Key Takeaways
- GameChanger generated close to $150 million in FY25 sales with roughly a 40% CAGR since 2017, per DICK’S August 2026 investor presentation
- DICK’S cut full-year non-GAAP EPS guidance to $11 to $12 from $13.50 to $14.50, sending shares down nearly 20% premarket
- The Foot Locker segment posted a $31.9 million Q2 operating loss and now carries a full-year loss outlook of $40 million to $80 million
- A new $99 per year paid loyalty tier, ScoreCard+, launched in July 2026 on top of a roughly 30 million member database
DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc. reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on August 25, 2026 that missed Wall Street expectations and came with a steep cut to full-year profit guidance, driven almost entirely by its newly acquired Foot Locker business. Yet inside the same report, the company’s youth sports ecosystem posted some of its strongest numbers on record. GameChanger, the DICK’S Media Network, the ScoreCard loyalty program, and World Cup-driven soccer demand were each cited by management as the assets offsetting margin pressure across athletic footwear retail. For youth sports operators, the quarter is a clear read on where the largest sports retailer in the U.S. sees durable growth.
The Quarter: Strong Core, Expensive Sneaker Problem
Consolidated net sales rose 53.2% to $5.59 billion, including a $1.74 billion contribution from Foot Locker, according to the company’s earnings release. Adjusted EPS of $3.53 fell short of the $3.78 analyst consensus and was down from $4.38 a year earlier. The stock dropped 19.83% in premarket trading on the report.
The two banners told very different stories. The core DICK’S business delivered 4.9% comparable sales growth, outpacing the broader industry by roughly 200 basis points per management, with gross margin up 79 basis points. Foot Locker’s pro forma comps declined 3.6%, and the segment posted a $31.9 million operating loss. The company now guides to a full-year Foot Locker operating loss of $40 million to $80 million, reversed from a prior expectation of $110 million to $150 million in profit.
Executive Chairman Ed Stack attributed the pressure to excess inventory in legacy footwear silhouettes and an aggressive promotional environment, not weakening consumer demand. “I do not think this is a demand issue,” Stack said on the call, pointing to strength in running, cleats, and outdoor footwear.
How Big Is GameChanger’s Youth Sports Business?
The clearest youth sports data in the release comes from GameChanger, which DICK’S describes in its investor presentation as “the premier live streaming, scoring and statistics mobile app for youth sports.” Per the presentation, GameChanger’s FY25 results included:
Nearly $150 million in sales, close to a 40% sales CAGR since 2017, approximately 10 million unique active users, over 4 million average monthly active users, nearly 10 million games covered, over 1 million teams created annually, and more than 6 million hours of livestreamed video. The company said it expects continued strong GameChanger sales growth in 2026.
What changed this quarter is how management framed the asset. CFO Navdeep Gupta cited GameChanger and the DICK’S Media Network as direct drivers of merchandise margin expansion, saying on the call that these businesses “will start to become a bigger driver of the merch margin expansion” heading into 2027. In a quarter defined by promotional pricing pressure, a youth sports software platform was presented to investors as a margin offset, not a side project.
ScoreCard+ and the 30 Million Athlete Database
The company’s loyalty and data assets got their own strategic update. Per the investor presentation, the ScoreCard program counts approximately 30 million athletes driving more than 75% of sales, with the ScoreCard GOLD tier at roughly 8 million members representing about 50% of sales. In July 2026, DICK’S introduced ScoreCard+, a paid membership tier priced at $99 per year, which CEO Lauren Hobart said is designed for the company’s most engaged athletes and intended to increase purchase frequency and loyalty.
That database feeds the DICK’S Media Network, which the presentation credits with nearly 20 billion impressions, sourced to third-party media publishers, platforms, and ad servers. The company’s pitch to brands is explicit: the network lets advertisers “tap into the best dataset in youth sports” across the DICK’S ecosystem, including GameChanger. Hobart added on the call that GameChanger’s data and engagement directly support the media business by helping the company understand and serve the youth sports community.
