Key Takeaways
- Dick’s Sporting Goods drew 10,800 applicants for roughly 60 spots on its 2026 Varsity Team creator roster, per Digiday, up from 5,300 a year earlier.
- Kai Cenat’s Streamer University peaked at 1.2 million concurrent Twitch viewers and generated nearly 58 million watch hours, per Digiday.
- Per IAB’s 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, retail brands planned $12.3 billion in creator spending in 2025, a 38% increase year over year.
- More than 70% of parents say their Gen Alpha child has asked for a product after seeing an influencer use it, per Digital Voices research.
The biggest names in retail are no longer renting influencers one campaign at a time. They are building owned creator rosters, and the numbers behind youth sports creator marketing suggest this industry could be the next logical market for the model.
The Cohort Model Has Already Been Proven
Dick’s Sporting Goods offers the clearest sports example. Its Varsity Team is an application-based creator program whose selected members receive paid content contracts. The program drew 10,800 applicants for roughly 60 spots in 2026, up from 5,300 applicants for 50 spots the year before, per Digiday. The 2025 cohort generated 2,500 pieces of content and 40 million organic views, per Digiday, appearing in more than 20 campaigns for Dick’s and partner brands including adidas, New Balance, On, and Hoka.
The model extends well beyond sporting goods. Ulta Beauty runs the Ulta Beauty Collective. Sephora runs the Sephora Squad. The Home Depot launched a creator portal on December 10, 2025 with thousands of creators already enrolled, per the company. Starbucks is piloting a custom TikTok Creator Network that pays select employee creators through ad revenue sharing, building on its 2024 Green Apron Creators program, per Marketing Dive. LinkedIn plans to scale to as many as 4,000 creator-led events per year, per internal documents reviewed by Business Insider.
The results explain the spending. Per Sprout Social’s 2025 Influencer Marketing Report, 92% of marketers say sponsored creator content delivers better reach than organic content from their own brand accounts. Per IAB, retail brands planned $12.3 billion in creator spending in 2025, up 38% in a single year.
Then there is the event version of the same idea. Kai Cenat’s Streamer University, a five-day creator bootcamp streamed live in July, peaked at 1.2 million concurrent viewers and generated nearly 58 million watch hours, per Digiday. At least 16 brands partnered with the event, including State Farm and Fortnite. Zaxby’s owned social channels gained more than 20,000 followers during the event, an increase in follower growth of over 1,000% versus the prior period, per the company’s VP of brand strategy.
Youth Sports Already Has the Creator Roster. It Just Has Not Been Organized
Opinion: no category has a deeper bench of ready-made creators than youth sports, because the creators are already in the building every weekend.
Start with the parents. The mom filming from the bleachers and the dad running the team group chat are already the most trusted media channel in the category. They document tournaments, review gear, compare facilities, and reach an audience of other parents making identical purchase decisions. More than 70% of parents report their Gen Alpha child has asked for a product after seeing an influencer use or endorse it, per Digital Voices research cited by the Influencer Marketing Factory. In youth sports, the creator and the customer are often the same person.
Then add the coaches. Training content, drill breakdowns, and development advice are among the most searched topics in the category, and the credible voices delivering it coach real teams in real gyms. A brand roster that includes trusted local and national coaching voices earns a kind of authority no ad unit can buy.
Then add the athletes themselves. Teen athletes are already building audiences around their sport, and with parent-managed accounts and proper guardrails, they are the category’s native talent pipeline. Dick’s built the Varsity Team on exactly this mix of athlete and lifestyle creators.
The audience math supports all of it. Per Oliver Wyman Forum survey research, only 40% of Gen Z says they watch live sports on cable TV, versus 51% of millennials and 61% of Gen X. The families behind a youth sports industry YSBR has reported at more than $54 billion are on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, not linear television.
Livestreamed Youth Events Could Fund the Games Themselves
Now take the model one step further, onto the field.
