beyond showcase funding. Babini pointed to a recent activation in which Y4Y and Nike converted an abandoned bank into a street football experience. “Nike brought resources and a platform that allowed us to think bigger, while we helped localize and authenticate the experience for the community we’re serving,” he said.
How Free Entry Changes Showcase Economics
Most college showcases charge players registration fees, and many charge attending programs as well. Y4Y inverted both sides. Players attend free, and Babini told YSBR that scouts, clubs, and colleges also pay nothing, with Y4Y in some instances covering scout travel costs to encourage attendance.
The wager is that removing cost barriers deepens the talent pool, which in turn attracts more scouts. The early data supports it. About 1,800 boys applied for 65 spots at the organization’s first showcase, per Forbes, with scouts from FC Cincinnati, New York City FC, MLS NEXT Pro, the Guatemala Under-23 national team, and more than a dozen colleges in attendance. Fifty-one participants found schools. Recent events on Randall’s Island in late July drew 65 boys and 65 girls across two days.
“When it is not pay-to-play, you can get the best talent around,” Selvin Jimenez, head of scouting for the Guatemala Under-23 national team, told Forbes.
Babini says the organization deliberately avoids ranking the scouts it admits. A validated junior-college scout receives the same access as a professional one, because the goal is matching players to appropriate levels rather than funneling the best players to the biggest clubs.
Content as the Acquisition Funnel
Y4Y generates more than 30 million organic content views annually, a company-provided figure, and Babini is explicit that content functions as the business funnel rather than a branding exercise. “When content performs well, players see the program, want to learn more and ultimately apply,” he said. “We’ve intentionally built calls to action into that ecosystem so attention can translate into participation.”
Content is also serving as market research. The organization already receives applications from cities where it does not operate, data Babini says will inform expansion decisions alongside available infrastructure and partnerships in those markets. Philadelphia, Dallas, and Chicago are on the list of targets he has named publicly.
The coaching model doubles as a retention mechanism. Y4Y’s roughly 50 coaches and ambassadors are active college and professional players only a few years older than the athletes they train, per USA TODAY. “Our coaches and mentors aren’t talking about something they experienced 20 years ago,” Babini told YSBR. “That creates a different level of trust and relatability with young athletes.”
Can an Agency Arm Fund 10,000 Free Players?
Babini calls his stated goal of serving 10,000 of the country’s top youth players for free “absolutely a moonshot,” and he laid out two mechanisms that could make the economics work.
The first is player representation. “If you’re serving 10,000 players and five or 10 reach that level, there could be an opportunity to represent them and participate economically in that success,” he said. The approach would effectively make free development the top of a funnel whose monetization happens at the professional end, a structure that would introduce new regulatory considerations around agent licensing and NCAA rules as it develops.
The second is expanded brand partnership revenue, on the theory that a community of 10,000 highly engaged youth players carries substantial value to sponsors. Babini said Y4Y looks for partners “willing to contribute more than money.”
He also left the door open to the model traveling beyond soccer, though not necessarily under Y4Y’s own operation. “That doesn’t necessarily mean Y4Y needs to operate those programs ourselves, but we can share what we’ve learned and potentially help others apply the model,” he said.
A Bootstrapped Answer to a Billion-Dollar Question
Babini is careful to say he has no objection to youth sports operating as a business. “The problem is when you barricade talented players out of that business simply because they can’t afford to participate,” he told YSBR. He argues clubs can cut unnecessary costs, citing a conversation with a young player who traveled to Chicago just to play three friendlies.
Whether the two-bucket structure holds at ten times its current size is the open question. The development subscriptions and Nike sponsorship currently fund the free layer; a national footprint would require either significantly larger brand commitments or the representation revenue that does not yet exist. Babini says his next conversation with Nike is about exactly that. “We’ve done this. It’s impactful. It’s a proven concept,” he told Forbes. “How do we now amplify that impact?”
Source: Youth Sports Business Report interview with Brando Babini, founder, Youth 4 Youth FC, August 2026
Source: Forbes, Michael Lewis, August 10, 2026, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellewis/2026/08/10/youth-4-youth-helping-to-level-off-soccers-uneven-playing-field/
Source: USA TODAY, Stephen Borelli, July 18, 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2026/07/18/youth-4-youth-fc-team-usa-world-cup-youth-soccer/90950145007/
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About Youth Sports Business Report
Youth Sports Business Report (YSBR) is the largest and most trusted media platform covering the business of youth sports worldwide. YSBR delivers youth sports news, market intelligence, and original analysis daily across facilities, sponsorships, private equity, NIL, sports technology, and league operations. With more than 50,000 followers, YSBR is the leading source of youth sports industry news for the investors, owners, operators, and brands shaping the future of youth sports.
How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
Who founded Youth Sports Business Report?
Youth Sports Business Report was founded by Cameron Korab, a sports marketing veteran with more than a decade in the industry and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Korab also co-founded Vertical Sports, a sports marketing advisory serving brands across youth, college, and pro sports.
What does YSBR cover?
YSBR delivers original reporting and market intelligence on youth sports facilities, youth sports technology, sponsorship and brand partnerships, private equity and venture capital deals, NIL policy, coaching development, equipment and apparel, tournaments and events, and community sports initiatives. Readers include industry executives, investors, facility owners and operators, league administrators, and youth sports parents.
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Hosted by Cameron Korab, founder of Youth Sports Business Report, Jr. Sports Marketing features candid 1-on-1 conversations with the brands, athletes, leagues, and innovators building the future of youth sports. Each episode breaks down how the smartest brands are activating, building equity, and winning with youth sports families. If you’re an operator, founder, investor, or marketer trying to understand where this space is headed, this is your show.
Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
