BUYING SANDLOT: Inside Curve Sports’ Launch
Sandy Ogg's initial entrance into the youth sports industry was a philanthropy project.
The former Blackstone operating partner launched the Diamond Sports Foundation with his wife after being exposed to access barriers when a group of players from the Bronx joined their son's travel team based in Rye, New York, for a weekend.
"I realized pretty quickly that if we were going to do good and make youth sports, and in this case youth elite travel baseball, more accessible to kids who couldn't afford it, we were going to have to build a business," he told Buying Sandlot. "We were going to have to do well in order to do good in a systematic way."
That process took another big step last week with the launch of Curve Sports with the backing of Weatherford Capital.
The new platform unifies Diamond Allegiance, a national elite baseball club partnership network, and Curve Test Centers, which measures athlete assessments and metrics.
Ogg founded both organizations and will be the CEO of the combined company, which will deploy capital directly to clubs rather than to large-scale tournament operators and other overarching platforms.
"I have felt, and I continue to have even more conviction, that the heart of this is the club," he said. "Because that's where the parents are, that's where the players are, that's where the coaches are. That's where the action happens. ... But they are under-capitalized and underfunded."
Ogg's vision is to have about 30 "super clubs" nationwide and shift focus back on local competition and development. He expects Curve will acquire about 100 total clubs to reach this goal. Diamond Allegiance has about 70 clubs in its network, but it does not own them.
Ogg said Curve has made one acquisition so far and is working through several more— he wants club owners to retain a significant stake and continue day-to-day operations.
Facilities is also a point of emphasis. Ogg expects Curve will mostly acquire/partner with existing, underutilized facilities within its super club footprints. Curve Test Centers tech will be integrated into these facilities, bringing the testing capabilities and data discovery process to the local level (it currently has a facility on-site at LakePoint Sports).
Ogg also hopes to establish academies that pair academics with the clubs. He and Weatherford Capital both have ties to IMG Academy. Ogg is also the board chairman for Nord Anglia Education, a UK-based private school operator with over 100K students in 37 countries.
"Our first priority is to assemble this super club network, and then get the flywheel in place," he said. "We (want to) have the best leaders, the best coaches, the best parents and we're developing the athlete to be everything they can be."
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