World Cup Soccer, Cleats, and Collectors Clubhouse
Youth participation categories showed up repeatedly in the quarter’s bright spots. Management cited World Cup-related marketing, invested primarily through the company’s Adidas partnership, as a driver of Q2 results, and Hobart said the company believes the tournament “will be a catalyst for long-term growth in soccer participation, fan engagement, and consumer demand across the U.S.” Cleats, running, and outdoor footwear were named among the healthiest categories, and team sports and licensed product were called out as particularly strong.
Stack also laid out the footwear thesis in explicitly youth terms, telling analysts that kids need roughly five pairs of shoes: a sport-specific shoe, a running shoe for training, a weightlifting shoe, a recovery shoe, and a lifestyle shoe tied to their sport.
The experiential retail push continues on schedule. The company plans approximately 14 House of Sport and 20 Field House openings in 2026, and Stack said Collectors Clubhouse, the trading card concept operated in partnership with Michael Rubin’s Fanatics, is going into all House of Sport stores going forward and moving into a number of Field House locations. Stack described card collecting as “a great family activity” and said DICK’S intends to market the category more aggressively. Per the presentation, the company and its Foundation have also provided over $200 million in grants and sponsorships supporting youth athletes.
Funding a Sneaker Turnaround With Little League Streams
The synthesis from these two documents is direct. DICK’S is absorbing a Foot Locker segment that swung from a projected nine-figure profit to a projected loss in a single quarter, and the assets management pointed to as the counterweight are largely youth sports assets: a streaming and stats platform approaching $150 million in revenue, a media network built on youth sports data, a 30 million member loyalty base now carrying a paid tier, and participation-driven categories like cleats and team sports. Stack himself connected the two on the call, citing “more Little League games being streamed on GameChanger” as evidence of the company’s position at the intersection of sport and culture.
The near-term test arrives quickly. Management expects the promotional environment to persist at least through the fourth quarter, expects Q3 to be the most pressured period, and plans to report third-quarter results on November 24, 2026. That report will show whether the youth sports flywheel can keep outrunning the sneaker cleanup for another quarter.
Terms to Know
- EPS (earnings per share): Total company profit divided by the number of shares of stock. The standard way investors measure profitability.
- Non-GAAP: Financial results adjusted to strip out one-time or unusual costs, like acquisition expenses, to show “normal” performance. GAAP is the standard accounting rulebook; non-GAAP departs from it to give a cleaner read.
- Guidance: A company’s official forecast for its own future results. Cutting guidance means telling investors to expect less than previously promised.
- Consolidated net sales: Total revenue from every part of the company combined (here, DICK’S plus Foot Locker), after returns and discounts.
- Comparable sales (“comps”): Sales growth from stores and websites open at least a year. It excludes growth from simply opening new locations.
- Pro forma: Calculated “as if” a recently acquired business had been owned the whole time, allowing an apples-to-apples comparison. Foot Locker’s comps are shown this way because DICK’S acquired it in 2025.
- Operating loss: The amount by which the costs of running a business exceeded what it earned from sales, before interest and taxes.
- Gross margin: The percentage of each sales dollar left after paying for the product itself.
- Basis points (bps): One hundredth of a percentage point. Up 79 basis points means up 0.79%.
- Analyst consensus: The average forecast from Wall Street analysts covering the stock. A “miss” means results came in below that average.
- CAGR (compound annual growth rate): The average yearly growth rate over a multi-year period. GameChanger’s roughly 40% CAGR since 2017 means sales grew about 40% per year on average.
- Premarket trading: Stock trading before the market opens at 9:30am ET, where the first reaction to a morning earnings report shows up.
Source: Investing.com, August 25, 2026
Source: DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc., Q2 2026 Investor Presentation, August 2026, investors.dicks.com
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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.
