Key Takeaways
- Capacity Sports Group acquires Play9 Sports, adding 73 fields across five Midwest markets including the greater St. Louis metro area
- Play9 grew from a single 20-team tournament in 2019 to more than 100 annual events and 2,800 team registrations
- The deal is CSG’s first acquisition since forming through the Prep Baseball and Bullpen Tournaments merger earlier this year
- CSG expects to operate nearly 150 diamonds and fields nationwide by the end of 2026
- Play9 co-founders Matt Stembridge and Jimmie Louthan will remain in leadership roles
CSG’s First Acquisition Under the New Platform
Capacity Sports Group, the youth sports platform and venue management company formed through the merger of Prep Baseball and Bullpen Tournaments, has completed its first acquisition. The deal brings Play9 Sports, a tournament operator based in the greater St. Louis area, under the CSG umbrella.
Play9 operates 65 fields across five locations in Missouri and Illinois, covering high school baseball, youth baseball, and fastpitch softball. Combined with the addition of Plummer Family Park, an eight-field turf complex in Edwardsville, Ill., the transaction gives CSG 73 new fields under management.
“Play9 represents exactly the type of organization we built Capacity Sports Group to attract and support,” said Ken Kocher, CEO of Capacity Sports Group.
From 20 Teams to 2,800 Registrations in Six Years
Play9 was founded in 2019 by Jimmie Louthan and Matt Stembridge with a single high school baseball tournament. Since then, the operation has scaled to more than 100 events per year and 2,800 team registrations. The company expanded into fastpitch softball and youth baseball in 2024 and added partnerships that stretched its footprint into Lincoln, Neb., Louisville, Ky., and additional Missouri markets.
Play9’s field inventory spans St. Louis (26 fields), Normal, Ill. (15), Columbia, Mo. (10), Joplin, Mo. (8), and Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. (6). Both co-founders will stay on to lead regional tournament operations.
What This Means for the Midwest Tournament Landscape
The acquisition deepens CSG’s presence in the Midwest corridor, a region dense with competitive travel baseball and softball programs. With Plummer Family Park adding turf capacity near St. Louis, CSG now controls a sizable network of fields in a geography that draws teams from across multiple states.
CSG’s model is built around integrating facilities, events, scouting, media, technology, and teams under one platform. For acquired operators like Play9, the pitch is straightforward: keep the local relationships and brand identity, gain access to national infrastructure and scale.
By year-end 2026, CSG expects to operate nearly 150 diamonds and fields across premier complexes nationwide. Play9 sets the template for how the company plans to grow through regional operator partnerships.
A Pattern Worth Watching
CSG’s approach reflects a broader trend in youth sports: platform companies acquiring proven regional operators to build national footprints without starting from scratch. The playbook relies on field control, event volume, and data infrastructure as the connective tissue.
For tournament operators across the country, the question is increasingly whether to scale independently or plug into a larger network. For families and clubs in the Midwest, the near-term effect is more fields, more events, and a growing connection between regional play and national scouting infrastructure.
Source: Prep Baseball Report, Prep Baseball Staff, March 23, 2026
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