Friday, August 30, 2024

⚽️ Axios PM: Youth sports' billions

Plus: Musicians v. Trump | Friday, August 30, 2024
 
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Axios PM
By Mike Allen · Aug 30, 2024

Good Friday afternoon, and happy long weekend. Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 491 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

 
 
1 big thing: Private equity takes on youth sports
 
Illustration of a letterman jacket with a dollar sign on it

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

 

U.S. families spend more than $30 billion annually on youth sports, which now operate year-round with a phalanx of professional facilities and staff.

  • Private equity is helping to make it happen — and hoping to profit from it, Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack reports.

🏦 Zoom in: One of the largest players is Unrivaled Sports — launched earlier this year by a pair of veteran private equity investors who began buying up pro sports teams over a decade ago.

  • Unrivaled, chaired by a former Nike executive, operates 15 brands that serve over 635,000 youth athletes per year, with everything from ball field complexes to flag football leagues to mountain biking camps.
  • There's also 3Step Sports, which owns 1,800 club teams with over 1.1 million athletes; uniform maker Score Sports; scheduling app TeamSnap; and media group PlayOn Sports.

🥅 The bottom line: The youth sports industrial complex has been great for some kids, providing them with better coaching and facilities.

  • It has priced out others, denying them the chance to play and improve alongside more affluent peers.

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2. 🎸 Musicians tell Trump to hit pause
 
A man wearing a Trump mask breakdances at the site of a rally today in Johnstown, Pa. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A growing chorus of popular musicians is telling the Trump campaign to quit using their songs at campaign events, Axios' April Rubin reports.

  • The White Stripes' lead singer, Jack White, threatened to sue over a video of Trump boarding a plane to the song "Seven Nation Army."
  • ABBA asked Trump yesterday to stop using its music at campaign rallies. The campaign said it had obtained a license.
  • Celine Dion's management said Trump's use of "My Heart Will Go On" was not authorized and that Dion "does not endorse this or similar use."
  • Isaac Hayes' estate has sued Trump, alleging 134 counts of copyright infringement, after asking the campaign to stop using the song "Hold On, I'm Coming."

🎵 Friction point: "It's times like these you learn that it's all about money, money, money and not about freedom with these artists," Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

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3. 🇮🇱 Israeli leaders' divisions boil over
 
Rubble and destruction seen today in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

An Israeli Security Cabinet meeting last night about a potential hostage/ceasefire deal erupted into a shouting match between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, Israeli officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

⚡️ Why it matters: The confrontation highlighted the deep disagreement between Netanyahu and the vast majority of Israel's defense establishment and intelligence community about Israel's strategy in Gaza.

  • Gallant's aides say he has no intention of resigning. But the episode could push Netanyahu to again consider the possibility of firing him, as he did in 2023.

The bottom line: The clash between Netanyahu and Gallant is likely to make the Biden administration's efforts to reach a deal much more complicated.

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4. 📸 1 for the road
 
Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

French athletes Ksenia Chasteau and Pauline Deroulede compete in wheelchair tennis women's doubles today at the Paralympic Games in Paris.

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