Millions of youth games, tournaments, and showcases happen every weekend with no coverage layer beyond a parent’s phone. Creator-led livestreams over those events, with parents, coaches, and creators calling the action, would do for youth sports what creator broadcasts have done elsewhere: turn an unwatched inventory of live moments into programming brands can attach to.
Streamer University showed the commercial ceiling. At least 16 brands partnered across five days of live creator programming, and one sponsor generated more than 30 million views from clips alone, per Digiday. Every one of those mechanics, live integrations, gifted moments, clip amplification, translates to a tournament weekend.
That opens a revenue stream youth sports badly needs. Sponsorship dollars attached to livestreamed events could underwrite some of the real costs of participation: tournament fees, facility time, travel, equipment. Brands get authentic reach into the exact households that spend. Families and operators get a new funding source that does not come out of their own pockets. The cost of play is the industry’s most persistent problem, and creator-led coverage is one of the few models that attacks it with new money rather than redistributed money.
A Roster Is Not a Network
The cohort race is underway, and youth sports will not be exempt. The more interesting question is what comes after.
A roster of creators posting individually is talent without programming. The brands that separate from the pack will be the ones that organize parents, coaches, and athletes into something bigger: consistent, scheduled content built around the rhythms of the youth sports calendar, live coverage included, with commerce connected to every touchpoint. Streamer University showed what five days of coordinated creator programming can produce. Nobody has built the 52-week version for the families who live this category every weekend.
Someone will. The applicant list at Dick’s suggests the talent is already waiting.
YSBR provides this content on an “as is” basis without any warranties, express or implied. We do not assume responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, legality, reliability, or use of the information, including any images, videos, or licenses associated with this article. For any concerns, including copyright issues or complaints, please contact YSBR directly.
- Source: Digiday, Alyssa Mercante, July 27, 2026, https://digiday.com/media/kai-cenats-streamer-u-was-a-masterclass-for-brands-looking-to-tap-content-creators/
- Source: Digiday, March 2026, https://digiday.com/marketing/creators-as-the-new-storytellers-over-10000-apply-to-be-part-of-dicks-sporting-goods-creator-program/
- Source: PR Newswire (Dick’s Sporting Goods), February 10, 2025, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dicks-sporting-goods-opens-internal-influencer-program-to-the-public-302372519.html
- Source: IAB 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, November 20, 2025, https://www.iab.com/insights/2025-creator-economy-ad-spend-strategy-report/
- Source: Sprout Social 2025 Influencer Marketing Report, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing-statistics/
- Source: Oliver Wyman Forum, October 2023, https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2023/oct/gen-z-reshaping-professional-sports-economics.html
- Source: The Home Depot, December 10, 2025, https://corporate.homedepot.com/news/company/new-home-depot-creator-portal-connects-influencers-home-improvement-enthusiasts
- Source: Marketing Dive, June 23, 2026, https://www.marketingdive.com/news/starbucks-pilots-tiktok-program-for-boosting-employee-generated-content/823565/
- Source: Social Media Today (citing Business Insider), May 14, 2026, https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-plans-to-host-gated-creator-led-events/820319/
- Source: Influencer Marketing Factory (citing Digital Voices), https://theinfluencermarketingfactory.com/how-to-reach-gen-alpha/
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.
Youth Sports Business Report resources
- Newsletter: Subscribe to Youth Sports HQ, the most-read newsletter on the business of youth sports, delivering curated youth sports industry news and analysis to thousands of industry leaders every week.
- Research: Read the Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, an exclusive YSBR and Kinetica Group analysis of market size, parent spending, and marketplace opportunities.
- Jobs: Browse the YSBR Youth Sports Job Board, the most comprehensive destination for careers in youth sports, with hundreds of active listings across facility management, league operations, coaching, sports technology, and marketing.
- Services: Find vetted partners and solutions for your organization in the YSBR Services Hub, connecting youth sports operators, brands, and investors with verified providers across the industry.
- About: Learn more about Youth Sports Business Report and our editorial standards.
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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.
