Youth Athletes United, the youth sports franchise platform, has announced the acquisition of Little Rookies Baseball. The franchisor now owns five brands, which covers 291 territories across the U.S., and reaches over 200,000 children a year. The goal is to impact one million children a year.
The newly acquired brand will focus on the four-to-six-year-old age group, and will be offered in the six existing territories of Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, San Diego, Los Angeles and Miami.
“We started with Soccer Stars,” said Geisler. “We’ve also had tremendous success with TGA Premier Sports — our golf and tennis program for ages six to 14,” said Adam Geisler, co-founder and CEO of Youth Athletes United.
“Now, with Little Rookies Baseball, we’re again approaching our market with the same sport-specific strategy. We’re really going to focus on the four-to-six age group, which is a very similar target market to what we have for Soccer Stars and Amazing Athletes.”
James Silva has been with what used to be called the Little Rookies brand prior to acquisition for over two years as brand president, and will now serve as the director of operations for Little Rookies Baseball.
“It’s really going to be a different dynamic that is going to elevate the sport of baseball,” said Silva.
“We were having a hard time getting the word out coast to coast about Little Rookies Baseball, but with the support of Youth Athletes United as an existing foundation and their franchisee community, we are really going to elevate youth baseball across the nation.”
The founder of the brand, Michael Sperlinga, created the brand to tackle childhood obesity as well as providing the tools and confidence to pursue baseball to any level.
“We started this brand dedicated to changing and inspiring children’s lives through baseball, and through this merger with Youth Athletes United, the brand will be able to reach more children and communities than ever,” said Sperlinga.
“Baseball is America’s sport. The vision was and is to teach kids while creating a healthier tomorrow, and I’m happy to see it going to the right partner to take accelerate the original goal of the brand.”
Youth Athletes United has already formulated a growth plan for the newly acquired brand.
“We have an ultimate goal in the next three years of reaching at least 25-30 states,” said John Erlandson, co-founder and president of Youth Athletes United.
“Youth Athletes United has been able to use the really good, authentic content of Little Rookies Baseball, and we’re just going to accelerate that existing brand through our system to reach and impact more kids.”
Youth Athletes United recently signed tennis star Leylah Fernandez to serve as the brand ambassador, read our interview with Leylah here.
