The deal creates a vertically integrated youth baseball platform spanning venues, events, scouting, media, and teams. Expansion into other sports is already on the roadmap.
Prep Baseball and Bullpen Tournaments announced the completion of their merger on January 7th, launching Capacity Sports Group (CSG). The combined organization brings together Bullpen's venue management business, Prep Baseball's scouting and events operation, and Top Tier's travel baseball program under one platform.
This isn't a new relationship. The leadership teams have worked together since 2010 and formalized a partnership in 2019 with the creation of Prep Baseball Tournaments. The merger completes what has been a slow, deliberate integration over more than a decade.
What Capacity Sports Group Controls
CSG now operates across six business lines, all connected:
Facilities: By the end of 2026, CSG expects to manage nearly 150 diamonds across premier complexes, including Grand Park Sports Campus. They handle everything from field maintenance to food and beverage to guest experience.
Tournaments: Prep Baseball Tournaments runs 300+ elite events annually across 10 exclusive venues and dozens of partner sites. The company projects 20 million visitors in 2026.
Scouting: Prep Baseball operates the largest independent scouting infrastructure in amateur baseball, covering 47 states, Canada, and Taiwan. They executed more than 1,600 events in 2025.
Media and Technology: The tech stack supports athlete tracking and data management. The media operation generated over 2 billion impressions in 2025.
Teams: Top Tier fields 260+ travel teams across 10 states and has produced 79 MLB Draft picks and 11 Major Leaguers since 2003.
Merchandise and Partnerships: CSG runs integrated merchandising with in-house printing and strategic sponsor relationships across its venues and events.
Why Vertical Integration Matters
The thesis here is control. CSG owns the venues where events happen, runs the events themselves, scouts the athletes who compete, produces the media content around it, and even fields travel teams that participate. Every touchpoint in the athlete and family experience flows through one organization.
That creates a few advantages. Scheduling and programming become easier when you control both the facility and the event calendar. Data collection improves when scouting, registration, and media all sit on the same platform. And monetization opportunities multiply when you can bundle sponsorships across venues, events, content, and merchandise.
It also creates switching costs. Families and athletes who engage with CSG at one level (say, a tournament) are already in the ecosystem for scouting, media exposure, and potentially team placement. That's sticky.
What Comes Next
Leadership has been clear that baseball is the starting point, not the end state. CEO Ken Kocher said the company expects to "expand into additional sports and thoughtfully add complementary organizations."
Given the infrastructure CSG now controls (nearly 150 fields, a national event footprint, proven venue operations), bolting on softball, lacrosse, or soccer programming would be a natural extension. The playbook is built. The question is how quickly they move.
The other thing to watch: whether CSG stays independent or becomes an acquisition target. A vertically integrated platform at this scale, with real revenue across multiple business lines, is exactly what larger consolidators and private equity firms have been chasing in youth sports.
Takeaways for Investors
Vertical integration is the competitive moat CSG's model connects facilities, events, scouting, media, and teams. That level of integration is rare and creates both operational efficiency and customer stickiness.
Venue control unlocks everything else Managing nearly 150 diamonds gives CSG scheduling control, revenue diversification, and a physical footprint that's hard to replicate. Facilities are the foundation.
Multi-sport expansion is coming Leadership has signaled plans to move beyond baseball. The infrastructure is already built for it. Watch for acquisitions or partnerships in adjacent sports.
This could be an acquisition target A platform this integrated, with this much scale, will attract attention from larger players looking to consolidate youth sports. CSG may stay independent, or it may become the next headline deal.
