Adults playing sports is nothing new, but sports leagues are the latest phenomenon, as they continue to expand in cities nationwide, reports Entrepreneur.
A 2004 report from the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association found 75 percent of all college students participate in campus recreational sports. Fast forward to post graduation, and you have a large group of young adults who still want to get their game on.
Today’s 18- to 34-year-olds are active, social, connected and have disposable income. “Entrepreneurs are realizing the tremendous income potential of having a database of local adult athletes,” says Sa Dao. “It’s a demographic with tremendous buying power.”
Dao and partner Chin Kim launched their company Next Level Athletic Sports last year, leveraging this buying power in affiliate relationships with companies such as Budweiser, Jack in the Box, Sharkeez and Red Bull.
“You have a direct relationship with all your customers,” Dao says, “and that’s what businesses will pay dearly for.” The pair has a soccer, dodgeball and gutterbowl database with more than 1,000 players and runs a soccer league that saw a 100 percent return rate of players this year.
City leagues, which are typically run on slim budgets by volunteers, can’t provide a quality product to the players, says Rob Nash, a 12-year veteran in the rec-sports scene as co-founder of Extra Innings, a baseball and softball training franchise.
With more entrepreneurs taking the reins, Nash says, the industry “is more organized now than it has ever been. The more organized, the easier it is for leagues like these to take on a life of their own.”
Photo by Entrepreneur.com.